Divers interested in learning more about the causes of dive fatalities and how to prevent them are encouraged to take advantage of a special offer and register now for the DAN^® Diving Fatalities Workshop April 8-10, 2010.

Attendees who register and submit payment by Jan.15, 2010, will receive a discounted rate of $335. Registration will be offered as long as spots remain available, but the cost will go up to US$395 as of Jan. 16, 2010.

Hosted by the DAN Research department, the two-and-a-half day program will be held near the DAN headquarters in Durham, N.C., USA; the workshop will feature an international panel of experts discussing topics intended to offer insights to industry professionals.

Topics currently slated for discussion during the workshop include:

• factors most commonly associated with diving deaths in America, Europe, Germany, Britain and Australia
• cardiovascular fitness, evaluation and risk factors
• training and cardiovascular fitness
• the role of training in reducing diving fatalities
• on-scene investigation, equipment testing, medical examiner activities and legal issues in North America and Europe.

Registration includes access to all five workshops, lunch all three days and the social event on Friday night. Registration can be completed online or by calling DAN Research at +1 (919) 684-2948 x.260.

Source

Israel Navy commander Adm. Eliezer Marom has convened a panel to investigate how a soldier in the advanced stages of training as a naval commando drowned early yesterday in a routine three-meter training dive at Ashdod Port. Sgt. Gal Azoulay, 19, of Zichron Yaakov, was diving at the time with the rest of his team members after having finished sixteen months of training for the elite Shayetet 13 unit. The exercise was designed to simulate combat diving in an enemy port.

The exercise was performed in pairs and was supposed to last about two and a half hours. After about an hour and a half, Azoulay took the role of lead diver of a pair. When his partner realized that he was not responding to routine contact that the two were to maintain about every minute, he followed emergency procedures involving bringing his partner to the surface of the water and fired a flare gun to mark their location.

Within a short time, a boat arrived and began to administer medical treatment to Azoulay, who was unconscious. Resuscitation efforts continued in the ambulance on shore for some 40 minutes.

En route, a physician joined the team and treated Azoulay. The diver was pronounced dead before arriving at the hospital.

A senior navy source said the dive was a part of a series of routine training exercises and that initial findings indicated that there was nothing out of the ordinary in the exercises being performed at the time of the incident.

Commanders and medics were present as required and the divers were not exposed to unusual cold. There was also no indication during the training that Azoulay had any health problems.

The investigative panel appointed by Marom will attempt to determine the cause of Azoulay’s death, and will consider the possibility of a technical problem with his diving equipment, a health problem that had gone undiagnosed or human error. The investigation will also look into whether Azoulay’s training partner acted appropriately.

Marom has ordered a temporary halt to all diving training in the navy until Azoulay’s equipment is inspected.

Members of the unit undergo thorough medical testing before their enlistment as well as in the course of their training.

Before each exercise, they are questioned about the state of their health and before strenuous training, they undergo examination by a doctor.

Azoulay’s death was the first fatal training accident in the unit since 1995. Azoulay’s funeral will take place today in Zichron Yaakov. He was posthumously promoted to the rank of staff sergeant.

Source

A typical Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus, or scuba gear for short, usually consists of a tank containing compressed air and a mouthpiece used to regulate the flow of air from the tank into the lungs. But breathing air in this manner is extremely inefficient, especially while considering the applications of this particular apparatus. This is because the air you breathe out still contains a fair amount of oxygen.

Modern scuba gear use rebreathers to filter out the exhaled carbon dioxide gas and gather the oxygen, to recirculate it until it is consumed. By doing so, the underwater breathing process becomes more efficient, allowing professional divers to remain submerged for a longer time.

Basically, a rebreather has three roles. One is to remove the carbon dioxide gas from the exhaled air. This is done by pumping it through a chamber containing sodium hydroxide, which reacts with the carbon dioxide and forms calcium carbonate. Secondly, the rebreather must complement the amount of consumed oxygen with fresh one from the tank. The oxygen tanks may contain either pure oxygen or oxygen mixed with either nitrogen or helium.

