Archived Testing Oxygen Levels Under A Mask w an OSHA Air Quality Monitor (youtube.com)
submitted ago by tom47
Posted by: tom47
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Archived on: 9/30/2020 10:00:00 AM
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Archived Testing Oxygen Levels Under A Mask w an OSHA Air Quality Monitor (youtube.com)
submitted ago by tom47
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[–] goatsandbros 1 point 0 points 1 point (+1|-1) ago
So the OSHA rule is incorrect?
[–] Broc_Lia 1 point 8 points 9 points (+9|-1) ago (edited ago)
Low O2 is arguably more dangerous. High CO2 levels makes you feel like you're drowning. People under those conditions get panicky and desperate and do whatever they can to find a low CO2 environment, which is exactly what they should be doing. Generally speaking under natural conditions, high CO2 happens concurrently with low O2, so we never evolved a detection mechanism for both.
Low O2 levels make people feel drunk and euphoric, then they gradually fall asleep and (unless O2 is restored) their brain slowly dies until they pass beyond recovery. It can happen due to high CO saturating their red blood cells and making them unable to absorb enough O2, low air pressure or another gas displacing the O2.
I know a guy who almost died because of it, there was a gas leak on his boat and he woke up feeling groggy and confused. He almost rolled over and went back to sleep (in which case he would be dead) but something told him he had to get up right that fucking instant, so he got out of bed and dragged his friend up on deck until they recovered enough to ventilate the boat and get the leaky gas canister outside.
There was also an incident on a cypriot flight where the pilots hadn't switched some control to pressurize the cabin. As soon as they climbed to altitude everyone passed out. One of the flight attendants was a diver and a trainee pilot, he managed to regain consciousness because of his elevated red blood cell count but he didn't know how to work the radio and couldn't communicate with air traffic control. He tried to reduce altitude and revive the pilots but ended up crashing into a mountain.
[–] BlackSheepBrouhaha 0 points 4 points 4 points (+4|-0) ago
Here's the NYT article on the flight, if anyone is curious.