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  What is the minimum safe ppO2 in mixture breathing? It seems to be spoken of
as 0.2 bar, like ordinary air; but the natives of the Altiplano (high plateau)
of Peru and Bolivia live in the open 10000 or more feet above sea level and
thus live routinely on 0.5 bar of air, i.e. on 0.1 bar ppO2 (although not
experiencing the extre energy drain caused by scuba diving).
  I saw a TV program once where the Calypso docked at Lima in Peru and some of
its crew went (in their wetsuits in inflatables on open railway wagons!) by
train over the Andes to the Altiplano and dived in Lake Titicaca. They said
that on the surface they did everything in slow motion because of the thin
air, but at 15 feet depth they were back to normal because the pressure at
that depth was 1 bar like sealevel surface.

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