Putting the gas in gas laws

In 1981, Paul Auerbach and York Miller wrote a short article in the Western Journal of Medicine to report the discovery of a new syndrome, High Altitude Flatus Expulsion (HAFE). The pair describe observing, on a hiking trip in the San Juan Mountains, “an increase in both the volume and frequency of flatus” when they reached altitudes of over 3350 m. The scientists report that the altitude-induced eructations (flatulence) are known to hikers as ‘Rocky Mountain barking spiders’. Auerbach and Miller explain the occurrence of HAFE through Boyle’s Law – the decrease in atmospheric pressure at altitude leads to an expansion of colonic gas. Whilst they argue for the recognition of HAFE as a disorder, they counsel “that the offense is more sociologic than physiologic”.