Coping with hydrogen sulphide in enclosed spaces

摘要

Sir - David Smith's strident wake up call in MER's July issue, Don't Hold Your Breath, certainly aroused me, and reminded me of the casual attitude to the risks associated with entering closed spaces prevalent years ago, and still occasionally encountered today. As a scientist I am well aware of the ability of living plant and animal tissue to respire and deplete oxygen from the atmosphere, replacing it with carbon dioxide; as a professional industrial microbiolo-gist I am also aware of how efficient fouling and spoilage microbes in bilge, ballast, slops and fuel tank bottoms are at replacing oxygen with carbon dioxide.