If this blew your mind, I’ve got something else for you. Nitrogen, which makes up nearly 80% of the air we breath, is also toxic and causes alcohol-like drunk impairment effects at high enough concentration. We can’t experience this at atmospheric pressures but scuba divers need to account for this when diving. Higher pressures in the ocean means higher gas concentrations in your blood. If a diver is using regular air, by the time they get to 100ft they will be at the limit of what is considered a safe amount of “drunkeness” for diving. By the time you hit 200ft, you’ll have a lethal amount of nitrogen in your blood. Deeper diving requires replacing nitrogen in your air supply with something like helium that does not cause mental impairment or toxicity at that concentration.
If this blew your mind, I’ve got something else for you. Nitrogen, which makes up nearly 80% of the air we breath, is also toxic and causes alcohol-like drunk impairment effects at high enough concentration. We can’t experience this at atmospheric pressures but scuba divers need to account for this when diving. Higher pressures in the ocean means higher gas concentrations in your blood. If a diver is using regular air, by the time they get to 100ft they will be at the limit of what is considered a safe amount of “drunkeness” for diving. By the time you hit 200ft, you’ll have a lethal amount of nitrogen in your blood. Deeper diving requires replacing nitrogen in your air supply with something like helium that does not cause mental impairment or toxicity at that concentration.