Purpose of This Web Site
This web site has been created not only to offer our many analytical services but also to serve as an educational tool. Many people get very sick or die each year while breathing compressed air. This site is devoted to helping you to understand sampling in an effort to help you stay safe.
Discovering bad air before it causes an injury is the core of this web site. The discovery process is by nature, technical, but easily understood because it involves a lot of common sense. If you delegate safety to a third party, keep in mind that just because a lab report says something does not necessarily mean that the information is complete and that the conclusions are correct. Our site is intended to give you the background you need to make critical decisions.
Information about specifications is another issue we approach. There are many specifications to consider; some apply to you, but some are a waste of time because they are written by people who don’t have an adequate background. Even the terms used within specifications can be confusing. For example, what is meant by “total hydrocarbons”, and, is Oxygen Compatible Air well defined? You will learn that it is not what you would think.
You don’t have to be a chemist to understand the technical parts of this web site. We have given you enough guidance with our TECHNICAL SECTION to help you – probably for the very first time – make informed decisions about determining and maintaining the purity of your compressed breathing gases.
Are we experts? Yes. Do we have all the answers? No. We are a private laboratory, and we rely on decades of lab and field experience plus the experimental evidence from other experts. People like yourself are part of that process, and we hope that you will email us with any questions or experiences that you have had.
David H. Elgas , President
11/2005