Study examines impact of home oxygen fires
By HME News Staff
Updated 10:16 AM CST, Tue November 9, 2021
LONDON – More than 500 fires involving home oxygen and resulting in more than 300 deaths have been reported by the U.S. media since 2017, a new study reveals. Additionally, there were reports of serious injuries in more than 130 people, as well as injuries to nearly 200 other people, according to the study conducted by BPR Medical. “This data confirms that home oxygen fires represent a material public health issue,” said Richard Radford, managing director, BPR Medical. “Incidents not only affect oxygen patients themselves, but also their families, their neighbors, and the emergency personnel who attend fires. It also reveals the enormous human and financial impact of burns. The evidence for fitting thermal fuses to oxygen tubing, alongside other measures, continues to grow.” BPR Medical designs and manufactures medical gas therapy solutions, including Firesafe Cannula Valves, Firesafe Nozzles and Firesafe Flowmeters. To conduct the study, BPR Medical recorded incident data using a Google Alert algorithm based on the keywords “oxygen” and “fire.” Previous data from the National Fire Protection Association has estimated that up to 70 people are killed each year from home oxygen fires, but it has emphasized that these are “likely underestimates.”
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