[AR] Re: breathing nitrogen
- From: Chris Jones <clj@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 20 Apr 2016 19:24:47 -0400
On 04/20/16 6:44 PM, Edward Wright wrote:
The treacherous thing is one breathes quite normally in N2 but O2
is missing: sudden collapse and death is likely, without warning
or ill feeling.
Not quite without warning, but hypoxia has highly individualized
symptoms which an untrained person may not recognize. In the past,
hypoxia training was done in hypobaric pressure chambers but today
it may be done in a cheaper normobaric chamber, which uses chemical
processes to remove oxygen from the air.
Particularly, CO2 doesn't build up in the body, which (elevated CO2) is
what triggers the "breathe" reflex you get when you hold your breath.
My one experience with breathing-induced hypoxia was when I was (much)
younger, and I took three breaths from a helium balloon (interspersed
with quack-talking, and without breathing air). I felt like I was about
to faint and took a few quick breaths and it passed.
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