Is it safe to use rubber O-rings with Nitrox?
Yes. Many divers are surprised to learn the SCUBA industry convention of using fluorocarbon elastomers (FKM or FPM, aka Viton™ o-rings) or ethylene-propylene-diene-monomer (EPDM) with Nitrox is not a matter of oxygen fire safety. The introduction of Nitrox in recreational diving included a recommendation to use FKM for seals in gas blending equipment whose wetted surfaces contact pure Oxygen. This was frequently confused with the very important safety requirement for oxygen cleanliness (i.e. the absence of readily combustible materials); creating a mistaken but widely held belief that o-ring material is also somehow related to safety of Nitrox for diving equipment such as SCUBA regulators and cylinder valves.
FKM and EPDM are no more 'safe' in Nitrox diving applications than ordinary synthetic nitrile rubber (NBR aka Buna-N). While FKM and EPDM have a slightly higher temperature of ignition than NBR, nearly any material can still serve as fuel in the kindling chain to an oxygen fire that will reach {~ 5000°F | 2700°C}. The reason for preferring FKM and EPDM in high oxygen content applications is because the service life is typically longer than NBR, i.e. FKM and EPDM are more resistant to oxidation than nitrile rubber although FKM also exhibits a tendency to swell slightly in high-pressure oxygen. While FKM and EPDM o-rings outperform NBR o-rings, in practice there is no safety reason to prefer them in Nitrox SCUBA life-support applications such as regulators and valves given the periodic service requirements of such equipment.