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Chemistry Applications Essay Mr. Ceccerelli Honors Chemistry 4 January 2013

Blood Gasses and Deep Sea Diving Normally, at sea level on the lovely planet we call home, the air pressure around us it constant. Lucky for us, the solubility of air in the human blood stream is also constant. This allows air gasses like nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, and helium to be inhaled through respiration and easily dissolved in our blood without problem. Chemically, it has been discovered that as pressure increases so does the solubility of gasses in a solvent. For example, during deep sea diving, the human body is under high pressure from all the water above it, and therefore, the solubility of gasses in the blood stream increases. In combination with the inhalation of gasses that are under high pressure from an air tank, the end result is very simple, a lot of pressure buildup. Normally, when a diver ascends from the deep very slowly, the body and gasses can adjust to the pressure change, and slowly and safely release the withheld energy through the exhalation of gasses. On the other hand, when a diver floats up to the surface quickly, the body undergoes pressure change very quickly, which can sometimes cause nitrogen to come out of the blood as a gas and form bubbles in tissues or bloodstream. This is called decompression sickness, or the bends. As stated by Dr. E.D. Thalmann on diversalertnetwork.org, “ When high levels of bubbles occur, complex reactions can take place in the body, usually in the spinal cord or brain.” Chemically, during a dive, tissues absorb nitrogen from the air you breathe (found in the tank) equally proportional to the ambient pressure around you. When the ambient pressure changes rapidly, the solubility of nitrogen reduces drastically; this allows the gas to easily dissolve in our blood. Then when the pressure on the gas decreases, similar to when a bottle of soda is opened, nitrogen is released in the form of bubbles that accumulate in human tissues and blood stream and cause agonizing pain. Nitrogen is the only gas that accumulates in the blood during the bends because it is the gas with the highest partial pressure and can only removed through respiration, as opposed to oxygen that is consumed by cells during metabolism and the creation of ATP. By replacing nitrogen gas with helium gas in a diver’s air tank, chemists have found that it is possible to prevent cases of the bends. This is due to the constantly low solubility of helium, even under high pressure, that prevents bubbles from forming in the bloodstream and tissues after pressure change. Obviously, this pertinent chemical change in any diver’s tank has drastically changed the risk factor involved in deep diving, and has saved countless lives in the process. This single advancement is a great example of how chemistry can be applied to life. WORK CITED Brown, Theodore L. and H. Eugene LeMay, Jr. and Bruce E. Bursten and Catherine J. Murphy and Patrick Woodward. //Chemistry the Central Science//. London: Pearson Education, 2009. Print. Dr. Thalman, Ed. “Decompression Illness: What Is It and What Is The Treatment?”. //DAN: Diver’s Alert Network.// Diver’s Alert Network, March 2004. Web. 2 January 2013.