Abstract
Deep sea divers substitute helium-rich breathing mixtures for air in order to alleviate nitrogen narcosis at depths of approximately 100 ft or more. Some people propound that hydrogen would be an even more suitable substitute for air during extremely deep dives. Theoretical explanations of the marked change noted for helium speech would indicate an even more drastic change should occur for hydrogen speech. This study evaluated effects of breathing hydrogen on speech intelligibility. Taped recordings were obtained within an hyperbaric diving chamber while a diver was breathing compressed hydrogen, helium, and air mixtures. Responses by six panels of listeners revealed, unexpectedly, that there was no appreciable difference in mean intelligibility of speech between the helium and hydrogen conditions. In fact, the hydrogen speech was slightly more intelligible than the helium speech. Interpretation of these results will be made according to theory of speech production and application to deep-diving communication systems.
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