Physiological Effects of Work in Compressed Air

Abstract

THE average man always finds it surprising that our bodies can support such atmospheric pressures as 100 lb. per sq. in. without the slightest derangement of the delicate structures and processes on which life depends, but that, owing to a secondary effect, the return to normal pressure is accompanied by grave risk. A sojourner in compressed air inevitably soaks up a considerable volume of the nitrogen of the air into simple solution in the tissues and fluids of his body. So long as the pressure is maintained this gas remains hidden and harmless, but any reduction of pressure will drive it out of solution. The critical time in the management of compressed air workers is the period of decompression when they are passing from high air pressures down to the normal. Given time, the blood will carry off the excess gas and discharge it to the atmosphere in the lungs as the pressure falls, but a rapid decompression overloads the blood with excess gas, which bursts out in the form of bubbles and chokes the circulation with froth.