Flatulation, can it occur with scuba?

[fisherdvm]

If it is endogenous gas (like from lactose intolerance or bean burritos), I am guessing that it is difficult, if not impossible to generate enough gas to exceed the 2 or 3 atm most scubadivers are exposed to.

However, if it is exogenous gas, like from your scuba tank, it could be very dangerous. Which my guess, likely does not occur.

Have anyone ever flatulated underwater (no not in the bath tub!!). If so, at what depth??

 

[Meng_Tze]

If it is endogenous gas (like from lactose intolerance or bean burritos), I am guessing that it is difficult, if not possible to generate enough gas to exceed the 2 or 3 atm most scubadivers are exposed to.

However, if it is exogenous gas, like from your scuba tank, it could be very dangerous. Which my guess, likely does not occur.

Have anyone ever flatulated underwater (no not in the bath tub!!). If so, at what depth??

Why not call a spade a spade..... 'Have you farted while diving'?

Yes. In both wet and dry suits. I lifted my arm and purged.... thought I caught a whiff of a burrito in a dark deep cave....

Maybe it was my buddy..

 

[Divedoggie]

Why not call a spade a spade..... 'Have you farted while diving'?

Yes. In both wet and dry suits. I lifted my arm and purged.... thought I caught a whiff of a burrito in a dark deep cave....

Maybe it was my buddy..

Awesome!

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

If it is endogenous gas (like from lactose intolerance or bean burritos), I am guessing that it is difficult, if not possible to generate enough gas to exceed the 2 or 3 atm most scubadivers are exposed to.

However, if it is exogenous gas, like from your scuba tank, it could be very dangerous. Which my guess, likely does not occur.

Have anyone ever flatulated underwater (no not in the bath tub!!). If so, at what depth??

Oh hell yes ... and I can tell ya it's way more of an issue in a drysuit ... :icon10:

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[HowardE]

Oh hell yes ... and I can tell ya it's way more of an issue in a drysuit ... :icon10:

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

especially if you have to have a buddy unzip you

 

[fisherdvm]

Why would it be an issue in a drysuit?? Is it because the gas in your colon is more pressurized than the gas in the drysuit, causing an increase in buoyancy??

 

[HowardE]

more because it lingers in the drysuit

 

[ClayJar]

If it is endogenous gas (like from lactose intolerance or bean burritos), I am guessing that it is difficult, if not possible to generate enough gas to exceed the 2 or 3 atm most scubadivers are exposed to.

Ah, but your guess is mistaken.

Unless you're in a sealed, rigid pressure vessel, your insides are at the same pressure as your outsides (with a little rounding error for skin tension... at least until you're old and decrepit ). Any gases evolved during digestion will be at whatever ambient pressure you're exposed to. Of course, the volumetric quantity of gas produced for a given molar quantity of chemistry will be reduced, as it will be compressed just as any gas would be.

If you have a highly gas-producing meal right before dropping down on a deep dive, and you remain deep long enough for all the gas to be produced, when you begin your ascent, you may actually be able to feel yourself offgassing (in a manner of speaking) as the evolved gases expand with the reduction in ambient pressure. (Of course, the same goes for any gases in your stomach, which is why you tend to need to burp a lot of gas to stop from going all projectilian if you've been swallowing air on the deep side of the dive.)

Of course, when considering "lactose intolerance" with respect to diving, I do not believe it is the gas producing aspects that are of utmost importance. Rather, it is the tendency that you may end up seriously considering... what was that again?... the battlemallet procedure?

 

[Soggy]

Why would it be an issue in a drysuit?? Is it because the gas in your colon is more pressurized than the gas in the drysuit, causing an increase in buoyancy??

No, it's because it will smell when you take the suit off.

Yes, you can fart underwater. No, you will not get an colonic embolism.

 

[Mark Vlahos]

Why would it be an issue in a drysuit?? Is it because the gas in your colon is more pressurized than the gas in the drysuit, causing an increase in buoyancy??

In a wet suit the gas just exits in to the water column and up up and away. In a dry suit it is trapped in the suit until it either exits out the vent of the suit as you ascend, or when you un zip. If it is still trapped in the suit when you un zip on the boat... well I'm sure you get the picture.

Mark Vlahos