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by Mawgan on November 17th, 2006

Mawgan

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What does it feel like to breathe pure oxygen? Are there any advantages or disadvantages of doing so for an indefinite period?

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  • by ChrisDG on November 17th, 2006

    ChrisDG

    I have heard people who are fit and healthy say that breathing 100% oxygen made them feel more live, but this may well be a pschological effect of knowing they are breathing it. People who have pulmonary idsease and other diseases where there is hypoxia in peripheral tissues state that without regular (or constant) oxygen they feel very lethargic, often cannot get out of bed and have no energy, exhuastion.

    Unfortunately oxygen itself is quite a volatile gas. Oxygen causes free radical production which (in very complex mechanisms) can cause mutations in the human genome, which may result in loss of cell function and possibly cancer depending on the site and severity of the mutations. Oxygen itself is also a toxic gas at high partial pressures, meaning that any cause of an increased partial pressure (increase in oxygen percentage such as breathing 100% oxygen, increase in total gas pressure such as breathing underwater) that causes the partial pressure to be higher than normal can result in cellular damage to lung tissues. So elderly patients in hospital are giving breaks in oxygen therapy if they can tolerate it to reduce lung tissue damage. (of course, some can't and if they get to this stage the prognosis is very poor).

    SCUBA divers breathing air are limited to a certain depth because for every 10m they descend, the pressure around them is increased by one atmosphere, thus increasing the partial pressure of inhaled gases. This is normally evident in the risk of developing decompression illness, whereby the high pressure causes nitrogen to dissolve in your blood, and a rapid ascent makes it bubble within your blood vessels (the 'bends' - very painful). However, going beyond 60m down (at 7 atmospheres) the oxygen partial pressure is so high that the inhaled oxygen is toxic to your nervous system and can be very severe, so divers breathing air are limited to 50m as a precaution. To go deeper than this some other gas mix such as Nitrox must be used.

    Comments

    • Scuba - you're right about the partial pressure but not quite right about NITROX. NITROX is an increased oxygen mix with a reduced nitrogen mix. It reduces the amount of nitrogen that the body absorbs which prolongs the time limits at depth. However it also reduces the depth at which the mix becomes toxic due to the partial pressure of oxy. So you can't go as deep on NITROX as you can on air. To go deep you need to reduce the oxy and nitrogen concentrations of the mix so other gases like helium are used.

      James_C992

      by James_C992 on March 24th, 2011

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