This book is the record of the conference held in Oxford in 1992 organised by CIRIA, and co-sponsored by the Health and Safety Executive, The British Tunnelling Society and the Medical Research Council's Hyperbaric Sciences Panel. The book consolidates international medical and engineering knowledge and experience on the use of compressed air and hyperbaric techniques, and looks to how they can be safely used in the future.

Presents the proceedings of the Second International Conference on Engineering and Health in Compressed Air Work. This volume talks about the experience with oxygen decompression in the UK, and research related to the introduction of oxygen decompression. It is for those, involved with the engineering or medical aspects of compressed air working.

With the invention of compressed air in the 1840s, human divers could enter previously inaccessible deep water environments and engineers could design underwater mines and monumental bridges that had never been possible before. But a painful, sometimes fatal illness--decompression sickness, or the bends--mysteriously afflicted many of those who used compressed air. This book is a wide-ranging history of the wonders compressed air brought about and the suffering its unknown hazards inflicted. John L. Phillips explores the intertwining roles of science, technology, engineering, medicine, and politics in the invention of compressed air, the recognition and identification of decompression sickness, and the hundred-year-long process of learning to understand and treat the bends. The book begins with an overview of the biology and chemistry of respiration and a discussion of the steam engine that could generate compressed air. Drawing on previously unpublished letters, diaries, and notes, Phillips tells the story of early uses of compressed air, first observations of decompression sickness, growing awareness of the bends during construction of the Brooklyn Bridge, and efforts to understand the pathophysiology of the illness. He then considers employee health and safety issues, the science of diving today, and human limits to exploring the ocean deeps. In the history of compressed air and its illnesses, Phillips finds important lessons for dealing with other diseases yet to be confronted in the modern world.

High pressure biology is an old, fascinating and stimulating field of research. One of the major reasons for the interest in studying high pressure is that this environmental factor also plays an important role in thermodynamics and consequently in biology. Pressure, from a biological perspective, has a bearing on all living creatures. The book pre

This guide provides a framework for the management of health and safety risks by those undertaking tunnelling and other construction work in compressed air. The Regulations address such issues as: safe systems of work; medical surveillance; compression and decompression procedures (including HSE approval of procedures); medical treatment; emergency procedures; fire precautions; provision of information, instruction and training; and maintenance of health and exposure records.