NOT a ccr accident but...

yves

Herby a recent accident in the Maldives, not on CCR but for sure worth to mention how stupid dive operators and divers them self can be, who continuos to dive under conditions like that; read for yourself:
source: (Russian Diver Death Due To “Health And Safety Breakdown”: Fellow Diver)

Russian Diver Death Due To “Health And Safety Breakdown”: Fellow Diver
By Judith Evans in Malé
May 28, 2008
A diver present at last week’s diving accident in the Maldives, which led to the death of 36-year-old Russian tourist Roman Kudarov and injured nine others, has said “a complete systemic breakdown in health and safety procedures” led to the tragedy.
Citing the air poisoning which apparently caused the accident, a lack of first aid knowledge on the part of boat crew, and an “unusable” oxygen cylinder, the diver – himself an experienced divemaster – has called for an overhaul of safety measures in Maldives to ensure further accidents are prevented.
But spokespeople for police and Touring Maldives, owner of the Baani Adventurer safari boat from which the accident occurred, said they could not comment on any such failures until the ongoing investigation is complete.
Faulty Air Supply
The accident occurred on the morning of May 22 as tourists from the Baani Adventurer vessel dived on the Raydhigaa Thila reef. Initial reports from the tourism ministry said 11 were injured, but fellow divers say the total was ten.
Tourists from Australia, Germany, Denmark, Russia and New Zealand were affected. One was Kudarov, who died at the scene.
“This could so easily have been a six or seven death incident,” says the diver, who performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on Kudarov.
He believes the accident was caused by a long-term air supply problem, possibly relating to carbon monoxide contamination, which had not been addressed – constituting “criminal negligence”.
Following the accident, which is now under investigation by police, it became clear none of the boat crew were trained in emergency procedures, whilst the single bottle of oxygen available on the dive dhoni was “unusable”.
The Accident
Several of the tourists and one dive guide had experienced headaches in preceding days. The dive guide on May 21 requested a filter change on the compressors used to fill the air tanks for diving, but it appears problems then worsened.

After the diver’s companion felt ill during the May 22 dive, he surfaced to find most of the group semi-conscious or unconscious.
The two dive guides were incapacitated, and according to the diver, “none of the topside crew on either boat appeared to have any training whatsoever in the provision of oxygen or emergency first aid”.
A spokesman for Touring Maldives said the crew were trained, but “panicked” and did not carry out correct procedures. In the event, the four unaffected tourists were left to assist the others and try to revive Kudarov.

The single bottle of oxygen available on the dive dhoni did not function, though there was a functioning bottle on the main boat, according to the diver. And crew initially attempted the 4 to 5 hour journey to the capital, Malé, before doctors from a local resort were called.
“At no point was I advised that there was a doctor at Rangali Resort, and that the resort was quite close by. This factored into my decision to stop CPR [on Kudarov], as it appeared that the nearest medical aid was over 2 hours away,” says the diver.
Rangali staff arrived about an hour after the accident, and were able to provide medical help and transport. But by this time, Roman Kudarov had died.
Contamination

It appears the accident was due to contaminated air from one of the boat’s two compressors, though the exact cause has not yet been confirmed.
But a traveller who toured on sister boat the Baani Explorer in January and February wrote on dive forum ScubaBoard, “We had maintenance problems with the compressor on the dhoni that necessitated trips...to Malé to secure repairs.”
The traveller added: “Of sixteen people, outside of the crew, on board… nine [suffered] symptoms [such as] nausea, diarrhoea, headache and upset stomach...The [dive] dhoni tied up to the side of the Baani that exhausted the fumes from the generator…an extremely dangerous configuration for carbon monoxide gases...you could see and smell the exhaust rising from the back of the boat. A recommended CO2 detector is missing from the Baani.”
Meanwhile a Maldivian dive instructor of over ten years’ experience confirms “no one” uses the recommended carbon monoxide filters, instead opting for a cheaper model which does not filter engine gases.

Yves Christiaens

cubixy2k

Wow, thats unbelievably scary, imagine feeling sick and coming up to find half the group unconscious on the surface.

