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If person 1 is trapped under water, and person 2 has access to fresh air as well as to person 1, for how long can person 2 breath in fresh air and exhale it into person 1’s mouth? Is there enough breathable air in an exhalation for this to last indefinitely, or would CO2 toxicity slowly build up?

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Questa volta abbiamo cercato una curiosità scientifica: If person 1 is trapped under water, and person 2 has access to fresh air as well as to person 1, for how long can person 2 breath in fresh air and exhale it into person 1’s mouth? Is there enough breathable air in an exhalation for this to last indefinitely, or would CO2 toxicity slowly build up?

Ed ecco le risposte degli esperti:

The concentration of CO2 in exhaled air is about four to five percent. This isn’t good for you. This source says signs of intoxication appear at this concentration after 30 minutes, and loss of consciousness occurs if it goes much higher.

Well anatomic deadspace, which doesn’t participate in gas exchange, is about 150mL so if person 2 only exhaled that much into person 1 and then exhaled the rest elsewhere…they would essentially be exhaling fresh (warm, humidified) air into person 1. Granted they’d have to do do this 3 to 4 times for each of person 1’s normal breaths so I’m not sure about the logistics or person 2’s physical conditioning. Fun thought exercise though.