Point for me is this: People can say whatever they want. Maybe they are more or less susceptible to ox tox (there is personal variation for sure), but every time you risk the need for a rescue response you put OTHERS at risk. The issue with too limited a view is that you only see the one person as at risk, when that really isnt the case. The industry has defined 1.6 as the acceptable risk level, and beyond that you are being stupid. Not that you ARE stupid, just that you are making a stupid decision. Maybe if there were no gases available to prevent it, it would be a different issue, BUT THERE ARE. So, my point, is why would you bother risking a ppO2 of 2.0 when you dont have to.
Which brings up a whole new issue, but is related. I learned to dive when PO2's were acceptable at 2.0. Trimix was something Billy Deans was teaching down in Key West, but divers were successfully diving the Doria and other wrecks on air. My friend Ian was diving a AP rebreather on Trimix before TDI was even a dream of Bret Gillam's. Nitrox was the evil gas that PADI said they'd never endorse, and DEMA followed suit.
Now, you tell me that 1.6 is an "Industry Standard" because someone published it in a book somewhere, my friend Ian had to get a certification card to do something he's been doing since before there were certification cards for it, and I'm making a stupid decision because I'm following the standards of the time I was trained. PADI issues C-Cards to divers diving voodoo gas without requiring them to make a dive using the gas.
I'm all for learning from mistakes. One of the problems with the industry is that folks make up "industry standards" with no basis for them. We've determined in this thread that some divers are more susceptible to ox-tox than others, some can tox at PO2's of 1.2 or less, and that some of us aren't as prone to suffering from ill effects of O2 than others. What are these industry standards supposed to do? Keep us safe? DIVING ISN'T SAFE, AND ANYONE WHO TELLS YOU IT IS IS BLOWING SMOKE UP YOUR ASS. Diving is a sport that carries some risk. It is up to each of us to define what level of risk we are willing to accept to accomplish our goals. When someone dies in the #3 pumproom of the Spiegel Grove, I don't say to myself "What an idiot!", I say "well, he tooks his chances and paid the price". I don't penetrate caves or wrecks because it's OUT OF MY COMFORT ZONE. I don't think that people who do are stupid, I just don't do it myself.
And your comment about placing others at risk is hogwash. Anyone on a search and recovery team is there because they understand the risks, and have weighed them and decided to join the team anyway. They do so for their own reasons, not to meet some "Industry Standard". Once again, that kind of risk is beyond my comfort zone, because I believe that a dead body is not worth risking my life for. Props to those who do, they perform an important service to the family, and I applaud them for their dedication.
I've seen recreational divers bent on air at depths and times that were completely a mystery to me as to why they suffered a hit. Gases are available to prevent this. Should we all squirt some helium in our air to eliminate DCS? No, because helium doesn't eliminate DCS any more than diving at a 1.2 PO2 eliminates Oxygen Toxicity. So the industry defines drowning as one of the risks of diving. If you go diving, you are making a stupid decision because you may drown. Think about that the next time you make the decision to dive.
