I'm assuming that you are an employee. If that's the case, your employer is the sole judge and will involve both fire dept regulations and the company's safety policies.

So, ask your personnel office.

jkclevel wrote on Oct 4^th, 2012 at 3:09pm:


You have no need to be concerned about using O2 in an office environment. Remember that O2 is used all the time in hospitals without any problems. The average cubicle in the Emergency Department has heaps of electronic equipment in it (eg computers, ECG machines, various monitoring equipment, infusion pumps etc) and there are never any problems with that.

In my role as an ambulance paramedic (EMT) for 30 years  I have used oxygen in a huge variety of environments including offices, factories, wrecked cars, houses with heaters operating, in fact just about anywhere you care to name. I have never had any sort of incident with oxygen and never heard of any of my colleagues having an issue.

While the general advice to avoid using oxygen near open flames and avoid smoking etc is not unreasonable the actual level of risk is overstated. In the circumstances that most people would use oxygen the risks of the oxygen fueling a fire is pretty low.

In a workplace environment you may want to consider making sure your cylinder can't fall over. A falling cylinder carries a small risk of falling onto someone and hurting them. There is also a risk that should the cylinder fall onto the valve it could shear off the valve resulting in the cylinder being propelled through the air with great force. The likelihood of this is not high but it is not zero. The risk of a falling cylinder causing injury is low with small cylinders and obviously greater with large cylinders. You are likely to be using smaller cylinders in an office I would think. Either lie the cylinder down so it can't fall or have a cord or chain to secure it to a solid object.

Good luck with it.

Thanks everyone! You've really alleviated some of the fears I had about this. When I finally hear back from my O2 supplier and get a tank I figure I'll run it by the head of our facilities department (who sits a few doors down from me and is also the head of my department), I expect it won't be a problem but worse case scenario I can just keep it in my car outside which won't be so bad.

Thanks for the heads up about securing it or laying it down. I SCUBA dive and have definitely stubbed a toe or two with a poorly secured air tank but it hadn't crossed my mind to do so here. I'm going to hopefully get an M60 sized tank for the office and should be able to secure it to a bookcase in the corner.

Thanks again
Jeff

jkclevel,
You are most certainly not alone, welcome to Clusterviille

I've never heard of electronics, a/c unit, etc being a hazard with an o2 tank but double check with your o2 supplier just to be safe.  Always turn the knob off when not in use...and certainly don't light a flame/smoke while using it...

niavas wrote on Oct 8^th, 2012 at 11:33am:


I see this at least 10x/daily in the casinos here in Las Vegas.  Usually elderly people smoking while breathing through nasal canulas while sitting at their slot/video poker machine.  Stupid!

-Gregg in Las Vegas