Proof that smoking does kill !!

[DeeJay]

Sick smoker blows up his oxygen tank


December 29, 2008 - 4:51PM A chronic smoker who uses a ventilator to breathe blew himself up when he lit a cigarette while still attached to his oxygen tank.
The explosion happened as the 75-year-old man lit up in his home while attached to an oxygen tank that had plastic tubes running to his nose because of lung disease caused by his smoking habit.
A doctor quoted by today's South China Morning Post newspaper says the man knew he should not smoke while attached to his ventilator, but apparently craved a cigarette so badly he took the risk.
AAP

[p38arover]

Did he die? (I saw the thread title.)

[Slunnie]

He wont do that again.

The ventilator should have gone to somebody more deserving.

[DeeJay]

Did he die? (I saw the thread title.)

OK, After looking around I found a more complete report----

Smoker on oxygen blows himself up lighting cigarette


Article from: http://www.news.com.au/images/sources/h14_dailytelegraph.gif (http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/)

December 29, 2008 12:00am

A CHRONIC smoker who has to use a ventilator to breathe is seriously ill in hospital after blowing himself up by having a cigarette while using his oxygen tank.
The explosion happened as the 75-year-old man lit up in his Hong Kong home while attached to an oxygen tank - that had tubes running to his nose- needed because of his smoking-related lung disease.
Paramedics were called to his home in Hong Kong's Tai Po district after the explosion on Sunday and took him to hospital.
His face was heavily bandaged.

Now I have to change the headline, darn Age reporting :wasntme:

[Debacle]

It does happen a fair bit for people with COPD's. They are quite often in the situation of having to use an electric wheelchair to get around as well as being on oxygen just to breathe and it just doesnt get through to them to give up the thing which got them into that situation

[discomuzz]

It does happen a fair bit for people with COPD's. They are quite often in the situation of having to use an electric wheelchair to get around as well as being on oxygen just to breathe and it just doesnt get through to them to give up the thing which got them into that situation

Why would you bother?

[Outlaw]

this may be in poor taste... however
:Rolling: :Rolling: :Rolling: :Rolling: :Rolling: :Rolling:

[moose]

I'd love to know what else was involved in the explosion, as far as I know (and please correct me if I'm wrong) oxygen supports rapid combustion but is not explosive in itself. :confused:

[hoadie72]

I'd love to know what else was involved in the explosion, as far as I know (and please correct me if I'm wrong) oxygen supports rapid combustion but is not explosive in itself. :confused:
Exactly. His cigarette would've burnt damn fast so perhaps something else, like his clothes caught alight?

[Shonky]

Great.

A chronic smoker who decides to blow smoke in the face (pun intended) of the taxpayer funded medical services keeping him alive by exercising his right to exaserbate his problems by smoking.

Now what is left of him will require more medical intervention at everyone elses cost.

It should be a choice. Breathe O2 from a tank and live, or demonstrate your apathy by continuing to smoke and go without the ventilator and as such, your life.


People like this **** me off. Help yourselves FFS - The money spent keeping your ignorant **** alive could be spent on people with problems they didn't, and do not continue to inflict on themselves. :mad:

/end rant.

FYI - I have no issue with others choosing to smoke (away from me, anyone else, and their kids...) but if your life isn't worth enough for you to stop when you are being manually pumped full of Oxygen, then your life isn't worth my taxes.

//end other rant.



grr. :mad:
(PS - at least he is not in AU and hence not wasting my $)

[Shonky]

I'd love to know what else was involved in the explosion, as far as I know (and please correct me if I'm wrong) oxygen supports rapid combustion but is not explosive in itself. :confused:

Correct and correct.

As you said, O2 promotes rapid combustion - which is precisely what an explosion is.

Things that are not "explosive" under normal circumstances can become so in high O2 environments... things like hair, clothes, bedsheets, people...

This is also my understanding (I regularly work with medical Oxygen) and I am quite happy to be corrected. :)

[Bushie]

Correct and correct.

As you said, O2 promotes rapid combustion - which is precisely what an explosion is.

