Standardization News

ASTM International Committee G04 Marks 40th Anniversary

ASTM G175 testing on medical oxygen regulators was shown to produce test results (image A) highly representative of actual fires that had occurred in the field (image B).

On Jan. 27, 1967, American astronauts Virgil I. Grissom, Edward H. White II and Roger B. Chaffee were killed during a fire that raged through the pure oxygen atmosphere of the Apollo I spacecraft during a launch simulation. This tragedy is one of several notable fires in oxygen-enriched environments that occurred in industrial, military and U.S. government systems during the late 1960s.

Such fires led industry and government agencies to launch a unified effort to better understand how fires occur in oxygen systems and to increase their safety. Out of this initiative was born ASTM International Committee G04 on Compatibility and Sensitivity of Materials in Oxygen-Enriched Environments in 1975.

As G04 marks its 40th anniversary, the committee's standards continue to play a major role for all industries that use oxygen. G04 standards address the selection of materials and design/analysis methodologies for oxygen systems as well as the cleaning of oxygen components and systems.

"G04 standards allow for the safe design of oxygen systems, components and equipment used every day around the world," says ASTM member and G04 committee chairman Elliot Forsyth, an oxygen safety and forensic engineer for Oxygen Safety Consultants Inc. and WHA International Inc.

"For example, one of the fastest growing industries that uses oxygen is medical," says Forsyth. "The materials used in medical oxygen equipment and in many cases the components themselves are designed according to G04 guidelines and tested according to G04 test methods."

A recent standard developed by G04 is among its most important: G175, Test Method for Evaluating the Ignition Sensitivity and Fault Tolerance of Oxygen Pressure Regulators Used for Medical and Emergency Applications.

G175 covers oxygen medical regulators, devices that convert compressed oxygen at high cylinder pressures to a lower, constant working pressure suitable for patient delivery. Such regulators are part of an overall oxygen delivery system and are used in emergency medical services, home health care and hospitals.

A series of regulator fires in the 1990s led to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health to release a joint Public Health Advisory, "Explosions and Fires in Aluminum Oxygen Regulators" in February 1999. This release alerted routine users of the possible hazards associated with regulators.

At the time of the FDA/NIOSH release, members of G04 had already been involved with the investigation of medical oxygen regulator fires. Their research led to the development of G175. Since G175's approval in 2000, fires associated with medical regulators have drastically decreased.

G04 standards guide oxygen use in other industries, such as aerospace, steel making, chemical processing, gas-to-liquid production, welding and cutting, and wastewater treatment plants.

Forsyth also notes the importance of standards G88 and G93:

G04 is now considering how to best respond to industry needs for more standards that focus on short, practical and application-specific guides and practices to be used in specific oxygen industries. For more information about G04, its current work items and future meetings, visit the G04 page on ASTM's website.