DEPTH Blog

Thermal Stress Irrespective of Ambient Temperature
Hypothermia is not a problem exclusive to frigid environments—it can occur irrespective of ambient temperature. Similarly, divers may also suffer extremes of hot and cold thermal stress simultaneously during the same dive. There have been documented cases of severe heat exhaustion in arctic waters by commercial divers as a result of wearing thick, occlusive drysuits, aggravated by dehydration from breathing dry compressed gas and perspiring from prolonged underwater swimming or heavy underwater work. Perspiration from excessive or from pre-dive overheating can also cause the diver’s drysuit underwear to lose insulation, thus predisposing him to hypothermia.

In this podcast and article by Roque Wicker, MBA, author of HBOTechBlog.com, and creator of the Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Patient Safety Instructions we explore the relationship between effective patient education on hyperbaric compliance, patient satisfaction, and reimbursement. 

When you prepare for a dive trip, there are things you pack that are on the "must have" list, such as mask, fins, BCD, and regulator. Then there are the things that you "should have" such as wetsuit, defog, and sunscreen. All of the other items typically fall onto the "it would be nice to have" list, such as snacks, sunglasses, and a camera. The question we have for you today is, onto which list do your dive rescue and dive accident management skills fall?

Attention Dive Shop Owners and Operators: are you looking to recruit new divers? Check out the great article that ran on DiveNewsWire about a new diver recruitment opportunity using BPC's book, The Simple Guide to Snorkeling Fun, 2nd Edition. Find the DNW article here http://www.divenewswire.com/NewsITems.aspx?newsID=13173. DNW referenced BPC's book "The Simple Guide to Snorkeling Fun" as a great resource for training snorkelers and soon to be divers.

When rebreather use started becoming common at the beginning of the twenty-first century, it was the deep, cave, and wreck divers who adopted the new technology. This equipment allowed them to go deeper, penetrate farther, and conserve expensive helium breathing gas. Because they could push the envelope of diving beyond where they could with traditional OC (open circuit) scuba, they were willing to tolerate the numerous increased maintenance responsibilities (as well as pay the hefty price tag associated with rebreathers, often $10,000 to $15,000 or more). But times have changed.