Alternatively, the rebreather must control the oxygen concentration inside the breathing loop after the exhaled oxygen is combined with fresh oxygen, for an optimal oxygen delivery sequence.

Types of rebreathers:

Currently, there are three types of rebreather systems commercially available - oxygen rebreathers, semi-closed circuit and closed circuit ones. The oxygen rebreathers make use of pure oxygen tanks as the only source of breathing gas. They are generally disadvantaged by the facts that they cannot be used in decompression depths and may pose oxygen intoxication risks.

Semi-closed circuit rebreathers on the other hand, carry tanks containing oxygen mixed with another gas - nitrogen, helium - and enable divers to surpass decompression depths without any risk of suffering from oxygen intoxication. Closed-circuit rebreathers are a combination between the two, using both pure oxygen and oxygen mixed with various gases.

Besides being highly efficient in making use of the gas carried by a diver, rebreathers are also lighter than any other conventional scuba gear. The normal concentration of oxygen inside the atmospheric air is about 21 percent, while that of nitrogen is 78 percent. Since nitrogen is not as critical as oxygen, almost three quarters of the gas carried in conventional scuba tanks is dead weight. Also, less nitrogen is circulated through the system with the help of rebreathers, thus the effects of decompression are reduced to minimum.

Because they recycle oxygen and carbon dioxide is filtered through sodium hydroxide, very little or no gas is ever pumped into the water to produce the characteristic bubbles.

Source

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and Health Canada, in cooperation with the firm named below, today announced a voluntary recall of the following products. Consumers should stop using recalled products immediately unless otherwise instructed.

Name of Product: Guardian Full-Face Masks

Units: About 900

Manufacturer: Undersea Systems International Inc., dba Ocean Technology Systems, of Santa Ana, Calif.

Hazard: If significant pressure is applied vertically to the top and bottom of the visor clamp, the clear plastic visor may dislodge causing the mask to flood.

Incidents/Injuries: Ocean Technology Systems has received three reports of visors dislodging. No injuries have been reported.

Description: This recall involves the Guardian full-face mask which is a scuba diving mask that incorporates the second stage regulator into the mask allowing it to cover the diver’s full face.

Sold by: Direct sales and diving equipment retailers nationwide from March 2009 through August 2009 for $800.

Manufactured in: United States

Remedy: Consumers should immediately stop using the diving masks and contact Ocean Technology Systems to receive a free repair. Ocean Technology Systems is providing consumers stainless steel clamps to secure the plastic visor.

Consumer Contact: For additional information, contact Ocean Technology Systems toll-free at (877) 270-1984 anytime, or visit the firm’s Web site at www.otscomm.com. Consumers also can email the firm at OTSrecall@otscomm.com

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with the firm named below, today announced a voluntary recall of the following consumer product. Consumers should stop using recalled products immediately unless otherwise instructed.

Name of Product: Diving Air Hose for Dry Suits

Units: About 65,000

Manufacturer: SI Tech AB, of Brastad, Sweden

Hazard: The hose contains an insert that can dislodge during diving and restrict air flow to the diver, posing a drowning hazard.

Incidents/Injuries: SI Tech has received six reports of hose inserts dislodging, including one that was involved in the death of a diver in Los Angeles, Calif.

Description: This recall involves a dry suit inflation hose that connects a diver’s dry suit to the air supply and allows for the pumping of air into the suit to set up a positive pressure arrangement to help keep it watertight. The hose contains an air flow restricting insert that may be either black, blue or green in color. The batch code is stamped on the threaded metal end of the hose. They were sold with dry suits and also sold separately. Contact SI Tech for a list of batch codes included in this recall or visit the firm’s Web site, www.sitech.se

Sold at: Diving equipment retailers and distributors nationwide from July 2006 through February 2009 for about $45.

Manufactured in: Sweden

Remedy: Consumers should immediately stop using diving equipment that contains the recalled low pressure inflation hoses and contact SI Tech for the location of an authorized dealer for a free repair which involves removal of the hose insert, or to receive instructions on how to repair the hose.