Narcosis, nitrogen

Both nitrogen narcosis and the bends make prolonged deep diving a risky business. They limit both the safe depth and safe duration of human diving. Even skilled professional divers rarely descend beyond about 50 metres. Also, they rarely remain at that depth for much more than 30 minutes. 

The greatest advantage of heliox is that it does not cause nitrogen narcosis. A disadvantage of heliox is that it removes body heat faster than air does. This effect makes a diver breathing heliox feel chilled sooner than a diver breathing air. 

Low solubility in blood prevents nitrogen narcosis and bends ... 

The physiological effects of nitrogen as well as its physical properties have been studied extensively (B20-B22). That CO2 is the cause of nitrogen narcosis was shown to be highly unlikely by the work of Lanphier and Morin (L5) and Lanphier and Busby (L6). 

Divers carry the air that they breathe in a tank, and must follow special procedures to avoid oxygen toxicity, nitrogen narcosis, and the bends. 

Although nitrogen gas may seem to be the obvious choice to mix with oxygen gas, there is a serious problem with it. When the partial pressure of nitrogen gas exceeds 1 atm, enongh of the gas dissolves in the blood to cause a condition known as nitrogen narcosis. The effects on the diver resemble those associated with... 

Another problem for high pressure environments involves inert gases used in breathing mixtures. At high pressures, nitrogen creates narcotic effects. Examples are euphoria, drowsiness, and muscular weakness. Nitrogen narcosis is the name for these narcotic effects. 

When a diver works in a high pressure zone, it is necessary to substitute some other inert gas to prevent nitrogen narcosis. It is also necessary to consider any hazards associated with alternate inert gases. 

Scuba divers breathing air at increased pressure can suffer from nitrogen narcosis—a condition resembling drunkenness— when the partial pressure of nitrogen exceeds about 4 atm. What property of gas/water solutions causes this to happen How could the diver reverse this effect ... 

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