Millions of Americans use supplemental oxygen to aid in breathing with respiratory conditions such as COPD. While this is a life-changing form of therapy, it also represents a significant lifestyle change that calls for taking additional precautions.
Oxygen itself isn’t flammable. However, oxygen encourages further combustion by oxidizing, or lowering ignition temperatures. With more oxygen present to feed a fire, flames can easily grow out of control. With that in mind, here are some must-know safety tips for those using oxygen at home.
Don’t Smoke While Using Oxygen
The counterintuitive nature of continuing to smoke tobacco products while receiving supplemental oxygen isn’t just a health risk. It presents a real danger to you, your belongings, and anyone in your household. By having oxygen in proximity to a burning cigarette, you are quite literally adding more fuel to the fire. More oxygen will cause the flame to burn longer and hotter, and from there, it’s easy for it to spread out of control. Once you’re hooked up to an oxygen concentrator, smoking is 100-percent out of the question unless you want disaster to strike. If necessary, explore smoking cessation products that will allow you to gradually diminish your nicotine intake without having to use cigarettes, cigars, or pipes. You also shouldn’t allow anyone to smoke in your presence—they can pose the same fire hazards as you would, and the secondhand smoke is also something you don’t want around you.
Take Care in the Kitchen: Avoid Open Flames
One major challenge of living with COPD comes in the kitchen—specifically, the reconciliation of eating well with staying safe. When living with COPD, one of the best things you can do for your health is improve your diet by cutting out the salts, fats, and preservatives often present in processed foods, convenience meals, and takeout dinners. This means more home-cooked meals with fresh ingredients, an improvement to your diet that will surely pay dividends to your overall respiratory health. However, cooking deals with direct and indirect heat, and that can be a hazard—especially with gas stoves and ovens. To cook safely while receiving oxygen, you may need to take some extra precautions. Extended tubing, which will set the oxygen concentrator off from the kitchen area, is an option many oxygen users choose. Take extra care in positioning your cannula by having it run down your back and around rather than keeping it in front of you. The best way to cook safely, however, is to avoid the stove altogether. Explore slow-cooker recipes, which will deliver delicious meals without having to heat up the kitchen or expose you to any fire hazards as you receive oxygen.
Avoid Sparking Electric Devices
When we envision an electric device giving off sparks, we think of something that must certainly be malfunctioning and reaching the end of its useful life. But many objects give off static electricity in such low volumes that we don’t notice. In the presence of concentrated oxygen, those inconsequential sparks can prove highly volatile, with the oxygen-rich surroundings encouraging much more than a nearly invisible moment of combustion. Hair dryers, electric blankets, electric shavers, and motorized tools all pose great risks to supplemental oxygen users. Seek non-electric alternatives to these items and keep them away from your cannula.
Stay Away From Aerosols and Petroleum-Based Products
Petroleum and its derivatives are ubiquitous in everyday life. It’s not just gasoline that we use, either. In addition to Vaseline, or petroleum jelly, numerous personal care products, such as lotions, cosmetics, conditioner, and nail polish contain petroleum or petroleum byproducts. The flammability of petroleum in conjunction with concentrated oxygen could escalate sparks into full-blown fires. Look for health and beauty products that are petroleum-free or avoid them altogether when this is not an option. And it’s not just petroleum products that pose a distinct fire hazard. Aerosolized products such as hair spray, whipped cream, air fresheners, and other pressurized liquids are flammable and hazardous to oxygen users.
Keep Your Concentrator’s Vents Clear
Your oxygen concentrator works by drawing in ambient air and removing other elements, such as nitrogen. If it can’t draw in and let out air as it functions, it could suffer from impaired function, shut itself down, or overheat. Pay close attention to the vents on your concentrator and keep them clear. Place your stationary concentrator at least six feet away from walls—tucking it deep in the corner of a room is a bad idea. While concentrators come equipped with filters, you should still be sure to keep larger accumulations of dust or pet hair from building up around the vents.
Keep Areas Well-Ventilated
This is a tip specifically for those who are using oxygen tanks in addition to or instead of oxygen concentrators. The concept behind supplemental oxygen provision is to create oxygen-rich air to compensate for compromised lung capacity—this way, none of that diminished capacity goes to waste with other molecules. Ideally, this oxygen richness stays limited to the area right around your cannula and your nose. With improper ventilation within close quarters, however, an entire environment can become oxygen-rich, posing a fire hazard. Make sure that air is always circulating in areas where you use your oxygen tank. While you will inhale most of the oxygen your cannula dispenses, some of that gas will escape into the environment. If too much of that oxygen stays in a poorly ventilated area and throws off the balance of the air, this newly oxygen-rich environment poses a fire hazard, as even sparks far away from the cannula itself could easily develop into something more.
Using Concentrators Safely
If you’ve recently received a prescription for supplemental oxygen, you should master these must-know safety tips for those using oxygen at home before procuring your tank or concentrator. Now that you know how to use oxygen safely, you can find the model that’s right for you. Bridge to Care makes supplemental oxygen affordable with our selection of refurbished home oxygen concentrators in both stationary and portable configurations. You deserve to breathe clearly—and safely.