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Dangers of Diving

Diving has exposed the public to the many underwater wonders of the world. The beauty of the various kinds of life that is in the deep blue hides the biggest danger of diving. It isn’t sharks or boats or anything else that may exist on or in the water. The real danger to divers is Caisson disease, or decompression sickness.

Also known as the bends, the disease can afflict anyone who goes from a high pressure to low pressure environment. The illness results from Henry’s law, which says in short that when the pressure goes down, gas will form bubbles in a fluid. In the case of the bends, the fluid is the blood and the gas is typically nitrogen.

When the process occurs slowly, such as in an airplane cabin, the lungs can remove the gas before bubbles form. When it occurs quickly, such as a diver coming up too fast, it can result in itching skin and rashes, pain in the joints, paralysis and potentially death.

Prevention of Bends

Preventing the bends requires the diver to ascend slowly, allowing the gas to naturally de-gas. The number of variables to consider when calculating the time needed for slow surfacing makes it very difficult to determine. That is why the dive computer was invented. With its specialized timers and sensors, it can determine how deep the diver is and how long the diver was at that depth. A diving computer conducts its calculations in real time and determines how much time the diver needs to spend at a particular level to surface safely and prevent the bends.

Just about every brand and model of dive computer possesses the capability to sense the time that a diver has been at different depths. From this data, the dive computer can calculate the divers blood gas levels and give the diver a time interval within which the diver can resurface safely and not worry about the bends. It provides all the necessary information for a safe dive, such as surface time intervals, maximum dive depth, water temperatures and so on.

The Diver Interface

Many forms of divers computer will have visual displays, which should be clearly read and visible while diving. The display of the dive computer should be uncluttered, so the diver does not experience information overload. In addition to the above information, better models of diving computers will display information such as the temperature of the water, the required decompression time at each depth and how fast the diver is rising. Many higher end models will transmit the entire dive to a computer for later analysis.

Certain defining features can really set a dive computer ahead of the pack. By the time a diver has surfaced, high end dive watches will display the time before a diver can board an airplane. One of the quickest ways to get the bends is to board an airplane too soon. High end models are also able to keep track of the air supply in the scuba tanks.

When it comes to shopping for a dive computer, the consumer should identify how much information is provided on the display and if the display is clear and readable. They should also see what other features there are and what is being kept track of in terms of diving quantities. An excellent example of a quality diving computer would be the Suunto D9.

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This entry was posted on Friday, January 9th, 2009 at 5:01 pm and is filed under Scuba Diving. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.