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>Boy, I'll say. I don't smoke cigs, but I still resent is the current "99 
>percent correct" government's efforts to, once again, save us from 
>ourselves. You might need saving, brother, but I am fully capable lf 
>looking out for myself above water and under it.

What has Spare Air got to do with smoking? (Ok! now I've read the archive I
see, may as well post this anyway haven't sent anything from this machine
yet and besides I haven't been flames in over a month!!)

I have no sympathy for smokers I have never and will never see the logic in
deliberately breathing toxic fumes into your lungs (particularly when for
many years this has been shown to have dire health consequences), but it
never ceases to amaze me how many intelligent reasoning people have the
habit.  I agree with your sentiment that people have the right to do to
their bodies what they like but individual freedom must be weighed against
social responsibility.  No matter how much we like to think of ourselves as
islands ultimately we are all interdependent and the freedom of one can
often mean the enslavement of another (in this case I am refering to the
need to remedy the social and environmental cost of smoking, sooner or later
someone (some generation) is going to have to make sacrifices).  Smoking and
the diseases it causes cost the community millions (in America probably
billions) of dollars annually.  It is now well documented that passive
smoking is a serious health concern so the myth of individual freedom is
easily dispelled.  

Apart from the social costs there are many environmental costs.  Ignoring
the smoke released when the cigarette is burnt (and the litter produced by
discarded cigarette butts) consider the amount of smoke produced in the
drying process and the huge areas of productive agricultural land devoted to
a crop which has no nutritional value at all (with an increasing world
population and greater and greater demands on already limited resources how
long do you expect this type of decadence can continue).  

I know, I know!! Keep all this environmental crap for eco-diver.  

Carl has already gone into the affect of smoking on oxygen uptake all I can
add is that I was told some time ago that particulate matter from cigarettes
can cause localised inflamation of lung tissues blocking off areas of the
lung.  If this occurs under pressure and a diver ascends pulmonary
barotrauma can result.  Whether this is true or not I can't say (I know a
lot of experienced divers who smoke and they are still alive).  There was an
interesting article in a recent DAN mag about testing air/mixes which had an
insert about smoking and diving.  It pointed out the residual CO in the
smokers body following a cigarette immidiately prior to a dive resulted in
levels far in excess of acceptable standards applied to breathing gases.  In
addition there is the likelyhood that increased CO2 levels from cigarette
smoke and building up due to restricted gas exchange in the lungs could
increase the effects of nitrogen narcosis (not to mention the combined
affect of nicotine).  Surely anything that reduces the efficient transport
of gases through the body and through the lungs is a counter indicator to
diving.

Simon

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