🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Nov9.155548.6766@alchemy.chem.utoronto.ca>  
mroussel@alchemy.chem.utoronto.ca (Marc Roussel) writes:
> In article <1992Nov6.232924.28405@mdd.comm.mot.com> rudoff@mdd.comm.mot.com
> (Doug Rudoff) writes:
> >In article <Bx9Cr5.M5E@watserv1.uwaterloo.ca> rlbell@babbage.uwaterloo.ca
> >(Richard Bell) writes:
> >>Nitrogen narcosis is caused by the air pressure being high enough to start
> >>forming laughing gas.
> >
> >Sorry, you're wrong. From what I've read and talking to one of my
> >scuba diving buddies, if you replace the nitrogen with another gas
> >such as argon (which will not combine with anything), it will still
> >cause narcosis if breathed under enough pressure. Laughing gas
> >(nitrous oxide) has nothing to do with it. It's some weird
> >physiological function that is unexplained as of yet.
> 

Sorry, but being a chemist and a scuba diver, I can tell you that you are
both wrong.  Nitrogen narcosis (the bends) is caused by nitrogen in the
blood.  When scuba diving and breathing compressed air, a person will be
breathing nitrogen under water.  This is because 80% of air is nitrogen.
As he breathes this air, nitrogen will be absorbed into the blood stream.
Then, because of Boyle's law, as the diver ascends, the nitrogen gas wil
expand in the blood.  If there is too much nitrogen in the blood, the 
person will experience nitrogen narcosis and what will result is severe
muscle cramps (hence the bends) and possibly death.  However, this can be
avoided by not breathing nitrogen under water, which can be done by
breathing a combination of Helium and oxygen, which Jacque Cousteau does.
The reason why you do not want to breath pure oxygen is because at extreme
depths, oxygen becomes poisonous.  

--
"It takes a big man to cry.
but it takes a bigger man to laugh at that man."
				Jack Handy


judson@watserv.ucr.edu