That was not my intention. You suggested that PADI was wrong in suggesting that hypoxia can result in narcosis like symptoms. You are wrong and I have proof.
Please support your contention. How "far behind"? What oxygen saturation should we be looking for? Let's see what NOAA says about PPO2 levels in atm, shall we? This is the list from NOAA's Diving manual, Chapter Three: Diving Physiology of what to expect with various oxygen levels. Only I reversed it and colorized it. Orange is not good and Red will not support life and is dangerous.
- 3.00 50/50 nitrox recompression treatment gas for use in the chamber at six ata
- 2.80 100% O2 recompression treatment gas at 2.8 ata (60 fsw)
- 2.40 60% N2/40% O2 nitrox recompression treatment gas at six ata (165 fsw)
- 2.20 Commercial/military “Sur-D” chamber surface decompression, 100% O2 at 40 fsw pressure
- 1.60 NOAA limit for maximum exposure for a working diver
- 0.50 Threshold for whole-body effects; maximum saturation dive exposure
- 0.35-0.40 Normal saturation dive PO2 level
- 0.21 Normal environment oxygen (sea level air)
- 0.14-0.16 Initial signs/symptoms of hypoxia
- 0.09-0.10 Serious signs/symptoms of hypoxia
- <0.08-0.10 Unconsciousness in most people
- <0.08 Coma to ultimate death
So, according to NOAA, the symptoms start at 1.6 atm, .5 atms below normal, and unconsciousness sets in .6 atms lower than that. You can further read this:
Again, some of those symptoms certainly remind me of the symptoms of narcosis, so I can see why PADI would print that. Who knew they would agree with NOAA and me. Must be some sort of conspiracy, I'll tell ya!
Caveat: though I used the figures from NOAA's manual, I thought reversing them from High to Low and then color coding them only made sense to me and might also make more sense to subsequent readers.
