[kyebosh]

Indeed! So now you've got 30 minutes worth of CO2 hanging around in your blood... Surely that's going to cause some issues? Anyone with some biology smarts able to explain if this would be a problem?

That aside, I wonder what the nano-med applications are for this. For example an implant for high-risk patients that injects a dose upon respiratory failure etc. Heck if it were feasible such would be handy for anyone to have.

[mindcruzer]

The only way the CO2 can leave is through the lungs. If your airways are blocked, you're going to be facing some major blood pH issues with all that built up CO2. This can happen really fast too. Simply hypo-ventilating can cause the pH of the blood to drop due to buildup of CO2.

[msds]

Yes - the inability to expel CO2 can be a huge and often fatal problem. The technical term is hypercapnia.