Inert gas asphyxiation are more uncomfortable in low-oxygen environments that result from inert gas exposure; however, the experience is still less aversive than CO exposure. A typical human breathes between 12 and 20 times per minute at a rate primarily influenced by carbon dioxide concentration, and thus pH, in the blood. With each breath, a volume of about 0.6 litres is exchanged from an active lung volume (tidal volume + functional residual capacity) of about 3 litres. Normal Earth atmosphere is about 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, and 1% argon, carbon dioxide, and other gases. After just two or three breaths of nitrogen, the
Gas-s-s-s ahead, write something, just keep the title."" "Gas-s-s-s" was an idea of Corman's, about a world where everybody over thirty had died. Corman later said "my first thought was to do a science fiction film with allegorical overtones." Armitage remembers the concept just being "a sentence, and that's what we went with ... He let you make it your own, and I did." Corman said that although "there was some good work in" Armitage's first draft, "the points I was trying to make in the script either did not come through or came through too obviously different parts, and it