Undercurrent--"Why Divers Die"

[Charlie59]

Anyone seen the latest undercurrent article on death of divers? The article essentially says that the greatest risk factor for dying as a diver is obesity. Obesity in this case was a BMI (body mass index) of over 30 and stated that in Australia obesity is a reason to fail a diving physical. Degree of fitness was also felt to be central in diving accidents in this review of the DAN data from 2004.

On a recent dive trip in Hawaii I didn't see the usually very large divers that seem to be present on a lot of dives in the Caribbean.

Is this a real issue and one that needs more attention? The article essentially said that an obese dive buddy may be of little benefit and a potential liability. The article is a little frightening.

 

[SparticleBrane]

I would agree with that.

 

[H2OU]

It only seems logical that obesity causes undue stress on the body which may be aggravated during diving.

 

[daniel f aleman]

Ridiculus.

 

[mislav]

Haven't read the article so I'm not sure what they meant - risk factor only or cause of death/accidents?

Obesity probably is the greatest risk factor of divers dying, but no more than just that - risk factor. As a cause of death or diving accidents I believe it's nowhere near the top of the list. I may be wrong though, as I got no data to substantiate this claim, only my own observations.

 

[SparticleBrane]

It would seem that "drowning" would be high on the list.

 

[DawgDiver]

Obesity complicates everything. Anybody who is obese is at higher risk for pretty much everything. It's only natural to say that obesity puts a diver at higher risk for injury.

 

[drbill]

I fail to understand how some agencies/shops can continue to certify divers who are obviously accidents waiting to happen. We see "divers" in our local waters all the time that should not be in the water because their conditioning is poor enough to be a risk not only to their lives, but to other divers and dive masters with them.

I am a fairly big guy, and my BMI may be on the high side. However, I am in good shape and usually am able to outswim divers 1/3rd to 1/2 my age. However, I wish I were in better shape myself.

 

[theatis]

I haven't read this article yet, but drbill alludes to a problem with this line of thinking; BMI is a flawed indicator. It penalizes athletic individuals for being heavier than average at a given height. For example, professional bodybuilders generally range from obese to morbidly obese; no matter what other issues exist with bodybuilding this is clearly a highly inaccurate assessment. There are much better measurements of obesity that give proportions of muscle to fat tissue.

 

[RoyN]

I fail to understand how some agencies/shops can continue to certify divers who are obviously accidents waiting to happen.

I lost 90lb of my weight and started weight training was for the sole purpose of scuba diving Professor . Not to mention I wanted to look good in a wetsuit instead of sticking out like a big black jelly bean. I think its because of "some" people who are big may bring a giant lawsuit against the dive shop or the agencies saying they were turned away or discriminated because of their extra size. My dive instructor was also rather large size too so that remains a puzzle especially when I first started the class, I pictured him as someone similar to you that was in good shape and could wrestle a shark until he walked through the doors of the class and that blew me away. But hey, if they could dive, I'm not going to stop them.

As for the Body Mass Index, I think a fat percentage measurement would be more appropriate because afterall, the fat is lighter in water (I think). I did mine recently and my percentage was about 13%. And that means less lead weight for me. I only use 20 lbs and that still makes me drop like a rock!