Would it be possible to have an communal oxygen room in the U.K.?

[JonnyBoy12]

We all know that in Japan they have got oxygen bars but would it be possible to have a whole room filled with pure oxygen? That would save the need to bottle it all up and lots of people could fill the room at once. It could be combined with either a steam room or a swimming room and then you could do 2 things at once.

The only real problem I can see is that when people entered and left the room they would let normal air in and the pure oxygen out. This could be stopped by having the only entrance as a U-bend like in a kitchen sink. I would like this oxygen room to be built in the West Midlands area.

Thanks in advance for your replies on this rather unusual question.

[boxtops]

why would you want to, what's it for?

[jomifl]

If you really want a short life , go for it. Your body has evolved over millions of years to cope with the present atmospheric oxygen levels. I remember from physiology lectures that breathing pure oxygen at atmospheric pressure can cause heart failure.

[Hymie]

The Apollo 1 pre-launch fire, which was exacerbated by an oxygen rich environment, is one very good example as to why oxygen-enriched locations are to be avoided.

[joggerjayne]

Well, I suppose you'd want to discourage smoking in the oxygen room.

[askyourgran]

Why do they give you and oxygen mask when you've had an operation, or had an accident.

[Coldicote]

As I understand it oxygen is normally about 20% of the air round about us. I expect pure oxygen would be explosive.

[jomifl]

AYG, it may be called an oxygen mask but it doesn't necessarily deliver pure oxygen except in special circumstances. Sqad where are you?

[joggerjayne]

Oxygen is toxic at a partial pressure of 1.6 ats. That's why divers can't breathe pure oxygen.

[DTCwordfan]

strike a light.

[237SJ]

You can still buy little oxygen aerosols in Japan. People use them when they climb up Mount Fuji for their annual pilgrimage.
We used to have a quick snort from our oxygen cyclinders at work years ago when we were knackered from getting up so early and after partying the night before. That didn`t half clear the head.

[theprof]

I'm afraid your idea will never happen for lots of reasons. Why? Well, without getting too technical, these are the main reasons.

Firstly, there's the issue of oxygen gas pressure. Increased pressure speeds up the toxic effects of oxygen. The air we breathe contains 21% Oxygen but normal activity in humans requires only a minimum of 19% oxygen. Breathing up to 50% oxygen at normal pressure produces no symptoms, but pure oxygen has caused oxygen poisoning at atmospheric pressure in as little as 5 hours. Poisoning manifests itself as dizziness, burning in the nose and throat, fatigue, joint pain, numbness and tingling, headache, cough, palpitations, nausea, vomiting sore throat, fever, possible convulsions, mood changes, vertigo, twitching and lots of other unpleasant symptoms. The main problem however is pulmonary toxicity, which shows as decreased vital capacity and substernal pain. Regular breathing of 50% to 100% oxygen, even intermittently, over a prolonged period can cause lung damage.

(continued)

[theprof]

Then there’s the issue of oxygen’s ability to support combustion, despite being non-combustible itself. High levels of oxygen are extremely hazardous as modern clothing has the ability to allow pockets of oxygen to remain around the body after leaving an oxygen rich atmosphere. There was a well-known case a few years ago where a process operator at an oxygen plant went to a shed some distance away from the enrichment plant to have a cigarette. His clothing had allowed oxygen to form pockets in numerous places on his body and he went up in flames the second he struck the match. Only glass-fibre fabrics are resistant to this action and unfortunately, glass-fibre garments are impossible to make without the addition of other combustible fabrics.

Just imagine if a static spark was generated accidentally within the proposed oxygen enriched room from such things as nails in shoes, jewellery etc. Flash burning would occur instantaneously but more importantly, you need to see that it could occur after the clients have left the room.

(continued)

[theprof]

Many materials that will not burn in air will do so in an oxygen enriched atmosphere, but they will also have lower ignition energies and burn far more rapidly. The higher the pressure, temperature and concentration, the greater the reactivity of oxygen. Catastrophic fires have occurred in low-pressure and high-pressure oxygen systems. Designing out the risks of ignition hazards, is costly through design, maintenance and materials selection and involves far more than setting up a room in a building.

Incidentally,poisoning occurs in humans inhaling pure oxygen at atmospheric pressure in 5 hr, at 1500 mmHg in 3 hr and at 3750 mmHg in a few minutes

[theprof]

Turning to the other points raised, you need to realise that oxygen bars in Japan have proliferated because of the relatively high levels of atmospheric pollution on the streets and the anxiety of the indigenous population. Many Japanese nowadays wear face-masks when outside. The benefits are controversial: I am a visiting fellow at a Tokyo University and I have never found a mask necessary in the environs once during the forty years I have visited the country.

Oxygen bars are nothing other than a gimmick.

With regard to the U-bend idea, this won't work. Retaining oxygen in one place and preventing dilution needs far more complex stuff than the OP proposed. Oxygen is not a liquid at normal atmospheric pressure and plays by different rules.

[Buenchico]

A valid answer, of course, from TheProf but there seems to a far simpler one!

The question asks " . . would it be possible to have a whole room filled with pure oxygen". Even if it was, at the very first moment that someone breathed out the oxygen would no longer be pure as it would be contaminated by carbon dioxide!

[wolf63]

Somebody in the room would fart and ............

[237SJ]

Theprof - the Japanese don`t wear masks because of anxety due to pollution though. When I go to Japan I stay in Narita which is a village (even though the airport serves Tokyo). There is no pollution there to speak of. The Japanese wear masks because they are very fastidious people who have a strong adversity to breathing in and spreading germs. They wear masks when they have a cold or the slightest hint of a virus.

[theprof]

Chris, you've made a very valid point!

237SJ, I'm afraid we will have to agree to disagree on that one. While I'd be the first to agree that the Japanese are very fastidious when it comes to spreading germs, I've left University campuses in Tokyo and Osaka with students around me donning their masks before hopping on their bikes to ride into the city centres. They were not all suffering from coryza et al.

[237SJ]

Well maybe they wear them for several reasons then. They certainly sit down in a B747 and wear them for 10 hours or so.

[theprof]

I'm fascinated 237SJ. Which B747 flight route are you referring to here?

Cabin masks deploy only if the aircraft has a mechanical problem and the cabin loses pressure although the flight crew have the ability to drop the masks manually.

Cabin masks provide pure oxygen. Breathing pure oxygen for 10 hours is toxic to the human body as implied above.

If you are referring to the flight crew masks, these are not the same as cabin masks and function differently. Most types do not provide a continuous flow of 100% oxygen with the exception of Pressure Demand Masks