Caving in "bad air" - possible?

NSS Presentation - Bad Air in Caves

Possible, but it's an easy way to die and logistically complex. We have 4-hour mine rescue breathing apparatus on our underground rescue team. They are expensive to maintain, require extensive cleaning between uses and weight about 50lbs.

Remember, you can't just wear an O2 mask or nasal cannula like they do on Mt. Everest. You need to get enough Oxygen while simultaneously keeping the CO2 or other gases OUT. This is a much more difficult problem to solve. The only way to do this for more than 15-30 minutes is with a closed-circuit Oxygen rebreather system. In case you're curious, this is the model we have:

https://www.biomarineinc.com/

You would ideally need a closed circuit breathing system, similar to a mine rescue apparatus, with a redundant system and training to use them, plus you’d need to be build like Hercules to lug them around. I’ve done some closed circuit cave diving that wasn’t particularly exploration level, just long with a couple of dry sections, and whilst I could easily swim my equipment through long sections of cave, porterage of it was nigh on impossible alone unless I did multiple trips, which kind of ruins the experience. This stuff is heavy and awkward and also surprisingly fragile and lugging it through a cave whilst having to use it would be hard work, something you don’t really want to be doing on closed circuit equipment. There probably isn’t anything back there worth that kind of effort, and definitely nothing worth even thinking about chancing it. Bad air kills cavers and miners

Contact your local NSS chapter for advice. And/or look for well established outing clubs at nearby colleges that do cave exploration. The cave is probably documented and mapped.

The only recorded death in my country in caving is due to a similar reason. I would be very careful if I were you. Possibly I wouldn't even go tbh. A ton of things can go wrong.

Thanks for your time and responses everyone. I’ve decided sadly it’s not worth the risk or the money for the breathing apparatus just to see a little chamber and say I’ve been to the end. Thank you for the very informative video, this is the first time I’ve encountered potential bad air in a cave I’ll be more aware of the dangers and signs from now on. Have a great day everybody

Just don’t bother

Is the bad air seasonal? Because some caves you just need to keep trying on different times of year ( and different years) until the air is good.  

over here in the UK some caving clubs will borrow out 4gas meters for use due to their high cost, not sure if this would be available to you but wouldn’t even bother without at the very least a gas meter

First you need to buy an oxygen and 4 gas monitor. I have one, and have caves in areas with less than ideal oxygen. However, I try to keep oxygen above 18%. Still, at just 18-18.5% oxygen, you get a headache and dizzy and each step you take feels doubly hard. I wouldn’t want to push past the lighter limit, which is 17.5%. From there it gets super dangerous super fast. Until affordable and portable oxygen tanks become readily available (if ever), I think there’s little reward in pushing on. Even then it’s a huge risk - any kind of “cave diving” where you’re reliant on bringing air in is super more dangerous than typical cave exploring, adding a lot of weight and complexity to the mission and adventure.

It may be worth checking that place in different seasons. Sometimes air quality changes by season in caves. It might change and be more do able. Where I live there’s a couple of caves I can think of with areas accessible only in a small time window because the air strangely gets better (and by that, I mean “do-able”).

In short, I recommend getting a 4 gas monitor. Co2 monitors may not reach high enough levels. Oxygen is the most important one to check, and a 4 gas monitor will also check 3 other gases (more likely to be found in mines or homes, not in caves). Typically each drop in oxygen is typically correlated with an increase in co2.

Also another thing to worry about is “using up” oxygen in low oxygen areas of caves. If a cave gets good airflow then using up oxygen is of little concern. However, if an area doesn’t get good air flow, then you may use up oxygen faster than it is replaced. As such even 18.5% levels of oxygen can then. I am NOT an expert so maybe I’m wrong about this…

Again I’m NOT an expert, just a cave exploring guy with a 4 gas monitor drawing from personal experience which even that can be dangerous and misleading. As I’ve grown older I’ve become less willing to explore bad air areas in caves. There are too many caves with good air in the world to risk pushing bad air.