miked
Contributor
I was watching "NCIS" last night, and the episode involved the investigation into the death of a supposed Navy diver, whose body was found washed up on a beach.
The diver's tanks had the green "Nitrox" stickers. While the Nitrox played a less-than- infinitely small part in the plot,the writing was a bit more accurate than some dive -related drama writing that I have seen, but....
2 comments/questions- some dialogue that made me laugh, or go "huh!", or just question if TV writers know squat about diving.
1) While at the scene, the medical examiner commented:
"of course, we can't rule out nitrox poisoning"
I have never heard that term before. Is there such a thing? Or is it merely TV writers writing from their butts??
( I thought, if anything, it might be an alternate name for Ox-tox??)
2) Later, in the lab The dialogue went:
forensic scientist: " He was using Nitrox because on deep dives it's beneficial. But he was headed into shallow water, so why didn't he adjust"
Agent: "A seasoned diver would know that."
This led them down a path to the discovery that the body was not that of the diver.
My question: if we stipulate that "beneficial" could apply to Nitrox use: what about "Mods", and what "adjustments when coming shallow"??- or is it again more underknowledged writing??
As I said, it was not the worst dive info TV writing, but jeeze.
The diver's tanks had the green "Nitrox" stickers. While the Nitrox played a less-than- infinitely small part in the plot,the writing was a bit more accurate than some dive -related drama writing that I have seen, but....
2 comments/questions- some dialogue that made me laugh, or go "huh!", or just question if TV writers know squat about diving.
1) While at the scene, the medical examiner commented:
"of course, we can't rule out nitrox poisoning"
I have never heard that term before. Is there such a thing? Or is it merely TV writers writing from their butts??
( I thought, if anything, it might be an alternate name for Ox-tox??)
2) Later, in the lab The dialogue went:
forensic scientist: " He was using Nitrox because on deep dives it's beneficial. But he was headed into shallow water, so why didn't he adjust"
Agent: "A seasoned diver would know that."
This led them down a path to the discovery that the body was not that of the diver.
My question: if we stipulate that "beneficial" could apply to Nitrox use: what about "Mods", and what "adjustments when coming shallow"??- or is it again more underknowledged writing??
As I said, it was not the worst dive info TV writing, but jeeze.
And you would think NCIS would at least have a real diver on their advisory staff!!!! 
While "underknowledged" is a good term, don't forget that the writers might think it sounds "more cool" to say "Nitrox Poisoning" than "Oxygen toxicity".
Oh, Bob, you are so pedantic . . . we're just having fun with it! 
