WhyNottMe?

I bet I could fix that

Friday, April 18th, 2008 | Uncategorized

So as most of you don’t know. I am a bio medical technician. That’s a fancy title that simply means I do both mechanical and electro circuit repairs on medical equpt. the other day we started working on concentrators. now most of you probably won’t be able to follow this to well so I’ll see what I can do to make it easy. see people who are on oxygen usually have to refill their tanks 2-3 times a week. a concentrator removes the nitrogen from the air by pulling the air through some siv beds which are filled with chemicals that preform this function. That way someone on oxygen has a machine that removes the annoyance of having to re-fill their tanks. You’ve all seen one I’m sure. Probably in a rest home or a movie about a dieing old man.
so I was curious (when am I not) and decided to open up one of these siv beds. apearntly that chemical is more of a powder than a solid like I thought it’d be. and it really hurts when it gets into your eyes (yes, lesson learned).
However, my co-workers thought it’d be toxic. ok this is where I need everyone’s opinion. see I told them that I doubt it would be toxic because it’s used to pull nitrogen out of the air. It seems to me like it’d be harmless to be in the same room as a large pile of this stuff. that is as long as it stays out of your eyes.

3 Comments to I bet I could fix that

Mark N.
April 19, 2008

Either way you should probably clean up your mess

Zachary
April 21, 2008

Based on the information you provided, I would have to say that it probably isn’t toxic…or if it is, it would be very mild. However, depending on the seal that was in place, meaning if it were a pretty secure set up, it could be toxic. You would be surprised how many things in every day life are toxic.

Alternative polka
April 22, 2008

well I guess I won’t go eating any of it.

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