Adding a Little Sanity to Diving

 Even at the recreational diver level, diving over 60fsw (18msw) requires attention to narcosis and carbon dioxide retention. Now that all of the larger training agencies in the world are recognizing extended range diving (diving below 130fsw/40msw) there has been a greater interest in the use of helium in a standard diving mix. Heliox/trimix are no longer gases that have been reserved for the 200fsw/60msw and deeper range. Many divers are now incorporating a breathing medium known as ’Normoxic (normal oxygen) Trimix’ for diving ranges between 100fsw/30msw to 200fsw/60msw. Normoxic Trimix applications are simple to employ, safer than air and increases the diver’s ability to really enjoy a dive.

This is an updated reprint from a column I published in Diver Magazine 1997. Despite how long mixed gases and specifically 'normoxic trimix' has been around, many divers still do not take advantage of the benefits notwithstanding the increasing costs of helium. Ironically this message is still very relevant today.

Trimix is comprised of three (tri) gases; nitrogen, oxygen and either helium, neon or hydrogen. The third gas is nearly always helium as neon is expensive and hydrogen somewhat unstable. ‘Normoxic Trimix’ is a breathing mix with no less then 21% oxygen (non-hypoxic) and no more than 25-30% helium. One of the great things about a non-hypoxic helium mix is that it can be breathed right from the surface eliminating the need for a second stage bottle. In fact, an ideal normoxic trimix dive to 150fsw/45msw will actually have an EAN25 {25% oxygen) incorporated into it accelerating the off-gassing process. For dives below 200fsw/60msw a portion of the oxygen is replaced by helium to eliminate hyperoxia at depth however, cannot be breathed at the surface.

Helium has been used in diving applications for a very long time. Elihu Thomson first suggested that helium could be used as a medium that could augment oxygen and nitrogen in a breathing mix. Only small quantities were available and very costly. It was not until the early 1900's that the United States actually discovered vast quantities of helium in Texas giving them an 'exclusive dealership' and bringing the cost of the gas to within a reasonable rate. By 1924 heliox mixtures were being researched by the US Navy and the Royal Navy but quickly abandoned after a high number of DCI incidents occurred. In the 1930's civilian exploration of the gas picked up starting with the Heliox decompression tables designed by Edgar End and used by Max Nohl during his record setting dives. Very quickly deep dives and saturation expeditions began employing helium as a standard mix in various types of diving apparatus.

During World War II the United States Department of Defense banned the exportation of helium fearing that Germans may use it in their dirigibles. Soon after helium became a demand unmet by the supply. This slowed the research and application of mixed gases for some time. Research resumed again after a number of naval disasters prompted rescue efforts in deep waters. Hannes Keller, a Swiss mathematician along with a physicist named Buhlmann generated a set of dive tables to a 1000fsw/300msw using helium. The record setting dive made by Hass proved the validity of his tables and helium use. By 1970 Tom Mount at the University of Miami began a series of dive operations using helium and trimix mixtures and over a six-year period recorded an outstanding safe and successful performance record based on hundreds of deep dives conducted by a large team of students and faculty.

Today gas costs for helium have increased significantly making deep dives on rich mixes in open-circuit cost prohibitive for most technical divers. However, with the increasing popularity of Rebreathers helium gas fills are still quite affordable and the benefits are outstanding.

Helium is a very light gas and not very dense. Due to its physical and chemical structuring it has very little narcotic effect on the body making it ideal for deeper diving. By augmenting helium into our breathing mix, we are able to reduce both the fraction of oxygen and the fraction of nitrogen thereby reducing a diver's susceptibility to hyperoxia, hypercapnia (CO2 retention) and nitrogen narcosis.

Helium can also be considered a fast gas or gas that likes to enter our tissues before any other gas. Like nitrogen it is inert (our bodies cannot metabolize it) and is stored in our tissues when under pressure. The fact that it enters and leaves at different rates then nitrogen means that traditional off-gassing times as calculated through the use of dive tables and air computers no longer apply. (Although Normoxic Trimix tables are very close to regular air tables). Mixed gas dive tables take into account this phenomenon but rely on divers following a profile even more precise then that of air - especially since the nature of helium off-gassing requires deeper and more frequent stops. At the beginning of the millennia dive computers started offering the ability to provide decompression tracking using trimix which has massively contributed to safer and easier mix gas dive planning.

A normoxic trimix at the surface begins to become hyperoxic at depths below 218fsw (72 meters) so trimix for dives deeper than 180-200fsw (60-66 meters) will need to have an oxygen content of less than 20-22%. It is recommended that for technical dives bottom mixes not exceed PO2's of more than 1.5ATA for open circuit divers while closed circuit rebreather divers maintain a set point of no more than 1.4ATA.

Helium also provides a buffer against the nitrogen reducing the narcotic potential of a breathing mix. Air typically has 79% nitrogen but if a mix is prepared so that the nitrogen content is reduced, say by half (40% nitrogen) then that particular mix has only half the narcotic potential. A diver on a trimix with 40% nitrogen in their mix (a 18/42 trimix) will experience approximately the same level of narcosis as a diver on air at half of his depth (all things being equal). Quite often divers mistakenly contribute the narcotic effect of their air mix on the nitrogen however, there is much evidence to suggest the density of oxygen combined with CO2 retention (poor breathing techniques) equally contribute to shallow water narcosis (90-130fsw or 30-40msw).

As mentioned earlier, helium has very different on-gassing and off-gassing rates than nitrogen. This characteristic off-sets traditional air and nitrox tables and adds to the complexity of decompression profiles. The amount of helium in a mix and the depth it is being breathed will affect this rate.

Today thousands of divers around the world are venturing safely into new domains using normoxic trimix and trimix gases. It is proving that without a doubt mixed gas operations can provide a means to dive deeper, longer and with a higher functioning mind.

~ Safe Diving