Hydrox (breathing gas)

Hydrox, a gas mixture of hydrogen and oxygen, is occasionally used as an experimental breathing gas in very deep diving. It allows divers to descend several hundred metres. Hydrox has been used experimentally in surface supplied, saturation, and scuba diving, both on open circuit and with closed circuit rebreathers.

Precautions are necessary when using hydrox, since mixtures containing more than four percent of oxygen in hydrogen are explosive if ignited. Hydrogen is the lightest gas (half the weight of helium) but still has a slight narcotic potential and may cause hydrogen narcosis. Also like nitrogen, it appears to mitigate the symptoms of high pressure nervous syndrome (HPNS) on deep bounce dives, but reduces the density of the gas, unlike nitrogen.

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