Is 2%Ar OK in 35% Nitrox?

[kanonfodr]

You could do research like the navy: find young healthy men and subject them to your test gas and see what happens. Increase percentage and repeat. First person to be injured or worse is the limit to allowable percentage of diveable argon...
Am I correct?

Great idea, if you have a compression chamber handy. Most of the gas testing the Navy does today is in a hyperbaric chamber with a few medics in the bubble with the [-]poor bastards[/-] experimental subjects breathing a known safe gas. They do that a LOT before they put divers in the water where rendering aid/evaluating the subject is significantly more challenging.

Peace,
Greg

 

[captain]

I would not dive on a boat that had 95% oxygen as their emergency surface DCS treatment gas, nor would I buy gas from a source with 2% argon. There are other methods that do not have these drawbacks.

Since the main purpose of surface oxygen treatment is to speed the elimination of nitrogen by increasing the nitrogen partial pressure gradient between the diver and the breathing gas any combination of gases that are not toxic and will support life but do not contain nitrogen will accomplish the same thing.