This altitude is known as Armstrongs Line. In practice bodily fluids do not boil off at this altitude. This is because the skin and outer organs have enough strength to withstand this pressure, thus pressure inside the body would be significantly higher—however, nitrogen bubbles are starting to form, creating a hazard. Prevention
To prevent ebullism, a pure oxygen (O2) atmosphere was used in early space flights to eliminate nitrogen in the blood. There are major fire hazards associated with using pure O2 as a breathing gas, which was central to the death of three astronauts in a fire during a ground test with Apollo 1. Nonetheless, NASA continued to use a nominally pure oxygen atmosphere throughout the Apollo Program but switched to air for the follow-on Space Transport System "Space Shuttle". Russian cosmonauts used pure oxygen before changing to a higher-pressure nitrox mixture, leading to incompatibility problems in 1975 on the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project. Space suits are often pressurized to several psi lower than stations capsules or shuttles and since they still use pure O2, an acclimation period is common in the airlock to remove nitrogen and other gases from the bloodstream. Etymology
The term "space ebullism" was introduced by Captain Julian E. Ward in his paper "The True Nature of the Boiling of Body Fluids in Space", published in Aviation Medicine in October 1956. It was suggested "because the word ebullism does not connote the addition of heat to produce vapor." It comes from Latin ebullire, meaning "to bubble out, or to boil up."
See also
Decompression sickness – Disorder caused by dissolved gases emerging from solution
Uncontrolled decompression – Unplanned drop in the pressure of a sealed system


== References ==