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Monday June 15 6:27 PM EDT
Training advised for commercial divers
NEW YORK, Jun 15 (Reuters) -- Commercial divers have an on-the-job
death rate 40 times that of other workers, according to a report from
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta,
Georgia.
CDC officials say that occupational diving fatalities often occur in
people who have not been adequately trained, and advise divers to
follow dive standards established by the US Coast Guard and the
Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).
"During 1989-1997, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration
(OSHA) recorded 116 occupational diving fatalities in the United
States," say researchers at the CDC.
The investigators say that, overall, "the average of five (US) deaths
per year corresponds to a rate of 180 deaths per 100,000 employed
divers per year, which is 40 times the national average death rate for
all workers."
The study, which appears in the current issue of the CDC's journal
Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, focused on the nine diver
deaths occurring in Alaska between 1990-1997.
A close examination of those deaths "illustrate(s) a pattern of fatal
incidents associated with inadequately trained divers," according to
the study authors. They point out that "only one diver with commercial
dive training has died in Alaska since the 1960s."
The CDC report focused on Alaska in particular because "no evidence of
experience or training is required to obtain a (commercial diving)
permit (in Alaska)," and, in any case, "no commercial or
fishery-related dive training is available in Alaska" at this time.
Meanwhile, a growing interest in the undersea harvest of delicacies
like sea cucumbers and abalone have caused the number of commercial
diver permits issued by the state to rise from 59 in 1987 to 628 in
1995.
The CDC report describes the circumstances surrounding some of the
commercial diver deaths in Alaska. In one incident, a 24-year-old
fisherman drowned while attempting to untangle a net wrapped around
the propeller of his boat. A second diver failed to return to the
surface after harvesting sea cucumbers on the seabed while using a
surface air supply.
The CDC believe faulty equipment may have been to blame for the death
of a third diver, who drowned while attempting to attach a mooring
line to a buoy anchor line. His body was found on the seafloor with
both his tether line and tank hose cut.
CDC officials believe more commercial divers should receive special
training before going to work, since "recreational diving
certification is not sufficient training for commercial diving
activities." Commercial divers should also follow standard diving
safety procedures, such as maintaining familiarity with all equipment,
avoiding lone or untended dives, and carrying reserve air supplies.
Finally, the CDC authors strongly recommend that all seagoing vessels
should be outfitted "with shrouded propellers (to reduce net
entanglement), propeller clearing ports, or line cutters on the
propeller shaft." All of these precautions "would reduce the need for
divers to untangle nets and lines," they explain. SOURCE: Morbidity
and Mortality Weekly Report 1998;47:452-455.
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