What is the closest a cigarette can be to an oxygen tank before exploding?

Question

My mother is in dire need of an oxygen tank. But the Dr. won't give her one as long as she's smoking. She will not quit. She said that's the only thing in life that she enjoys. She has lack of oxygen to the brain & she needs the oxygen, bad. She's started acting strange & I know that's why. I dont want her to die because she doesn't have an oxygen tank, but like I said, she wont quit smoking. My sister says we should tell the Dr she's quit, so she can get the oxygen she so desparately needs. I dont like to lie. Plus, the chance of explosion (due to a cigarette being near oxygen) worries me. Mom smokes outside. My sister thinks if the oxygen tank is in the house & mom goes outside to smoke, that there shouldn't be a problem. I want an opinion of someone who would better know. Would it be safe to do that? Is there a certain distance that smoke should be kept away from an oxygen tank? Only serious answers please. Thank you.

Answer 1

I have worked around oxygen, acetylene,butane,propane and gasoline and I can tell you that the heat from a cigarette cannot light any of these gases. It is the match or lighter that can cause the gases to ignite or explode. Their is some technical jargon about ambient temps. and at what heat range these gases ignite at but what the doctor is concerned about is the lighting of the cigarette that can cause the oxygen going to her nose that can explode. My father was in the same situation and the patches along with the gum curbed his nicotine craving. As far as the hand to mouth urge he handled that with spaghetti . He took a piece of spaghetti and put it in and took it out and as it softened he just chewed it up. But by taking it and holding it in his mouth and taking it out that seemed to satisfy that reflex action. On the darker side though of smoking and oxygen I have heard of a couple people expeirencing a small explosion and severe burns from lighting a cigarette with the nose tubes in . My daughter works in the Emergency room of a local hospital and she is my source of this . My expeirence comes from being an autoworker and an avid backyard mech with friends who are the same and we can't light any torches with a cigarette only with a lighter or a striker that creates a spark

Answer 2

you'd be surprised how close a cigarette can get to an oxygen tank before anything happens. I know from personal experience. I am a volunteer firefighter and one night we were all hanging around the station and one of the guys decided to show us a neat trick with a cigarette and an oxygen tank. he got the O2 tank off the engine and he attached a tube to it. he lit up a cigarette and inserted it into the oxygen tube. he turned the tank on and the only thing that happened was the cigarette burned down wicked quick and it gave off some sparks and stuff. nothing blue up. oxygen is an oxidizer and is not explosive. I doubt that anything serious will happen if your mom lights up a cig with oxygen on. the only thing is she should take the mask off her face first (or take the cannula out of her nose) depending on what kind of oxygen tank you have. it would probably be a good idea to turn off the oxygen tank before sparking the lighter or match. no need to create unnecessary dangers. like I said, I doubt anything would blow up, but you should be cautious anyway.

p.s. not to be a ball breaker, but if your mom needs to be on oxygen she should really stop smoking. smoking's probably what gave her lung trouble in the first place.

Answer 3

Oxygen is not flammable, therefore the tank will not blow up. A fire requires three things in order to exist. It needs fuel, the material your going to burn. In this case a cigarette. It also requires oxygen. When the fuel burns the oxygen is converted to CO2. The third thing is heat release. The burning fuel must release heat. Our atmosphere contains 21% oxygen. If you burn a cigarette in 100% oxygen it will burn 6 times faster.

Answer 4

It doesn't. The only thing that will happen if you hold a lighted match in a stream of pure oxygen is the match will burn up much faster than it would in 20% oxygen (air).

Answer 5

Lets just say you don't want to find out. Huge explosion.