6 Facts You Probably Didn't Know About Oxygen

#5

If you breathe air with a much higher than normal O2 concentration, the oxygen in the lungs overwhelms the blood's ability to carry it away. The result is that free oxygen binds to the surface proteins of the lungs, interferes with the operation of the central nervous system and also attacks the retina.

#3

No. Oxygen acts as an oxidiser and promotes combustion in the presence of a fire, or presents a flammability risk if mixed with a fuel. By itself, it will not explode. ... The NASA and USSR fires were related to a combination of not only the pure oxygen, but many combustible and flammable substances.

#6

Once in their suits, astronauts breathe 100 percent oxygen for several hours until all the nitrogen is out of their bodies. Nitrogen in the body during a spacewalk can cause gas bubbles to form in the body.

#1

Oxygen does not burn. It is not flammable, but it is an oxidizer. Oxygen feeds a fire, so it's dangerous to use around something that is burning, because it will burn much more quickly. Patients on oxygen therapy who are smokers are not going to burst into flame or explode if they smoke.

#2

The flammable range of any gas is widened in the presence of oxidizing gases such as oxygen or chlorine and by higher temperatures or pressures. ... Flash-back can occur with flammable gases. Many flammable compressed gases are heavier than air.

#4

When Deadpool is escaping from the suffocation chamber, he lights a match which ignites the oxygen tube which blows the tank up, thus releasing him. Oxygen alone is not flammable, so without a fuel source this might not have worked.