Drunk Divers: The effects of nitrogen narcosis

A group of divers from the Fraser Valley Scuba Club near Vancouver Canada had arranged with a local university to experience the effects of nitrogen narcosis in the decompression chamber. Nitrogen narcosisis is a reversible alteration in consciousness that occurs while diving at depth. It is caused by the anesthetic effect of certain gases at high pressure. Narcosis produces a state similar to drunkenness (alcohol intoxication), or nitrous oxide inhalation. It can occur during shallow dives, but does not usually become noticeable at depths less than 30 meters (100 ft). When the group arrived at the chamber location, they were given a briefing of how everything would play out and what to expect. With very rigid rules of what was allowed inside the chamber, everyone was required to don scrubs. The first group to go, was the one in this video. All friends and one father and daughter. Upon the descent, created by compressing the air inside the chamber, ear protection was required because of the loud hissing of compression. With the compression of the air, the temperature inside increased to around 90 ' f, quite warm. As the depth approached 100 feet, the narcosis was becoming noticeable in some of the divers, giggling was a sure sign. One of the women did have some issues equalizing her ears, but toughed it out and made it through. At the maximum depth reached of 150 feet, everyone's voices were as if they had inhaled helium, very squeaky, which was quite funny. Apparently caused by the pressure on the vocal cords along with sound waves being altered from the internal pressures of the chamber. Upon ascent, the inverse occurred, air expands causing fog, and the temperatures dropped to around 50 degrees f. After the experience, everyone talked about what they felt during the narcosis time, some laughed and some felt somewhat normal. A great experience to realize how you feel when "narc'd" so as a diver you can work through the feeling if you needed to deal with an emergency while at depth.