Things that are not "explosive" under normal circumstances can become so in high O2 environments... things like hair, clothes, bedsheets, people...

This is also my understanding (I regularly work with medical Oxygen) and I am quite happy to be corrected. :)

I'm not sure that these substances would combust rapidly enough to meet the actual definition of an "explosion" which I believe has to satisfy a rapid gas expansion criteria (shockwave).

Certainly though, pure O2 makes things burn fast (or self ignite)


Martyn

[Shonky]

I'm not sure that these substances would combust rapidly enough to meet the actual definition of an "explosion" which I believe has to satisfy a rapid gas expansion criteria (shockwave).

Certainly though, pure O2 makes things burn fast (or self ignite)


Martyn

I had considered that too (I was once "Bushy") but I'm fresh out of alternative explanations! :D

Any chemistry nerds out there?

[Debacle]

I had considered that too (I was once "Bushy") but I'm fresh out of alternative explanations! :D

Any chemistry nerds out there?

I think, probably the press took a few liberties in calling it an explosion, though the presence of all the oxygen would make for a pretty good and quite spontaneous flame/fire.

I have a COPD myself (genetical) and subscribe to some of the support groups and have read some bad stories of idiots on oxygen setting themselves on fire because they choose to keep smoking

[dullbird]

I'm not sure that these substances would combust rapidly enough to meet the actual definition of an "explosion" which I believe has to satisfy a rapid gas expansion criteria (shockwave).

Certainly though, pure O2 makes things burn fast (or self ignite)


Martyn

isn't it in an oxygen tank? doesn't this change things a bit considering the oxygen is under a lot of pressure.......

[Lotz-A-Landies]

He had a cigarette, they are designed to burn, in the presence of pure oxygen they burn like an igniter fuse. Enough to ignite his pyjamas, which are probably polyester or other flammable materials, which again in the presence of oxygen burn quickly. All sufficient to give him rather nasty burns, particularly around his face and airways and they don't react well to burning, which will all potentially damage his already poor lung function.

Any wonder many heart surgeons and respiratory physicians refuse to treat patients who continue to smoke.

Diana

[Blknight.aus]

the burn rate of materials generaly increases exponentially as the volume of o2 increases...

from long hazy memory..

21% (roughly) is normal
42% is double
63% is quadrouple
84% is eight times
100% is near as to makes no odds 16 times as fast.

and thats at one atmosphere as thing burn faster they increase the local pressure. once thats starting to happen your in explosion territory.

imagine if you will that for some reason his lighter didnt spark on the first go and he dumped some gas that made a pool that then mixed it up with the oxy rich environment he was in (on average if your flowing 8l/m 4l/m is wasted so the whole area he was in would have been enriched) and then he sparked that mess off......

imagine that the lighter then couldnt take the heat and let go further fueling the conflageration....

[Bigbjorn]

In my Social Security days I came across quite a number of people on Sickness Allowance or Disability Pension with COAD, emphysema, etc. who were on oxygen and continued to smoke. One guy used a face mask not nostril injection and was lifting the mouthpiece to suck a cigarette and then putting it back between puffs.
i simply can't understand this mentality.

A friend who was a senior nurse at the Prince Charles cardiac unit told me this is not uncommon and the patients can't understand why they will not be placed on the waiting list until they stop smoking. This policy also was applied to the grossly obese who had to lose weight down to a healthy level before going on the surgical waiting list. Some of these had to lose half or more of their body weight to comply. Surgeons don't like patients who are likely to expire on the table as a result of their own bad habits.

[JDNSW]

My wife spent about the last year of her life on oxygen, so I am aware of these sorts of accidents - one from a support group for her disease (PAHT) was working in the kitchen and accidentally dragged her oxygen hose across the gas stove. The hose material itself caught fire and flashed up to her face, causing quite severe burns.

A further point in the "can't understand it" list. She spent her last month in the pulmonary unit at the Alfred in Melbourne, and I got to know most of the nurses quite well. Of those working in the pulmonary ward, almost every one was a heavy smoker - and most of the patients there were the result of smoking.

John