Drunk on Nitrogen

Editor's Weekly Ramblings 137

May 4th 2006

Drunk on Nitrogen

Is there a safer way to get intoxicated? Perhaps by breathing nitrogen under high pressure. Inspired by the drunken feeling that divers often experience when they reach great depths, some diving instructors have decided to create a new chain of nightclubs in the U.K. where clubbers will be able to "get narked". The clubs will be located in former bank vaults where the owners plan to raise the air pressure to create a similar effect to what's experienced underwater. The big advantage is this: no nasty hangovers, bad side effects or damage to your liver. Once you leave the club and return to an environment with normal air pressure, you'll feel the same way you did when you entered.

Diagram by Sandrine Ceurstemont The Martini effect: Divers reaching the depths noted in this diagram experience the effect of drinking the corresponding number of Martinis...

Sceptical? If you are not familiar with this effect, it's commonly called the Martini effect or in more scientific terms, nitrogen narcosis. At a depth of 15 meters underwater, divers experience a feeling similar to if they had drunk one Martini. At about 30 meters, they feel like they've consumed two Martinis, at 45 meters, three, and at 60 meters they are on their way to being properly drunk on four Martinis.

This occurs because a higher concentration of nitrogen is dissolved in the blood under higher atmospheric pressures. When compressed air (composed of nitrogen and oxygen) from a scuba tank is breathed by a diver, it acquires the same pressure as the surrounding water when it enters the lungs. Nitrogen is then absorbed by the bloodstream and the Martini effect is felt when it enters the lipids of the brain's nerve cells, affecting the transmission of signals from nerve to nerve.