Mr Carcharodon
Contributor
DAN just made available to public this set of papers related to diving deaths: 2010 Fatality Workshop
There is data that resolves a number of discussions on this board about the risk of diving compared to other activities and the size of the diving population. PADI has compiled data from a number of studies that suggest that the diving population in the USA/Canada is between 2.3 and 3.2 million divers. Diving deaths in USA/Canada/Europe run at 160 per million divers per year. That makes diving riskier than many occupations that are perceived to be high risk such as construction, mining and agriculture. The risk of death from diving is still only about 20% of the risk of dying in an automobile accident annually. But those are rates without regard for the number of hours involved. On a per hour basis diving is higher risk than any of the previously mentioned activities. DCS which seems to garner a lot of attention appears to be low risk in precipitating fatalities.
Embolism is the most common cause of diving deaths in North America, followed closely by cardiac events and running out of gas. Many of those out of gas events were dives that occurred in overhead environments without adequate training or equipment.
Good cardiac fitness, buoyancy control, and gas management would substantially, perhaps by more than 90%, reduce the risk of death. All too often we focus on the wrong things, which is part of what makes reports like these so valuable.
There is data that resolves a number of discussions on this board about the risk of diving compared to other activities and the size of the diving population. PADI has compiled data from a number of studies that suggest that the diving population in the USA/Canada is between 2.3 and 3.2 million divers. Diving deaths in USA/Canada/Europe run at 160 per million divers per year. That makes diving riskier than many occupations that are perceived to be high risk such as construction, mining and agriculture. The risk of death from diving is still only about 20% of the risk of dying in an automobile accident annually. But those are rates without regard for the number of hours involved. On a per hour basis diving is higher risk than any of the previously mentioned activities. DCS which seems to garner a lot of attention appears to be low risk in precipitating fatalities.
Embolism is the most common cause of diving deaths in North America, followed closely by cardiac events and running out of gas. Many of those out of gas events were dives that occurred in overhead environments without adequate training or equipment.
Good cardiac fitness, buoyancy control, and gas management would substantially, perhaps by more than 90%, reduce the risk of death. All too often we focus on the wrong things, which is part of what makes reports like these so valuable.