what is oxygen toxicity?

Answer 1

Oxygen toxicity or oxygen toxicity syndrome (also known as the "Paul Bert effect") is severe hyperoxia caused by breathing oxygen at elevated partial pressures. The high concentration of oxygen damages cells. The precise mechanism(s) of the damage are not known, but oxygen gas is a natural free radical with a propensity to react with metals to form superoxide which may attack double bonds in many organic systems, including the unsaturated fatty acid residues in cells. High concentrations of oxygen are known to increase the formation of cascades of such free-radicals in biological systems, which many then go on to directly harm DNA and other structures (see nitric oxide, peroxynitrite, and trioxidane). Normally, the body has many defense systems against such damage (see glutathione, catalase, and superoxide dismutase) but at higher concentrations of free oxygen, these systems are eventually overwhelmed with time, and the rate of damage to cell membranes exceeds the capacity of systems which control or repair it. Cell damage and cell death then results.

In humans, there are several types of oxygen toxicity:

Central nervous system (CNS) oxygen toxicity.
The onset depends upon partial pressure of oxygen (ppO2) in the breathing gas and exposure duration and manifests as dizziness, nausea and twitching, especially on the face. As partial pressure or duration increases, it leads to more severe symptoms, such as convulsions, which although not lethal themselves, when it occurs in divers, can cause drowning or lethal pressure damage during a rapid ascent to the surface. The maximum single exposure limits recommended in the NOAA Diving Manual are 45 minutes at 1.6 bar, 120 minutes at 1.5 bar, 150 minutes at 1.4 bar, 180 minutes at 1.3 bar and 210 minutes at 1.2 bar, but is impossible to predict with any reliably whether or when CNS symptoms will occur.

Pulmonary oxygen toxicity
The risk of bronchopulmonary dysplasia ("BPD") in infants, or adult respiratory distress syndrome in adults, begins to increase with exposure for over 16 hours to partial pressures of 0.5 bar or more. Experimentally, early symptoms of breathing 100% oxygen are breathing difficulty and substernal pain, but in a healthy adult these are rarely seen before 24 hours of exposure. The lungs show inflammation and pulmonary edema. Partial pressures between 0.2 bar (normal at sea level) and 0.5 bar usually are considered non-toxic. BPD is reversible in the early stages during "break" periods on lower oxygen pressures, but it may eventually result in irreversible lung damage, if allowed to progress to severe damage. Usually several days of exposure without "oxygen breaks" are needed to cause severe lung damage. The time-factor and the naturally intermittent nature of most diving makes this a relatively rare (and even then, reversible) complication for divers. However, it is of concern in intensive care patients needing continuous high inspired oxygen concentrations.

At sea-level, 0.5 bar is exceeded by gas mixtures having oxygen fractions greater than 50%. Lung oxygen toxicity damage-rates at sea-level pressure rise non-linearly between the 50% theshhold of toxicity, and the rate of damage on 100% oxygen. For this reason, intensive care patients requiring more than 60% oxygen, and especially patients at fractions near 100% oxygen, are considered to be at especially high risk, since if the situation is not corrected, the treatment may begin to cause lung damage which contributes to need for the high-oxygen mixture.

On the other hand, oxygen in spacesuits and other low-pressure applications (historically, for example, the Gemini spacecraft and Apollo spacecraft) is non-toxic even at breathing mixture fractions approaching 100%, because the partial pressure is not allowed to chronically exceed 0.35 bar in these applications.

Retinopathic oxygen toxicity causes damage to the retina. Oxygen may be a contributing factor for the disorder called retinopathy of prematurity.


The oxygen toxicity syndrome may occur

as a diving disorder, when divers breathe any breathing gas deeper than its maximum operating depth,
as a potential complication of mechanical ventilation with pure oxygen, where it is called the respiratory lung syndrome.
Oxygen toxicity is not a major factor in hyperventilating, as some people believe. The problems caused by hyperventilating are due to decreased carbon dioxide within the blood. With or without hyperventilating, it is impossible to develop oxygen toxicity breathing air at typical surface atmospheric pressure.

There is an increased risk of CNS oxygen toxicity on deep dives, long dives or dives where oxygen-rich breathing gases are used.

In some diver training courses for these types of diving, divers are taught to plan and monitor what is called the "oxygen clock" of their dives. This clock is a notional alarm clock, which "ticks" more quickly at increased ppO2 and is set to activate at these maximum single exposure limits recommended in the NOAA Diving Manual stated in the Types of Oxygen Toxicity section of this article.

The aim is to avoid activating the alarm by reducing the ppO2 of the breathing gas or the length of time breathing gas of higher ppO2. As the ppO2 depends on the oxygen concentration in the breathing gas and the depth of the dive, the diver can obtain more time on the oxygen clock by diving at a shallower depth, by breathing a less oxygen-rich gas or by shortening the exposure to oxygen-rich gases.

Answer 2

Oxygen toxicity is defined as injury or discomfort to the body caused by inhaling too much oxygen. This can occur at atmospheric pressure but has a higher potential of occuring while diving due to the higher pressures experienced under water. This normally only happens at very deep parts of the water so this will not usually be a problem for recreational divers.
At atmopspheric pressure oxygen makes up 21% of the air we breathe which is ideal for our body requirements. Anything greater than this is considered "supplemental oxygen" and can be toxic in high doses. Although the percentage of oxygen in the diver's air tank remains the same on descent, its partial pressure increases so the total concentration of oxygen in the blood also increases.