Could humans survive on a planet with only deuterium 'heavy water' made with hydrogen isotopes?
If all the fresh water were at least 25% deuterium, would humans be able to survive?
Would there be significant other detrimental side effects to human physiology as a result?
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1 answer
It depends.
Heavy water proves toxic to human cells at levels ~20% of a human's body weight (although other sources give 25%). At lower levels, however, it's harmless. Given that ~2/3 of a human's body weight is water, you'd have to have much higher ratios of D2O to H2O than you have in this scenario.
Even at levels from 15%-20% body weight, heavy water may produce no adverse effects. In this world, therefore, it seems like humans would be fine.
Raise heavy water levels, though, and things could get really bad. Death comes to mind at very high concentrations.
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