Home Health & Hospice Week

It's a fire hazard, but it's not flammable.

The general public is prone to mistakenly think of oxygen as flammable - but it's also an error sometimes made by those who should know better.

In a recent story on the Federal Aviation Administration's decision to allow oxygen concentrators for air travel, Eli's Home Care Week referred to compressed oxygen as "flammable" (see HCW, Vol. XIV, No. 26).

That is incorrect. Oxygen is not flammable. In fact, oxygen is an oxidizer - a substance that supports combustion but is not itself flammable.

Referring to oxygen as flammable is a mistake Bob Roberts with Roberts Oxygen Co. of Gaithersburg, MD sees all too often.

"To have a fire as we normally think of it, you need a flammable material - paper, wood, gasoline, something like that; a source of ignition, normally a spark or match; and oxygen or some other type of oxidizer," Roberts tells Eli. "Unfortunately, most adults have forgotten this science class lesson."

Even respiratory care experts sometimes confuse oxidizers and flammable substances. For example, a fact sheet on respiratory home health online at www.yourlunghealth.org - a Web site sponsored by the American Association of Respiratory Care in Irving, TX - makes the error.

"Because oxygen is flammable, you should stay at least five feet away from gas stoves, lighted fireplaces, candles, or any other open flame," it improperly states.

Beth Binkley, AARC's communication director, acknowledges that the information is wrong.

"Oxygen itself is not flammable," Binkley says, "but it does accelerate combustion and thus care must be taken that oxygen is not used in the presence of flammable products."