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Claude L. Zanetti, MD
Edgewater Medical Center Chicago, Ill

JAMA. 1990;264(22):2869.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.—

The advice given by Drs Jules-Elysee and Stover in Questions and Answers¹ regarding safe return to scuba diving following bleomycin sulfate therapy is not entirely correct. While most scuba divers breathe compressed air (21% oxygen), the partial pressure of oxygen in the inspired air is a direct function of the depth of the dive.² For every 9.9 m of sea water dive depth, the ambient barometric pressure to which the diver is exposed increases by 1 atm. At a dive depth of 19.8 m of sea water (3 atm total pressure), the partial pressure of inspired oxygen in a scuba diver breathing compressed air is 0.63 atm, equivalent to breathing 63% oxygen on the surface. At a dive depth of 29.7 m of sea water, not an unusual depth for many sport divers, the partial pressure of oxygen is 0.84 atm, equivalent to breathing 84% . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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