Scuba Safety record question

[Ze_Abron]

Does anyone have any useful links with facts/figures about diving's overall safety record? Comparing to other activities etc...

Would be useful in a few conversations I am having with people.

Thx!

[TMHeimer]

Search the forums for lots of info. Most will say that like most statistics, they can be interpreted many ways. Like if you're comparing diving to this or that, does it include how many people around the world are in the water at a given moment, etc.

[Mike Boswell]

Does anyone have any useful links with facts/figures about diving's overall safety record? Comparing to other activities etc...

Would be useful in a few conversations I am having with people.

Thx!

Hello Ze_Abron: I asked a similar question about a month ago and got some interesting responses and some good data. You might want to check out that thread:

How Dangerous is Scuba Diving?

[Gene_Hobbs]

Richardson, D. An assessment of risk for recreational dive instructors at work. South Pacific Underwater Medicine Society Journal 1996 Volume 26 Number 2. RRR ID: 6291

[Walter]

The problem with all such "statistics" is the numbers are all pulled out of thin air. No one knows how many divers we have. No one knows how many dives are made each year. People guess what those numbers might be to come up with accident and fatality "statistics." They also assume all accidents are reported. I suspect many accidents go unreported. I also suspect number of divers/dives are over estimated. There are no reliable accident or fatality statistics for diving.

[herman]

To add a little to Walter, scuba seems to be the only sport where dying from a heart attack is a sport related accident. Die playing golf, tennis, walking or setting on the couch it's simply a heart attack but do it underwater and it becomes a "dive accident". A large part of the "dive accidents" are heart related and no doubt being under the water does not help the survival rate but IMO including them does unfairly increase the rates. I am much more worried about my safety on the highway getting to the dive site than I am while on the boat.

[ajduplessis]

The following is a cut and paste from http://www.thescubasite.com/Latest-S...ent-statistics

Scuba diving is still an incredibly safe sport when done properly, with an fatal accident rate of approximately 1 death per 200,000 dives.This would mean to even be inside the chances of having a fatal accident, statistically you'd have to dive 12 times a day, every day, from the age of 18 years old to 65 years old: No breaks!

The stats:

Drowning 33%
Arterial Gas Embolism 29%
Cardiac Incident 26%
Trauma 5%
Loss of Consciousness 2.5%
DCS 2.5%
Inappropriate Gas 2%

Explanation of terms

* Drowning: Unaccounted for drowning / diver error
* Arterial Gas Embolism: Caused most often by the expansion of respiratory gases during ascent, it also occurs when the breath is held during ascent from a dive, when there is local pulmonary pathology, when there is dynamic airway collapse in the non-cartilaginous airways and if there is low pulmonary compliance, particularly if this is not distributed evenly throughout the lungs.
* Cardiac Incident: Heart attack / stroke
* Trauma: Injury sustained while diving
* DCS: Refers to decompression sickess / illness
* Loss of conciousness: Unexplained loss of conciousness while diving
* Inappropriate Gas: Incorrect gas mix was cause of death

A new report says that common causes of Open-Circuit Recreational Diving Fatalities examined 947 recreational diving fatalities between 1992 and 2003. According to Dr. P.J. Denoble that looking at these cases over a long period of time allowed them to see patterns, not just in the causes of death (COD) but in the events leading up to the deaths of these divers. Drowning was the COD in 70% less of cases, but that proved less important statistically than the disabling injuries that caused the divers to drown, and 88% of the cases involved one of three disabling injuries


How can I be a safer diver?

Over half of these diving accidents were caused by a cardiac incident or Aterial Gas Embolism. Your heart and circulatory system are more important in diving than in most sports, so it's a good idea to make your heart is in good condition before diving.

Before jumping in the water, get yourself heart-smart with the following F.I.T formula to make sure you get the right frequency, intensity and time in your exercise routine.

Frequency: For best cardiovascular fitness, do aerobic exercise 5 to 7 days per week. Walking, jogging, and biking are great outdoor exercises; cardio machines like treadmills, elliptical and stationary bikes are also best ways for indoor routine.

Intensity: Ensure you heart works at the correct intensity during aerobic session. Subtract your age from 220 to find your estimated maximum heart rate in beats per minute (BPM). Your target heart rates should be from 50 to 80% of your maximum BPM. So multiply your maximum heart rate by 0.5, and again by 0.80 to get your target heart rate range. When you do your exercise make sure you check your pulse periodically to ensure your BPM stays within the range.

Time: Each aerobic workout session should last 30 to 45 minutes to get the maximum cardiovascular benefit, but it?s ok to break your sessions into segments. Try two or three 15 minutes intervals with a break in between them.

Always remember the golden rule of scuba diving: Don't hold your breath!

[Web Monkey]

How can I be a safer diver?

Over half of these diving accidents were caused by a cardiac incident or Aterial Gas Embolism. Your heart and circulatory system are more important in diving than in most sports, so it's a good idea to make your heart is in good condition before diving.

Before jumping in the water, get yourself heart-smart with the following F.I.T formula to make sure you get the right frequency, intensity and time in your exercise routine.

. . .

Aside from the heart attack or stroke not happening underwater, the "FIT" routine you posted is as likely to problems as diving is.

I'm not saying that exercise is a bad thing, however hopping on a treadmill might not be a great idea for someone who spent the last 50 years pounding down Whoppers and fries in front of the TV.

