Paul et al.,

>Bill, thank you for an informative and intelligent discussion.  I wish 
>there was more of it on this list.

The information is there, and is usually dispensed when asked.  I respond 
to many email's that come in privately and go out the same way.  There are 
reasons for everything and if one does not know the entire story or see the 
entire picture it will not be clear, but enough of that.

>Your argument makes a lot of sense, it would be nice to see how this 
>additional advantage (blood plasma transport of O2) offsets the 
>disadvantage of the air breaks.  While all the theories are just that, I 
>feel a little uncomfortable with the idea of using O2 for a shorter time 
>than specified by the algorithms due to O2 breaks.

I will be very short for now, I have too much to do.  Once you come off of 
O2 your tissues/blood levels will still be higher than normal for some 
time.  You continue to reap benefits of decoing on O2 after you have come 
off of it.  Just because you stop and switch to a break gas, which 
subsequently should have the lowest O2 possible, and thereby have the 
highest He, for that depth.  This drops the PO2 and reduces the CNS load, 
both necessary steps.  Decompression is a function of time/depth/gas, not 
just one factor.  Since you are still offgassing N2 at an accelerated rate, 
from the O2, it is not necessary to stop the decompression timer until you 
go back on O2.  It all works together, gas, time, depth, physiology, to 
decompress correctly.  95% of people doing deco are doing more than 
necessary and thereby increasing the tissue/cellular damage that can come 
from it.  But, that is their choice and they do not have to follow anything 
unless they choose.

>   Afer all, those algorithms are what we have to use,

Algorithms are just one tool in an arsenal that can be used.  Do not 
blindly follow what you read or hear from any source, examine, investigate, 
experiment, question, but most importantly learn from your work and from 
others that have gone before you.

>I'm not going to blatantly disregard them.

Nor would I ask you to.  You can dive on Argon and decompress on beer, but 
you can still arm yourself with more knowledge and approach it better prepared.

>Ideally, the algorithms would take into account the blood plasma O2 effect.

In an ideal world there would be no hunger, disease, and enough Irish 
redheads to go around, but . . .

I hope I was able to shed some light.
Scott Hunsucker

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