Why I Love Nitrox....

[scubapro25]

Mikey,

time to set you straight .......

1. You get longer no-stop bottom times and shorter decompression times when doing decompression dives but this is all still dependent on having sufficient gas to breathe. If you do not have enough gas all the no-stop time in the world will do you no good.

For example at 100 fsw you have no-stop time with EAN 32 of 40 minutes but it would take approx 140 cubic feet of gas to do a 40 minute square profile dive. .......

2. Less narcosis is a pure myth. While you may be reducing the nitrogen in the mix by displacing it with oxygen; oxygen has sufficient narcotic properties under pressure that the combined narcosis level of the oxygen and the nitrogen remain the same as if it were air.

3/4 If you conduct a dive of similar dive time as you would an air dive while breathing enriched air you will have less nitrogen load on board and as a result will have less fatigue. But a nitrox dive to the no-stop limit and an air dive to the no-stop limit has similar nitrogen load and hence similar fatigue load.

Hope this helps you out a bit. FYI reference the NOAA Diving Manual 4th Edition .... Nitrox section. (i wrote it)

cheers

Thanks for setting me straight, Joel.......far be it from me to argue with the author of a section of the NOAA Manual! LOL!

Actually, I'm open to debate and counter-point....that was the whole point of my post [note where I said: "Feel free to disagree and tell me it's all in my head"], so thanks for contributing.

PS: I am intrigued about the 'narcotic properties' of oxygen.....can you refer me to further references on it?

Mikey

[JS1scuba]

Thanks for setting me straight, Joel.......far be it from me to argue with the author of a section of the NOAA Manual! LOL!

Actually, I'm open to debate and counter-point....that was the whole point of my post [note where I said: "Feel free to disagree and tell me it's all in my head"], so thanks for contributing.

PS: I am intrigued about the 'narcotic properties' of oxygen.....can you refer me to further references on it?

Mikey

Oxygen under pressure produces symtoms similar to that of nitrogen narcosis. Including, visual disturbances, euphoria, tinitus, twitching, etc. Also oxygen's physical properties are similar in nature to that of nitrogen ie: density etc.

Chamber tests have produced similar impairments with high pressure oxygen.

Oh and the setting you straight thing was in jest!

Cheers

JDS