View Single Post
  #23   Report Post  
posted to rec.boats.cruising
Richard J Kinch
 
Posts: n/a
Default Air compressor for hull cleaning

MMC writes:

The toxins are minute until the compressor pistons rings get worn (or
do not fit right from the beginning) and allow oil to enter the
cylinders. With the heat that's generated by compressing air, the oil
will partially burn and create carbon monoxide which coats the red
blood cells and prohibits the transfer of oxygen to those cells and
further to the other cells in the body.


You are confusing heat and temperature, because compressing air does not
generate heat. The existing heat is concentrated into a smaller volume,
raising the temperature, but this does not rise to ignition at 90 psi.
Perhaps you are thinking of scuba tank compressors at many 1000s of psi.

If what you say were true, then working with compressed air in a closed
shop would be even more hazardous, since the air is recycled over and
over through the compressor as it is exhausted into the room. But there
is no CO or oil vapor to be concerned with in those situations.

Mineral oil is not toxic in itself.

You are breathing oil-contaminated air all the time, over a cooking
stove or around 2-cycle engines. No one thinks much of it, because it
isn't a hazard.