As a smoker and full time dive professional:
Problems associated with smoking that *may* have some impact on diving
- increased CO (carbon monoxide) buildup: increased partial pressures at depth affects the way a gas behaves in our body. Unconsciousness leading to fatalities associated with CO poisoning on the surface requires a smaller percentage of inhaled gas to cause the same response at depth. This is why "bad air" in a tank is responsible for several deaths over the years.
- increased CO
2 (carbon dioxide) buildup: smoking produces other gases as a by-product (including Hydrogen Cyanide), so technically, CO
2 elimination is not as efficient due to extra being put in, and impaired lung function.
- mucus build up: Same as a chest cold, mucus in the lungs may cause a blockage that could lead to lung over-expansion injury
- surfactant removal: heavy smoking damages the surfactant that lines your lungs to prevent them sticking together during exhalation, and blockages due to stuck-together-lungs may lead to an overexpansion injury
- smoking raises your blood pressure, affects your heart rate, and alters the properties of your circulatory system. This is why smokers over 45 are required to get a dive medical prior to training.
- smoking impairs your overall fitness, so therefore diving in an environment in which you are required to work hard may mean you get more fatigued and breathless more easily. Hard work and heavy breathing lead to a CO
2 buildup which can cause panic or, eventually, blackout.
- probably some other things as well.
However - in my own personal experience, I know of no accidents or fatalities that have been directly attributable to smoking. All other factors being equal, smoking has very little impact on air consumption. This is down to technique, correct weighting and practice. Actually one of the worst air consumptions I ever experienced was from a non smoking tee total Olympic trained athlete...! As I have mentioned in previous threads, personal fitness and "fitness to dive" are not always the same thing. For example - a diver who dives on a regular basis but who smokes will probably have a better "fitness to dive" than a health-fanatic would if they dive only a few days in the year on holiday.
I'm not pro-or-con smoking, apart from the argument that governments use it to drag lots of money out of addicted people! I smoke, it doesn't really bother me that I do; I try to be respectful of non-smokers, but the reverse is rarely true. I've heard people on this forum say stuff that amounts to: "if your instructor smokes, look for another instructor". Well, I personally find it distasteful when people break wind in company, should I look for another instructor if I hear mine farting? Cos I DO NOT wish to inhale that, thank you very much!
Congratulations on giving up smoking. I know how hard it is, because I've done it, and I also know how easy it is to fall off the wagon. I do not dispute the significant health benefits of not smoking, but I also believe that for recreational diving, if you are in otherwise good general health, smoking or not has little overall impact on your ability to dive and certainly not your air consumption.
An odd thing - even for me - is the percentage of instructors/guides etc. who smoke. In the various centres for which I've worked, diving staff who smoke far outweigh those that don't. It crops up in conversation a lot, rather inevitably, and we've chalked it up to some sort of obsessive, compulsive, addictive, rebellious, underwater personality disorder, rather than anything else. :crazyeye:
Live and Let Dive,
C.