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Mixtures of Helium and Oxygen are used as breathing gases for deep sea divers and are supported by our Aberdeen production plant.
Diving gases consisting of Nitrogen/Oxygen mixtures, called Nitrox and air are predominantly used for diving at depths of up to 50 metres.
Helium/Oxygen mixtures, called Heliox, are generally used at depths over 50 metres because the Helium gas allows greater depths of dive and thus avoids the effects of Nitrogen Narcosis.
The advantage of Helium over Nitrogen in these mixtures is that it is absorbed and released by human tissue faster than Nitrogen, making sustained dives possible with shorter decompression times. Helium does not react with any of the body's chemical functions and is virtually impossible for it to dissolve in the blood, even at pressure.
Helium breathing mixtures enable divers to work at greater depths for vital repair and construction work associated with the offshore oil industry.
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