Posted by JRM on January 11, 2001 at 16:56:24:
In Reply to: Nitrox and OSHA posted by Jon on January 11, 2001 at 16:11:02:
OK, first, *I am not a lawyer*. I have had no legal training, and these are merely my lay opinions, please do not consider them legal advice, blah blah blah...
As far as I can tell, an application for permanent variance must be applied in order to bypass the OSHA laws for sport divers. Here's an example:
http://www.osha-slc.gov/FedReg_osha_data/FED19991220.html
As far as the actual regs go, you must have a chamber within 5 minutes of the dive site if you're going to do known compression or alternate breathing mixture. There's a bunch of other junk about staying near the chamber, awake, and the usual commercial dive stuff.
Here's the regs themselves... (1910.426 is mixed gas)
http://www.osha-slc.gov/OshStd_toc/OSHA_Std_toc_1910_SUBPART_T.html
I'm not sure about those of us who have finished the 40 hour HAZWOpER course. I guess that just means we'd be allowed to drive around with the tanks, assuming our vehicle was properly placarded and we had the proper manifests.
Of course, any of you real lawyer types out there have more info. Perhaps some cases involving such things. I imagine there's a reason why Dixie Divers applied for their exemption.
JRM
--Again, I am not a lawyer, these are my lay opinions only...
Apparently, the OSHA reg 1910.401(a)(2)(i) allows exemptions for:
Performed solely for instructional purposes, using open-circuit, compressed-air SCUBA and conducted within the no-decompression limits;
And since that is only for "compressed air", my take would be that Nitrox use is not exempted, and therefore is considered as a commercial dive (once again, I am not a lawyer)...