Thats just unreal

__________________
-AJ
Pirate Technical Chief Mate
Director of Plundering Operations
Booty Investment Analyst &
Pillaging Opportunity Specialist

rigdiver

Not a good scene at all. Hope this is their wake up call. Condolences to family and friends of deceased.

cubixy2k

as far as I'm concerned, this operation should be shut down

they knew there was a problem and neglected to fix it because 'everyone' uses the cheap version w/o CO testers....

__________________
-AJ
Pirate Technical Chief Mate
Director of Plundering Operations
Booty Investment Analyst &
Pillaging Opportunity Specialist

mempilot

I'll tie in the situation of CO emmisions from the boat and CCR diving, as this has happened to me in the past and I can speak to the seriousness of the situation it caused underwater.

On a local dive aboard an older boat here in Ft. Lauderdale, I was sitting on the bench kitted up and prebreathing my Rebreather. The boat captain was having a hard time snagging the wreck, and so he was constantly running the boat at low idle with spurts of power. Every time he gave the old engine power, the exhaust would exit the boat behind me and linger in the cockpit due to the slow speeds and lack of wind. Because this went on for some time, I came off the loop to talk to the crew. Every time I came off the loop to talk, I would breath in the exhaust fumes. When I thought they had the wreck hooked, I'd go back on the loop in anticipation of splashing. This happened a few times before we finally got wet. Upon reaching 140 fsw, I experienced extreme vertigo, disorientation, paranoia, nausea, and was almost incapacitated. Due to the brilliant help of my regular CCR dive buddy, I was able to suface and get on O2.

In hindsight, I should not have gone on and off the loop, as I was trransferring bad air into the loop where it stayed. The CCR is subject not only to what contaminated gas they can put in the bottles, but also what you transfer from your lungs when you go on the loop. Carbon monoxide stays with the body for long periods and doesn't get breathed out quickly like other gasses. It hinders the bodies ability to bond O2 to the hemoglobin, starving the body of O2. Once in the loop, you are pretty much screwed. I now stay away from kitting up around the exhaust ports, and I expel any gas in my lungs before going on the loop.

I wrote a complete incident report of this event and posted it on Rebreather World last year in hopes that those doing a lot of boat diving might be aware of the possibility of CO poisoning and the inability to get it out of the loop.

http://www.rebreatherworld.com/rebre...at-140fsw.html

The accident in Maldives was based on CO contaminated fills, but the mention of the two boats docking side by side trapping emmisions brought to mind the other hazzard to Rebreather divers.

Dive safe,

Eric

__________________
Eric Stadtmueller, otherwise known as, MEM "Da Pilot"

barney

Safety of compressed gas is a huge issue that is constantly swept under the rug. Fatalities happen more often than most people realize, and there have been several double fatalities due to contaminated gas in Central America, Red Sea, and other places. Its not just CO, but other potential vapors from synthetic oils that produce toluene, benzene, and other fun stuff. If you think deep air will give you a buzz, trying breathing some of this stuff...

__________________
Michael C. Barnette
ASSOCIATION OF UNDERWATER EXPLORERS

dive2dive2000

Very imformative thanks... have some green

__________________
Safe Diving,
Martin

scubagrunt

i carry a CO analyzer when i travel, maybe i should use it here at home too! thanks for the reality check.
mel

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"No good deed goes unpunished!"
www.silentscuba.com

mempilot

Mel,

Which CO analyzer do you use? Is it to test the gas in your tanks? Thanks for the heads up. The only ones I've seen are the type used in aircraft, RV's, and such that mount somewhere. I wasn't aware of a flow type analyzer, so this is a cool safety device for the save-a-dive kit.

Eric

__________________
Eric Stadtmueller, otherwise known as, MEM "Da Pilot"

swampdiver

Eric this is a very interesting incident which I have passed by a diving hyperbaric doc who also agrees this was very likely a case of CO poisoning; however within diesel exhaust you probably also had some nitrogen dioxide, volatile hydrocarbons, and fine particulates to content with. The main culprit though given your symptoms would have been carbon monoxide poisoning. Have a look at Table 3 in this article (CO/NO2 exposure in hockey rinks) as there is a good write up on the symptomatology both at low concentrations (visual disturbances) and at higher levels (nausea, dizziness, and headaches). Also importantly the point is made that if there is significant exertion the absorption of CO into the blood and tissues will be much higher. (see under Contaminant section).
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/pic...7&blobtype=pdf

