DAN Divers Alert Network : OXTOX: If You Dive Nitrox You Should Know About OXTOX

Diving Medicine Articles

OXTOX: If You Dive Nitrox You Should Know About OXTOX

DAN discusses the dangers of oxygen toxicity when using nitrox as a breathing gas

By Dr. E.D. Thalmann, DAN Assistant Medical Director; Captain, Medical Corps, U.S. Navy (retired)

It’s a fact: we need oxygen to live. It’s because of the way our cells use oxygen that we are able to breathe, exercise, and even think. In each of our cells, structures called mitochondria take the oxygen which diffuses in from our blood, disassemble it into its two component atoms (remember, oxygen – O2 – is composed of two oxygen atoms), and then hook some available hydrogen nuclei to them to form water.

via DAN Divers Alert Network : OXTOX: If You Dive Nitrox You Should Know About OXTOX.