I was watching hamilton’s pharmacopeia and he was inhaling xenon and seemed to think it was pretty safe. As a layman, my intuition tells me inhaling anything besides oxygen is not safe. Why can you breath pure gases other than oxygen and be fine?
In: Biology
Every unit of volume of air in your lungs is 20% oxygen and ~79% an inert form of nitrogen. Replace the nitrogen by any other inert gas and nothing bad happens. Multiply the density of air at the altitud you live and the volume of your lungs and you obtain that you have a couple of grams of oxygen in your lungs at all times. As long as you have that amount of oxygen in your lungs, you’re fine no matter what inert gas is mixed with it, but after O2 goes into your blood and gets replaced by CO2, you need to inhale air again to replace it. Too much of any gas in your lungs and you get asfixia because there will be no room for O2.
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