In terms of clearing the carbon monoxide from your tissues and blood your intuition was correct in that O2 was the answer to speed the elimination of CO by the lungs. One can see in this figure that the half life of CO on room air is about 5 hours whereas on 100 percent O2 at 1 atm you can drop the half life of CO elimination to 90 minutes. By increasing your set point to 1.4 on ascent you would have also increased the rate of elimination, and enhanced the treatment of your poisoning. http://www.coheadquarters.com/coremove1.htm

Elevated CO levels on the back of boats not only while idling or moving at low speeds, but also fully underway is a huge problem for divers. On TDS about 3 years ago there was a thread on this subject, and someone described being on on a dive charter boat in Florida where two divers at the back of the boat were found unconscious from the exhaust fumes on the way to the dive site. They were put on O2 and regained consciousness and IIRC ended up in the chamber as well. The levels of CO on the back of many boats can get so high that adults can be rendered unconscious in a matter of minutes. Here is an excellent description of this CO exposure problem in boats. The last slide shows from 1990 to 2004 in the USA there have been 122 fatalities, 126 cases of loss of consciousness, and 607 documented cases of CO poisoning from exposure to exhaust on recreational boats. http://www.aiha.org/TheAcademy/docum...6-mccammon.pdf

The worst offenders are the gas inboard engines on the express cruisers and the house boats either form their inboard engines or the genset exhaust. If you look at the study linked on the top of this article there are a few boats where the level of CO at the back of the boat even at full power underway was high enough to cause severe CO poisoning. BoatUS Foundation: The Dangers of Carbon Monoxide

A few years back a group of us were on a six pack dive boat which had a V8 gas inboard engine. I had a CO alarm but its upper limit was only 50 ppm and while fully underway and placed next to the captain under the canopy it started alarming at 35 ppm. Even at the edge of the canopy the detector saturated out at 50 ppm indicating all locations aft of this would have had higher concentrations. My buddy and I moved to fresh air but two other OC divers refused to believe the CO meter and sat in the exhaust about 3 feet from the transom on the way out. My buddy and I had no problems on the dive but the two other divers sat out the second due to nausea and headache. I suspect a lot of what gets labeled as sea sickness on dive boats is actually mild CO poisoning.

In terms of self-protection I always try to sit at the front of the boat but if forced into the cabin I will turn on my CO meter to ensure the air is CO free prior to diving. Again last fall on a dive boat I was late and forced to sit in the cabin. My CO detector went off at 50 ppm so I moved to the roof of the boat. In both the above incidents the captain and owner of boat was made aware of the elevated CO, but no action has been take to rectify the problem.

In terms of CO detectors on the market currently, if you have the money I'd go for a BW Technologies unit called the Gas Alert Extreme which costs about $US300 at this link. You also have to purchase calibration gas (10 ppm CO in air) and a regulator for the tank which will run you another $200. While the sensor's range ideally is too broad (0 to 1000 ppm) for breathing air applications as long as you calibrate the unit at 10 ppm this will ensure good linearity at the lower end of its range. The alarms can be set at whatever levels you want but for technical diving I would not jump in with a CO level over about 2 ppm since the presence of CO might be a proxy contaminant for other products of combustion such as volatile hydrocarbons and nitrogen dioxide. Essentially dive air should be CO free. You can calibrate the unit every quarter and then pass the 10 ppm calgas over the sensor prior to each dive trip to ensure its accuracy is maintained at 10 ppm. The entire kit with the 1 lpm flow restrictor will fit in a Pelican 1010 Microcase.
BW Technologies Gas Alert Extreme

www.gasmonitors.com

This is one piece of kit I will not leave home without, and it has saved us from several potentially dangerous CO situations over the years. Other dive colleagues with the same unit have detected CO-contaminated gas on liveaboards and at dive resorts. It can be used to monitor your ambient breathing air on the dive boat, the gas in your tanks, and even your breath if you suspect a possible CO exposure.

The quote at the end of the CO in Boats article is very appropriate, " We only see what we look for, and we only look for what we know."

Peter