Submariners can breathe easily

Calling all Beatles fans! You could spend a week on a yellow submarine breathing the same air without suffering any ill effects.

The research is reported in the latest edition of the Royal Society of Chemistry's Journal of Environmental Monitoring.

Modern submarines can stay underwater without coming to the surface for several days. This means crew members can breathe the same air for an unusually long time.

Dr Aleksandra Sebastian and co-workers from Lund University, Sweden, have studied how the quality of air on submarines changes over eight days of submersion.

Dr Sebastian said: "Submarines have sophisticated systems to manage air quality but they have not been tested over extended periods of confinement before.

The team found there was not a build up of airborne hazardous compounds during extended submersions. 

Dr Sebastian said: "We believe the air quality will remain acceptable when submarines are repeatedly submerged for long periods.

"We hope this research will help set occupational exposure limits for submarines and assist with the design of air monitoring and air renewal systems for submarines of the future."

with thanks to Nina Athey-Pollard for the original article.

"We studied an extensive number of variables that could affect the crew's health. These included oxygen, carbon dioxide, and nitrogen levels, and the levels of volatile organic compounds and microbiological contaminants in the air."