Quinn:
1) O2 itself is not flamamable but it is essential in causing other materials to burn. It is considered hazardous gas because it allows things to (catch fire) burn much more rapidly than they would in air which contains only nearly 21% O2. Many less flammable materials in normal atmospheric conditions become highly inflammable in presence of O2. Obviously petroleum products are already highly inflammable, they could easily (even by small heat or rubbing of parts) get ignited in presence of O2.

2) O2 regulators must be cleaned with care for both of the reasons you have stated. Fires can be induced by even the heat generated from the sudden compression of oxygen when the cylinder valve is opened. Hence, any flammable contaminants (either petroleum products or rags) in the vicinity of O2 must to be avoided.

Hopefully this helps.
Muthu

High pressure generally makes chemistry in gasses go faster so if your oil contamination is on the high side of the regulator and you have a fresh oxygen cylinder the danger is considerable. I can't say if the reaction would be spontaneous but once initiated it would be vigorous. Instead of wiping the usual recommendation is to crack the valve on a new cylinder for an instant to blow out any foreign material.
Bill

Oil and O2 under high pressure is what makes a diesel engine run.
The compression stroke creates enouh heat to ignite the mixture,causing the explosion that forces the piston down.
Kind of like opening the valve on your oxy cylinder.
Jeff

Excellent question...I have worked to keep all O2 lines as clean as possible. Now my question is how are components (e.g., flow meters) oxygen cleaned?

Thanks in advanced,
SCMait

The guy that fills our bulk O2 tank(1500 gallon) told me to make sure that we never park our forklift on his spill pad. Someone didn't know and parked it out there leaving a couple drops of oil on the concrete. He asked us to pressure wash off that pad and to not let any more spill out there. My understanding is that the spill pad must be of concrete construction rather than asphalt due to the oil content in the asphalt. This guy was saying that after he fills the tanks, his hoses could have a small amount of liquid spill as he disconnects them.

Not long ago I caught a guy on our night shift changing the oil in his pick/up truck out there by that tank (just as the pressure valve popped off to let out the excess pressure). He had taken the old oil and threw it all over the ground around the tank(when asked why? he said to keep the dust down). He no longer works here.
John Wright

http://www.eh.doe.gov/techstds/standard/hdbk1081/hbk1081a.html