Fucking great post, Nigel.

I am into nitrox, insofar as reducing nitrogen intake. I use it as a =
safety gas, using regular tables (albeit to the limit). But, since =
reading George's posts, it seems so obvious. Here we are replacing =
nitrogen with something even more insidious, oxygen. Not only are we =
increasing the percentage of oxygen, but also it's pp. We are =
imposing MODs on divers not keyed to thinking about MODS.

So, nitrox is bogus, what to do? I ran my thoughts by a couple of =
dive shops around here about using trimix in the fashion you describe =
in your post and they looked at me in horror. Man, these poors SOB's =
just got over the trauma of nitrox and now trimix? And some poor =
slobs have bought $100,000 membrane nitrox systems. "sputter sputter, =
tttrimix? Why you have to take the nitrox, deep nitrox, technical =
nitrox, deep air, technical deep air before you even get to the =
trimix course".

What will it take to get gas mixtures back on the right track? A =
fucking act of God because the marketing people are into nitrox and =
they will hold onto it like a pissed-off moray eel. This will be =
handled, like George predicts, like Tobacco. First a giant coverup =
then endless lawsuits.

Jezus Christ, I feel like an idiot. What to do? Well, anyone in =
Virginia Beach, VA want to go in on a helium cascade setup?

   Jim

On 6/4/97 10:08 AM Nigel Chase wrote:

>You Yanks really crack me up.  This nitrox business of yours is showing 
>up everywhere in the UK.  Dive charters are looking more like Labor 
>party rallies with all of these silly stickers and such pasted on tanks 
>and car bumpers.  The biggest acronym of them all, IANTD, just recently 
>staged a sizeable convention with all sorts of technical diving 
>luminaries present.  
>
>Looks to me like the big lie has sucked in all of the really big fish. 
>When the facts finally become known on this foolishness the scene will 
>be reminiscent of the Nuremberg trials with everyone pointing their 
>fingers at the next higher up while claiming complete innocence and 
>total ignorance.  When the dust settles this poor bloke Rutkowski, who 
>supposedly invented all of this stuff, will be the fall guy for the 
>cadre of  world experts.  I can just picture him now, all red faced and 
>sitting in the dock, with his solicitor purporting that it really was a 
>divine (but erroneous) inspiration and pleading for the courts mercy.
>
>I was in the chemist yesterday and I couldn=EDt help but notice that 
>almost one entire aisle of the store was devoted to antioxidant 
>vitamins. Let=EDs see: there were all sorts of vitamin Cs, vitamin Es, 
>vitamin A , B complexes, pynxogenol, mineral supplements and to top it 
>all off hormones like melatonin which spposedly has mega antioxidant 
>powers.  In fact the whole thrust of the anti cancer and anti aging 
>crusade seems to be oriented around the power of antioxidants in 
>preventing free radicals from damaging connective tissue and DNA.  Many 
>physicians now agree that colon cancer as well as arteriosclerosis  are 
>preventable through  a proper diet, high in antioxidants.
>
>When this as a backdrop why on earth would anyone in their right mind 
>voluntarily expose themselves to a ultra hyperoxic breathing mix unless 
>it was absolutely necessary. I would love one of you Yank diving rocket 
>scientists out there to tell me that oxygen is not an oxidizer if you 
>breath it (while you busily oxygen clean tanks and replace buna o-rings 
>with Viton). Instead of boosting the oxygen content of the breathing gas 
>I would lower it and replace it instead with an inert gas such as 
>helium. Nitrox I should really be 12 - 14% helium and 19% oxygen. Nitrox 
>II should be slightly higher helium and lower oxygen still.  I am not 
>advocating this for deep diving either (Deep diving for me is  another 
>whole subject).   This is strictly my suggestion for a physiologically 
>more healthy mix.  Helium is a very rapid diffusing gas and transits the 
>tissue rather quickly for low to moderate exposure dives.  Weigh the 
>advantages:  reduced ppo2, reduced ppn2 (bad for those red blood cells 
>and capillaries) and reduced deco (if you don=EDt have a pfo). 
>
>Helium is bloody expensive in the UK and Oz, but when you keep the mix 
>to 10 -14% on an 80cf tank you can get as many as 30 dives out of a 
>290-300cf cylinder of helium when you cascade several.  Even at $200 
>U.S. per cylinder this works out to 6 -  $10 additional cost per dive. 
>Big deal! Look what dive charters cost these days and with the weather 
>in the UK being typically bad all of the time, how many weekends of 
>diving do you actually get anyway.  We spend more on petrol driving to 
>the port of embarkation.
>
>On one final note.  I am new to this list but I have been following some 
>of the traffic on cavers and over on Compuserve.  This chap of yours, 
>Irving, who I believe is director of a project with a name like the call 
>letters of a radio station, seems to have this figured out way ahead of 
>the rest of you Yanks. I noticed, while following the thread on deep 
>air, that Irving dives shallow in the ocean with weak helium and reduced 
>oxygen mixes.      I also couldn=EDt help but notice that his group uses 
>very low ppo2 trimixes for their deep dives and is using reduced 
>nitrogen/o2 mixes for intermediate deco. Irving also said somewhere that 
>he only uses nitrox when it is absolutely necessary and not otherwise. 
>
>When the truth comes out on this nitrox business you are going to see a 
>lot of bumper stickers and dive shop front doors with the IEC verboten 
>symbol (red circle with a hash) over the nitrox.
>
>
>Cheers,
>
>Nigel Chase
>
>
>
>
>
>---------------------------------------------------------
>Get Your *Web-Based* Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
>---------------------------------------------------------
--
Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'.
Send list subscription requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.

Navigate by Author: [Previous] [Next] [Author Search Index]
Navigate by Subject: [Previous] [Next] [Subject Search Index]

[Send Reply] [Send Message with New Topic]

[Search Selection] [Mailing List Home] [Home]