Decompression needed for Chilean miners...?

[lamont]

The doctor on Fox News just speculated about the risk of the bends due to 'getting more CO2 in your blood' as the miners come up from the depths. He said they've been talking about that aspect all evening... so by now he's got the analysis pretty well nailed.

That doesn't seem right at all.

Anyone inhaling enough CO2 at those depths to cause a tissue oversaturation on surfacing (ppCO2 > 1.0 ata) would be dead. CO2 also isn't inert and binds to hemoglobin.

 

[bleeb]

We know that the news media does not know much about anything generally, and doesn't have time to check facts, but this story claims a risk: Ascent could bring bends, 'chokes' to miners – The Chart - CNN.com Blogs

In DD's original post, although we've all agreed that the body of the article doesn't make much sense in talking about bubble formation from decompression, I was thinking the title of the article might actually be more relevant: the possibility of the 'chokes' i.e. respiratory problems triggered by decompression, such as coughing, chest pains, shortness of breath, etc. I'm no medical type, but aren't these sometimes also classified as a form of DCS? IIRC some people do occasionally get this in airplanes climbing to altitude, especially with predisposing factors like emphysema. Seems like spending months in a hot dirty dusty humid environment might also increase the odds of lung problems. Any experts out there willing to expand on this a bit, and maybe also explain how the pressure change actually triggers the specific symptoms?