In the latest edition of Aquacorps (`Hard'), it said that the oxygen supply in the Newtsuit is controlled by an aqualung regulator with the "water" side of its diaphragm shut up in a sealed compartment which is set to about 1 bar pressure, so that as the diver uses up oxygen (and turns it into water vapour and CO2 which effectively take up no volume because the absorbent absorbs it all as it is formed), total gas pressure and thus the ppO2 is kept constant. But what if some other gas than oxygen gets added to the system, and the absorber can't absorb it? I am sorry to be scatological, but some foods <do> make a lot of gas get generated in the intestines, and even if this gas stays inside the diver it is still inside the suit and distends his body and forms part of the total gas pressure inside the suit. Then, if the diver starts with 20% ppO2, he ends up with 20% pp(O2 + methane etc) but not necessarily 20% ppO2. As with previous discussions about outgassed nitrogen/etc adding up to an appreciable amount in a rebreather circuit, I suspect that gas added to the system in this way in a closely-fitting hard suit <can> displace an important proportion of the allowed 20% of a bar ppO2 inside the suit. Ditto anything else biological or artificial that expands inside the suit.
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