Problem 4 Physiology of Deep Sea Diving When human beings descend beneath the se

Question

Problem 4 Physiology of Deep Sea Diving

When human beings descend beneath the sea, the pressure around them increases tremendously. For every 33 feet of descent the pressure increase 1 atmosphere!

a) Follow nitrogen gas from atmosphere to lungs.

b) What is the partial pressure of nitrogen at sea level?

c) Why is nitrogen normally not absorbed by your body in great

quantities?

d) What happens if a diver spends several hours at 100 feet below sea level?

Explain in terms of gas laws and physiology.

e) What happens if the diver rapidly returns to sea level?

Explanation / Answer

b. The partial pressure of the nitrogen at sea level is 0.79 Atm (79% in the air, so 0.79 x 1 atm).

c. Nitrogen is not needed by our as most of the nitrogen in the body is supplied by the breakdown of proteins and rest of it is converted to urea and excreted. The high amounts of nitrogen in the body are toxic and causes nerve disorders as it affects the central nervous system. This is common in the divers and is called as nitrogen narcosis.

d. The safe levels of oxygen partial pressure for the human body vary from 0.5 atm to 1.5 atm. If the 0.5 atm partial pressure is maintained for longer periods will lead to the pulmonary or oxygen toxicity.

e. Boyle's law states that the volume of the mass of a given gas is inversely proportional to the absolute pressure. As the diver comes out of the water from the 99 feet below the water the absolute pressure decreases but the bubbles of the compressed air inhaled expands. This damages the tissues of the lungs due to the rapid expansion of bubbles of air to around 4 times the original volume. This expansion of the air also causes severe damage to ear cochlea and several other parts of the body.

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