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Decompression Dilemma "The danger does not lie in entering the shaft containing compressed air; nor in remaining there a longer or shorter time; decompression alone is dangerous: pay only when leaving." (Paul Bert's translated quote from Pol and Watelle, 19th Century) The general principle of decompression sickness (DCS) is fairly well understood: nitrogen bubbles form in the body tissues of divers breathing compressed air who move too quickly from high pressure (deep water) to a lower pressure (shallow water). These bubbles can cause great pain in the bones and joints, and too many bubbles in the lungs, brain and spinal cord can even lead to death. In order to prevent DCS, divers need to limit their time at depth. They also need to return to the surface slowly enough to allow their bodies to decompress at a rate that allows elimination of the problem-causing nitrogen without forming too many bubbles. Decompression tables and dive computers tell divers how long they can stay at depths and at what rate they should return to the surface to avoid problems. However, these tables and computer algorithms are based mostly on test trials of fairly straightforward dives, where a diver descends to a particular depth and stays there for a particular period of time before surfacing. |
