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Path: utzoo!dciem!nrcaer!cognos!geovision!alastair
From: alastair@geovision.UUCP (Alastair Mayer)
Newsgroups: sci.bio,sci.physics
Subject: Re: Xenon/oxygen
Message-ID: <200@geovision.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 8-Oct-87 12:40:15 EDT
Article-I.D.: geovisio.200
Posted: Thu Oct  8 12:40:15 1987
Date-Received: Mon, 12-Oct-87 19:46:24 EDT
References: <18@krafla.UUCP>
Reply-To: alastair@geovision.UUCP (Alastair Mayer)
Organization: Geovision Corporation, Ottawa, Canada
Lines: 28
Xref: dciem sci.bio:632 sci.physics:2255

In article <18@krafla.UUCP> frisk@krafla.UUCP (Fridrik Skulason) writes:
>Can anyone tell me if a high-pressure mixture of xenon and oxygen would
>be breathable.

Well, yes and no.  I don't know that there are any lethal effects of
breathing xenon, but you'd lose conciousness pretty fast breathing it
at any significant partial pressure.  It has a narcotic effect much
as nitrogen does at pp's above 70psi or so.  Since xenon molecular
weight is higher than nitrogen, xenon narcosis occurs at much lower
pressures (don't recall exact figure - 4 or 5psi partial pressure?)
  Most 'inert' gases exhibit this same phenomenon.  One exception is
helium, which at high pressures (several hundred psi - equivalent
to something between 1000-2000 feet sea water) causes High Pressure
Nervous Syndrome (HPNS) - nervous tremor, etc.  In some experimental
diving the narcotic effects of N2 have been used to 'balance' the
HPNS effect of helium (a breathing mix known as trimix, the third
component of course being 02).  However, it is not an antidote, just
pitting two sets of symptoms against each other.  Conceivably, you
could mix He in with your Xe-O2 mix to counter the narcotic effect
of Xe, but the mixture/pressure ratios you'd need would probably not
be denser than water -- sorry, no floating.
   Oh, and watch the O2 partial pressure level - O2 is highly toxic at
partial pressures above 30psi or so, even less in some cases.
-- 
 Alastair JW Mayer     BIX: al
                      UUCP: ...!utzoo!dciem!nrcaer!cognos!geovision!alastair

 "What we really need is a good 5-cent/gram launch vehicle."