co2 retention

[blacknet]

Hello,

I was on a dive once (about 2 years ago approx) and I had signs of co2 buildup and bad gas. My concern is where did this co2 come from. One of the possibilities is i'm a 'co2 retainer', others is from the bottle etc..

Is there any test that can be performed to see if I am a retianer? I did take a PFT and it shows my gas exchange rate is astronomical, dunno if this helps or not.

Ed

 

[sky50960]

-Do you have any pulmonary problems that might compromise you lung fuction?
-Bad physical condition?
-Where you sure of the quality of the air you where breathing? ( maybe to much co2 in the air tank...)
-What were the diving conditions? For example heavy current diving can leed to co2 retention due to physical effort.

with depth ppCO2 ( partial pressure of co2 ) increases that would make you more sensitif to co2 retention.
If that happens STOP any mouvements, seek little help from your dive budy, LOWER a little the depth until symptoms dissapear.

 

[blacknet]

Hello,

This was in a sink hole (40 fathom ghetto) I am thinking that the air WAS contaminated as all my navy diver friends tell me that I had a) bad gas and b) co2 from somewhere. The where is unsure unless there was some analysis done.

the co2 signs that I had I voiced to the group and everyone said they had the same thing but that was 'normal' so I thought nothing of it.

For the longest time the dr's thought I was 'asthmatic' but a pft shows that my lungs are abit smaller than average but my gas exchange rate is thru the roof. (or so says the allergist) I do have allergies but I was med free on this dive. I can safely say I have NO pulmonary problems other than what the pft reported.

The diving conditions was reverse profiles to 150 and 80 feet. 4 dives durring the day. There was alot of perconditions to, like alittle alcohol, lack of sleep (3-4 hours tops), new dive enviroment i.e. strange area, fatique, stress and probably afew others. The dive shop that I went thru is no longer in business (not a direct result of this as I didn't have any part in that)

Lets just say that I learned my lesson well and will *NEVER* repeat it. That time it was either do this and that or not get my certs.

Ed

 

[sky50960]

I seems like you did not experience such a similar problem in your next dives.

If you have a little more co2 in your tank lets say 1% co2 at 1 ATA that would give around 5 % at 150 feet wich is close to 7 % it means " death " over 7% of co2.
So when at 1 ATA with 1% of co2 you will feel nothing
Whhen going deeper you will star to have symptomn while close to 2% of co2 ( dyspnea )

Fa

 

[blacknet]

Hello,

I suspect it was higher than that. Taken from dr. lanpier's research 4-6% is dyspnea and anxiety, 6-10% is impared mental capabilites, 10-15% is severely impaired mental functions, 15-20% is loss of consciousness, over 20% is uncoordinated muscle twitching and convulsions.

It may have been a combination of high co2 in the tank and factors that I had been subjected to. i.e. 1 part tank co2 and 1 part me. Judging from the good dr's work I would take a stab at saying my levels was around the 6-10% range, but on the low end.

I also read that people who are exposed to high levels of co2 in normal day to day operations (i.e. working around engines, smoking, submarine excape instructors, highway workers, etc..) are co2 retianers due to enviromental factors and they have acclimated to the higher levels. Which, in diving, is a bad thing because the lower signs are not present untill it's near fatal levels. This is why I was hoping there was some sort of 'co2 retention' test that I could take. It seems that, currently, the only way that I have found is by the PFT but even that seems inconclusive.

Ed

 

[scubadoc]

CO2 retention with it's attendant dangers of death from convulsions and hypoxia (low oxygen level) is primarily of concern to the scuba diver due to "skip breathing". Other sources of CO2 retention are breath-hold diving, breathing in a sealed environment and using contaminated air. More about this at
http://www.scuba-doc.com/CO2ret.htm

According to Dr. Jolie Bookspan, there are no really good ways to identify the diver who is prone to CO2 retention.
http://www.njscuba.com/njscuba/training/co2_retention.html

 

[blacknet]

Hello,

I was not freediving, breath-holding, skip breathing or pattern breathing. So that leaves 2 sources. My body and the gas I was using.

Ed

 

[sky50960]

Some air diver perform breath holdings during a dive to avoid air consumption, this methode can lead to CO2 retention.

fa

 

[Andreas]

And some divers have such a high tolerance for CO2 that they don't feel the need to breathe very often, and thus builds up very high levels of CO2. And there is no intentional "skipbreathing" involved. This can lead to harmful levels CO2.
At exhalation (at rest) I normaly have a concentration of over 6% CO2. I breathe about 5-6 breaths per minute.
(If I hold my breath that CO2-concentration ofcourse goes WAY up!)
This has often led to severe nausea upon surfacing after normal sportdives.
Now I just breathe more, and have no problems.

Take care.
/Andreas