I'm not a metallurgist, but I would be surprised to see any common metal advertised as pure being
absolutely pure. it's all in the decimal points.
If anyone wants to waste (or shorten!) cables to test this out, let them cut some. I'd be very surprised if they found any oxidation in the insulated part of the cable, and I'd be much more surprised if it was more than a surface effect.
If copper is exposed, then it is likely to oxidise anyway, as it will not be in oxygen-free air. It is also going to be subject to corrosion from other stuff in the air.
My oxygen-free V-d-H cables corroded at one connector and broke. My oxygen-not specified Cambridge Audio cables, of similar vintage, where I have looked, are clean and sound at the soldered joints. These cables are ten or fifteen years old, so I am not really upset at the VDH, even, although it would have been more expensive.
ten-plus years! Cease worrying about oxygen in the copper having
any effect on the cable's longevity. Really.
many belive that while terminating the cable one should not even touch the cable with bare hands and use surgical gloves if possible
As an engineer, I'm sure you recognise that components to be soldered should be clean, and, in particular,
grease-free. So
hands-off is, in down-to-earth practical terms, not a bad idea. (Disclaimer: I'm lousy at electrical soldering, surgical gloves or not, but I can do the brazing-torch, red-hot silver or gold kind)
Many cables today are advertised as using "oxygen-free copper." OFC is popular in audio cables, and has begun to make inroads into the video cable market as well.
We all know, of course, that oxygen is bad for things made from copper. Copper oxidizes and turns green and flaky; in so doing, it loses its high conductivity and begins to fall apart. But the amount of oxygen present in conventionally annealed, non-OFC copper is so tiny that it simply isn't a factor in cable quality. We have cut into pieces of Belden coaxial cable twenty-five years old that have been used in radio transmission applications--and found them clean and bright, completely lacking any sign of oxidation. Modern coax is better still, with nitrogen-injected foam dielectrics that keep oxygen entirely away from the center conductor.
As it is with silver, there's nothing wrong with OFC; but electrically speaking, OFC wire is indistinguishable in audio and video applications from ordinary annealed copper wire.
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My favourite cable company 
hyeah:
