We breathe air that is 21 percent oxygen, and we require oxygen to live. So you might think that breathing 100 percent oxygen would be good for us -- but actually it can be harmful. So, the short answer is, pure oxygen is generally bad, and sometimes toxic. To understand why, you need to go into some detail …
Your lungs are basically a long series of tubes that branch out from your nose and mouth (from trachea to bronchi to bronchioles) and end in little thin-walled air sacs called alveoli. Think of soap bubbles on the end of a straw, and you'll understand alveoli. Surrounding each alveolus are small, thin-walled blood vessels, called pulmonary capillaries. Between the capillaries and the alveolus is a thin wall (about 0.5 microns thick) through which various gases (oxygen, carbon dioxide, and nitrogen) pass.
When you inhale, the alveoli fill with this air. Because the oxygen concentration is high in the alveoli and low in the blood entering the pulmonary capillaries, oxygen diffuses from the air into the blood. Likewise, because the concentration of carbon dioxide is higher in the blood that's entering the capillaries than it is in the alveolar air, carbon dioxide passes from the blood to the alveoli. The nitrogen concentration in the blood and the alveolar air is about the same. The gases exchange across the alveolar wall and the air inside the alveoli becomes depleted of oxygen and rich in carbon dioxide. When you exhale, you breathe out this carbon dioxide enriched, oxygen-poor air.
Now what would happen if you breathed 100 percent oxygen? In guinea pigs exposed to 100 percent oxygen at normal air pressure for 48 hours, fluid accumulates in the lungs and the epithelial cells lining the alveoli. In addition, the pulmonary capillaries get damaged. A highly reactive form of the oxygen molecule, called the oxygen free radical, which destroys proteins and membranes in the epithelial cells, probably causes this damage. In humans breathing 100 percent oxygen at normal pressure, here's what happens:
The astronauts in the Gemini and Apollo programs breathed 100 percent oxygen at reduced pressure for up to two weeks with no problems. In contrast, when 100 percent oxygen is breathed under high pressure (more than four times that of atmospheric pressure), acute oxygen poisoning can occur with these symptoms:
Such high oxygen pressures can be experienced by military Scuba divers using rebreathing devices, divers being treated for the bends in hyperbaric chambers or patients being treated for acute carbon monoxide poisoning. These patients must be carefully monitored during treatment.
No its not dangerous to breath pure oxygen(Under normal conditions)....
Oxygen is the primary thing that you need in order to live.....
Pure Oxygen(100%) however does become dangerous to breath at pressures greater than 1.6 atmospheres when diving in water (about 20 feet deep) at this depth pure oxygen becomes toxic and it causes Oxygen Narcosis resulting in unconscousness and other symptoms...
This is why divers use different breathing mixtures for different depths, these mixtures contain different amounts of Oxygen,Nitorgen,helium ect...
When it has no other gasses mixed with it. For example, we breathe oxygen, but we do not breathe pure oxygen because it is mixed with nitrogen.
Helium itself is completely non-toxic. It is only dangerous if you breathe pure helium without a supply of oxygen.
Yes. Pure oxygen is a fire hazard.
no it is completely different are bodies cant breathe that only pure oxygen(o2). although fish can breathe the dissolved oxygen in water
No. It is only about 21% oxygen. Air is about 78% nitrogen.
It is because that it is so pure that only oxygen can be breathe inside.
because it doesn't have hydrogen in it. we should only breathe in H2O, in air form.
As long as you are breathing in adequate oxygen, it does not matter how much argon you breathe in. It is not dangerous at all.
Yes, but in the form of carbon dioxide, with contains two atoms of oxygen and one of carbon. Cows don't breathe out the pure form of oxygen; they breathe in oxygen as well as nitrogen from the atmosphere.
somr people may say not much but that's a lie hospital use pure oxygen for life support you can breathe in pure oxygen for 12 years strait and not die
Hydrogen gas is not toxic. Of course, if you were to breathe pure hydrogen you would soon suffer from lack of oxygen.
There is high concentrated oxygen treatments, or there is the standard oxygen treatments. The high concentrated is almost pure oxygen, people like doctors and scuba divers breathe pure oxygen almost every day.