Anybody who is in questionable shape for SCUBA might want to consider getting looked over by a doc before jumping in to anything more stressful than usual.

Terry

[Papa_Bear]

Do the Avalon Harbor clean up and you don't need a treadmill! Park and move 170lbs of gear to the boat and on it! Then off the boat and a mile and half to the Hotel! Then up the steps, and then back down in the morning to your dive site, Dive and collect trash, do it all in reverse, plus add a couple rec dives at Casino Point! Then unload at home and clean your gear! If your not breathing hard your DEAD and no other action required! If you are breathing hard and your hart is pounding you just had a great day! It is a safe sport even "Old guys and Gals" can do and no one gets out alive whether your a diver or not!

[JonKranhouse]

Some statistics show that newer divers are at MUCH greater risk vs. older divers who have better learned how to avoid mishap. If new DMs and Instructors are encouraged to trivialize the factual hazards of diving, that could maybe increase mishaps for their students.

Arguably, the only legitimate way to calculate risk is by "exposure time."
The white-water rafting industry calculates their safety statistics based upon days-on-river (i.e. exposure time) per participant.

The ski industry tracks accidents by days-on-mountain.

Given the size of the global recreational dive industry - over $1 billion p/y, and the preoccupation with statistical tracking to determine safe decompression algorithms, it is very curious that the data about diving accidents is so murky.

In response to a triple dive fatality, the Abacus Project attempted to bring clarity to dive risks. For 14 months in British Columbia, the number of dive tank air-fills were tracked vs. local recreational dive accidents. Assuming that nothing in this study was "gamed" (i.e. knowing this first-of-its-kind study might impact liability insurance rates, could participating retailers over-report the number of air-fills? Also, local dive professionals may have increased their vigilance for safety above their norm) the results:

2.05 deaths per 100,000 dives.

The three victims were all new divers; two died during training, a third was just certified and died while accompanied by an instructor.

Let's factor each "Abacus" dive as a 1-hour "exposure" to risk. Compare that to occupancy time in automobiles. DOT (Department of Transportation) tracks fatalities-per-million-miles-driven, but they don't know the average speed. To be charitable to diving's risk - we'll divide those miles by 60 MPH to net total hours of exposure (of course vehicles average less than 60 MPH).

So...2008 saw 37,260 auto fatalities in 2.926 Trillion miles. Allowing 60 MPH average speed, that’s 48.766 Billion hours of moving automobiles. Allowing 1.2 occupants per vehicle, that’s 58.52 Billion total vehicle occupant hours = 0.0637 fatalities per 100,000 occupant hours of auto travel. The Abacus results are 32X more fatalities-per-hour-of-exposure vs. automobile occupancy.

A Japanese study mentioned in the Undercurrent newsletter, June 2001, found diving between 39X and 62X deadlier than being in an automobile: (from page 16 / bottom of last page of the PDF)

Back in the driver’s seat: How often have you heard that diving is: “A lot safer than driving down a freeway, right?” Japanese researchers decided to find out. Deaths per participant were no measure of safety, they thought. A better measure would be deaths per hour engaged in the activity. In looking at Japanese diverand traffic deaths, they found the diving fatality rate to be “10.6 - 24.4 and 15.3 -19.7 with 95 percent and 50 percent of confidence respectively whereas that of driving was 0.206 - 0.270 and 0.232 - 0.244.” This means that recreational diving is 39 and 62 times riskier with 95 percent and 50 percent confidence, respectively, than driving a car.
Ikeda, T. and Ashida, H., Is Recreational Diving Safe? Division of Environmental Medicine and Division of Biomedical Information Sciences, National Defense Medical College Research Institute, Tokorozawa, Japan.

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I believe that a lackadaisical attitude for safety increases dive deaths. But that's mere opinion, not hard data, so make up your own minds. There is provocative data from DAN - during a time when many repeated the old saying, "Diving is as safe as bowling." Dive deaths reported by DAN in 2007 spiked 60% from 2006, hitting a 30-year peak. This was the worst year-to-year % jump in 20-years. This is from DAN’s 2008 report, published in 2009, RE 2007 fatalities (page 8):


This 2007 spike in dive fatalities coincides with the beginning of the "Be A Diver" marketing campaign, which of course could mean nothing and just be a statistical anomaly.



Can anyone cite the very first time that the "diving is as safe as bowling" claim was made?

To be clear of my agenda... I don't want a Nanny state or a country where kids grow up afraid to take risks. I'm no Chicken Little and have taken plenty of calculated risks in diving and aviation. I started flying hang gliders in 1973 and as a director / cameraman have ~2,000 hours filming from fixed-wing and helicopters - usually flying too low, too fast or in locations too remote to survive the unexpected. I believe in planning for the worst and have had the privilege to work with some of the best pilots and mechanics in the world. I've been consulted after movie aviation tragedies when "experts" cut corners. In basic aviation, students are taught to analyze disasters, so they may better avoid being fodder for future students. Accidents are horrible for the victim's family, and bad for business. Pretending that hazards don't exist to lure customers is simply wrong. Genuinely safe training will lure plenty of customers.

OK, back on topic...who's ready to earn extra credit?
(A) Cite the source data that was used to make the bowling claim.
(B) Characterize the reliability of that source data that was used to make the bowling claim.
(C) What other data-sets were excluded to make the bowling claim.
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Let's put this old game in perspective...