Dangerous lies?

[boulderjohn]

"My air consumption is lower because I smoke" -- from an Indonesian DM. They commonly believe it, apparently.

- Bill

It's been a while, but we have threads on ScubaBoard in which people insist it is true. There was a thread a couple of years ago about a team of pubic safety divers. Normally non-smokers, they smoked up a storm when they were diving on the theory that it made their air consumption better. That is lunacy. There is no physiological reason why it would be true, and there is a strong physiological reason why it would NOT be true.

 

[nolatom]

Back in the 1920s, riders in the Tour de France believed smoking "opened up their lungs and airways" or some such.

But don't take just my word for it:
Jean-Michel Condette

Sometimes it seems everything old is new again. Or do I have that backwards? ;-)

 

[kelemvor]

"Free Parts For Life".

Well, I guess it wasn't a dangerous lie, just a regular one.

 

[kelemvor]

First, understand that we don't have lots of experience, so no judgements please. So we are doing 4 days of diving next week. I bought a Nitrox package that covers all the dives. But I noticed that one of the dives is 130 fsw - a wreck. The MOD of Nitrox 32 according to my computer is 110. So, I am thinking that we will opt for air during this dive. Does this make sense? It seems like a no-brainer but looking to my more experienced forum members to confirm.

Ask them to blend you some 28% and stay with 1.4 (mod 132) or dive 1.6@32% (mod 132) or just get them to top up a used 32% tank with air and analyze it to see what you've got.

Or dive air, but IMO that would be the least desirable scenario.

 

[boulderjohn]

Back in the 1920s, riders in the Tour de France believed smoking "opened up their lungs and airways" or some such.

But don't take just my word for it:
Jean-Michel Condette

Sometimes it seems everything old is new again. Or do I have that backwards? ;-)

In the 1930s, my grandmother's doctor recommended she take up smoking to calm her nerves.

 

[Lead_carrier]

There used to be a dive shop in Charlotte that would spout more lies than a tree has branches. It started with the $60 dive class but you had to buy your equipment from him. Usually ran about 600 for basics. You had to buy a prescription mask if your drivers license had a glasses restriction, he had written up a letter to prove it. He was the only shop around that could certify you to go below 60' as an open water diver. No regulator was nitrox clean unless he had cleaned and serviced it himself. It was fun to go in and see what he would come up with next, until he caught on to what I was doing and ran me off.

 

[KeithG]

In the 1930s, my grandmother's doctor recommended she take up smoking to calm her nerves.

Smoking what?

 

[kelemvor]

In the 1930s, my grandmother's doctor recommended she take up smoking to calm her nerves.

In 2017, some doctors recommend it for the same reasons. Although I suspect the material being smoked isn't the same.

 

[billt4sf]

It's been a while, but we have threads on ScubaBoard in which people insist it is true. There was a thread a couple of years ago about a team of pubic safety divers. Normally non-smokers, they smoked up a storm when they were diving on the theory that it made their air consumption better. That is lunacy. There is no physiological reason why it would be true, and there is a strong physiological reason why it would NOT be true.

The only way I could imagine it might be true, is if repetitive smoking slowed one's circulation enough so that you actually used less oxygen overall. But that's a reach, and I have no evidence.

Not a good outcome, regardless of the reason.

- Bill

 

[dmaziuk]

In the 1930s, my grandmother's doctor recommended she take up smoking to calm her nerves.

That one's actually true: nicotine can suppress the nervous system and "calm the nerves". Also help "clear the passages" during allergy attack (this one's from personal experience). It's also a very weird one as its effect is dose-dependent: in the dose that raises dopamine levels it acts as an upper instead of downer.

Of course, now that we know more about the side-effects, and people live long enough to die of lung cancer, the take on nicotine is very different.