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Here is a nice bombshell, which will hopefully generate another wave
of flamethrowing which makes this list so unique...
* * *
After yet another prodding by coroner Denis Boudrias (a self-
confessed sport diver) following yet another death of a student
during a certification class, the Government of Quebec has finally
decided to implement the recommendations Boudrias made in 1991 and
1995.
The law should be introduced in the fall of 1996.
In a nutshell, the recommendations are:
1- That the minister for the Sport Security Administration changes
the law so that the Administration has jurisdiction over instructor
training;
2- The SSA should mandate minimal course duration and contents, that
those be approved by the SSA.
The goal shall not be uniformity of contents nor of approach, but
that they meet minimal standards.
The SSA will demand from each certification agency proof that they
can attest the seriousness of each instructor and of the quality of
their formation, and that they will take every mean possible to teach
students appropriate safety rules.
3- Each instructor should be compelled to follow-up his training by
taking approved refresher course for a minimum duration of two days
per year.
Upon demand, the instructor should be able to produce a certificate
of follow-up emmited by the certification agency.
No one shall dispence SCUBA classes without that certificate.
4- The SSA shall elaborate SCUBA diving safety regulations.
5- No one shall enter a SCUBA class without following a medical exam
where the physician fills a standard questionnaire to be elaborated
by the SSA.
Divers should have a routine medical exam every 5 years.
There are several other recommendations pertaining to commercial
diving, as several incidents depicted in the coroner report involved
commercial divers.
There. The love of money professed by the SCUBA shops and the SCUBA
certification industry in general at the detriment of the quality of
training has finally brought about what is anathema to many people
reading this list: government regulation. Let's just hope that the
more greedy people will go down south to greener pastures.
(To laypeople inoccent of submersion greater than 30 seconds who ask
me about all this, I answer: "Think of it as if automobile dealers
were responsible not only for giving driving lessons, but also were
handing out the driving licenses")...
The text of the whole coroner report of 1995 is available on Roger
Lacasse's SCUBA site at
http://spiff.physics.mcgill.ca/scuba/coroner/
----------------- Pour la Republique Francaise du Quebec -----------------
The greatest threat to democracy comes when the accountants are
taking charge: they will tend to implement "one dollar=one vote".
~~~ Last dive: the "Cathedral", a geological fault in Massawippi lake. ~~~
This .sig is illegal in the states, because it contains a dirty word.
Marc Dufour - [\] ACUC6 31874 - TDI CD-0197 - http://www.accent.net/emdx
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