<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size="2">Nitrogen on the other hand has a tripple covalent bond and as such is pretty musch inert, so it doesn't react with blood, but it does dissolve in it - a big difference.
When Carbon Dioxide dissolves in Coke, and you open the bottle (i.e. reduce the pressure) you get bubbles of COČ coming out of solution, in the same way when you reduce the pressure in blood, you get bubbles of NČ coming out of solution</font>
Nitrogen dissolves also in tissues with a high fat content and this includes nerves. When suddenly released by decompression the gas forms bubbles as in the Coke analogy. Brains and spinal cords don't go better with any sort of bubbles disrupting them and paralysis or seizures are the result.
The gas comes out of solution in the tissues of the lungs producing shortness of breath. Bubbles in the joints and bone marrow produce intense pain.
Partial pressures can be estimated from gas laws. Assume sea level pressure is 760 mm Hg this would give a pN2 of approx 600 mm Hg and pO2 of 160 mm Hg in air at sea level.
Does this help?
The British Medical Journal publish a useful little booklet on Aviation Medicine which goes into a lot more detail.
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[This message has been edited by Code Blue (edited 24 May 2001).]