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Re: CO2



On Tue, 7 Aug 2001, Bernard Cleyet wrote:

A corollary to WB: Those emergency people carry O2 tanks with a little CO2 --
now you know why.

Are you (WB) certain that person died of anoxia -- I thought one could last a
min., and more, w/o O2?

The article didn't say. Other articles about helium have noted that if
you remain vertical, the helium will "drain out" as you continue
breathing. If you lie down, might this not happen?

Lungs are quite a bit like a sponge, and the boundary layer effect makes
gases "stick" to surfaces. If you were to squeeze much of the air out of
your lungs and replace it with helium, you might be in trouble because
normal breathing would only clear out the helium slowly. If you should
faint, you might REALLY be in trouble because your body isn't very
sensitive to anoxia, and you wouldn't start breathing fast while
unconcious.

I've had "helium incidents" in the past. It's just like they describe
high-acceleration jet plane manouvers: first you go blind, then your
hearing shuts down, and only then do you go unconscious. Panicky
breathing during the onset of "black visual sparklies" fortunately
restores things quickly!

bc Who has taken deep breaths of He and suffered rather intense
thoracic pain. Why?

Dessicated lungs? They have "nebulizers" to add water-mist to anesthetic
gas during surgery.


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