Deep Air - Here we go again....

[captain]

Of course not!

Make fun all you want.

It happened on the surface when the diver was thrown into the rig or bottom of the boat in high waves and got hit in the head.

 

[DCBC]

You must not be too tired of seeing them, you're still promoting and talking down the danger of deep air.

I'm sorry but I don't think you comprehend what I've been saying. Where have I talked down the dangers of deep air? I have said that people can be trained on deep air which will help them assess the dangers and give them the management skills to understand when to abort the dive. I've promoted education, not the irresponsible use of deep air.

I don't know the exact cause of exley's death, but it's believed to be HPNS. ...and it's understandable why he didn't use helium

He can only get HPNS by using Helium.

 

[captain]

No clue but the number of "why am I bent" or "Am I bent" threads on spearboard seems disproportionally then other tech forums. If it is though it might not have anything to do with deep air but more the lack of training. So many guys talking about being self taught to dive deep it's scary.

And no one gets bent on tri mix I suppose. What does getting bent have to do with deep air.

It's only scary to you. Basicly all my diving is self taught and I have never been bent, never gone OOA or had any dive related incident over a 50+ year diving time span.

 

[Blackwood]

Clearly you have never used Heliox.

At least one study suggests that Oxygen has a narcotic effect in humans (hence: Heliox will be narcotic).

Rubicon Research Repository: Item 123456789/2810

 

[Sloth]

And no one gets bent on tri mix I suppose. What does getting bent have to do with deep air.

It's only scary to you. Basicly all my diving is self taught and I have never been bent, never gone OOA or had any dive related incident over a 50+ year diving time span.

My point had nothing to do with deep air. I was just looking at spearboard and there appears to be a disproportional number of "am i bent" threads and there is a large number of self taught divers. This also seems to be a community that pushes deep air. Correlation doesn't equal causation but its freaks me out a bit.

I read one post about a 25 year old kid that did repeat dives where his leg would hurt after a dive but be fine during the dive. He is now paralyzed :depressed: Good deep water training would have drilled into his head that he had a DCI related problem.

Anyway, not really relevant to this topic, sorry I brought it up.

 

[DCBC]

Are you breathing pure helium? No.

Oxygen is narcotic and is required to sustain life. There's simply no mix that's not narcotic and breathable.

Helium cannot eliminate 100% of narcosis. It's all in the details...

First of all I would be interested in how you can make these statements with such certainty. Where is this world-renown expertise coming from? You seem to know what has eluded researchers for decades. Wither or not oxygen has any narcotic properties is debatable amongst leading hyperbaric researchers.

I haven't experienced the slightest degree of oxygen narcosis in the past 38 years of breathing various mixed gases at various depths to 1300 FSW. I have however experienced OxTox and have gone unconscious without any warning. There was no euphoria whatsoever beforehand. This is the only negative affect I've experienced with oxygen. Oxygen narcosis hasn't been a consideration. As I said, Helium has no narcotic properties.

 

[LiteHedded]

i'd argue one would be more likely to run out of gas or get entangled if one were narc'd out of one's gourd

 

[LiteHedded]

I'm sorry but I don't think you comprehend what I've been saying. Where have I talked down the dangers of deep air? I have said that people can be trained on deep air which will help them assess the dangers and give them the management skills to understand when to abort the dive. I've promoted education, not the irresponsible use of deep air.



He can only get HPNS by using Helium.

yea
but others in this thread are.

 

[DCBC]

At least one study suggests that Oxygen has a narcotic effect in humans (hence: Heliox will be narcotic).

Rubicon Research Repository: Item 123456789/2810

This is a 1978 study. Dr. David Sawatsky (one of the leading hyperbaric physicians of our time) has done quite a bit of work in this area. He doesn't believe that O2 narcosis exists, but if it does it's so insignificant to not be considered. I worked with David at DCIEM when he was undertaking hyperbaric research at the University of Toronto. See Diving Doctor - Diver Magazine

 

[Blackwood]

This is a 1978 study. Dr. David Sawatsky (one of the leading hyperbaric physicians of our time) has done quite a bit of work in this area. He doesn't believe that O2 narcosis exists, but if it does it's so insignificant to not be considered. I worked with David at DCIEM when he was undertaking hyperbaric research at the University of Toronto. See Diving Doctor - Diver Magazine

Have there been any significant attempts to study whether or not oxygen is narcotic since then? In Dr. Sawatsky's article, he mentions the standard lipid solubility theory (which I've never been to keen about) and dismisses many tests because they aren't consistent enough to compare, but I didn't see anything about any more recent attempts to isolate the involved gases.

Seems like it would be pretty simple, and it could even be done simultaneously with standard hyperbaric treatment.