Q2_2020_AlertDiver

12 | SECOND QUARTER 2020 I read with keen interest your article about garbage dump diving, “Down in the Dumps” (First Quarter 2020). As a diver for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the article spoke to me in terms of the diving professions that are necessary to make the things we take for granted work — from landfills to pipes that allow sewage to flow. We need divers to perform a variety of tasks, however unseemly. As an EPA dive instructor, I would like to share how we approach contaminated-water dives.  For dives where we suspect but do not know that contamination exists, we take precautions and keep the divers dry and sealed from the environment, much like a garbage dump diver. When we know that there are high levels of contamination that could cause immediate harm to divers (e.g., organ damage, skin burns) or an unacceptable increase to their lifetime cancer risk (1 in 10,000 cancer risk or higher), we approach things a little differently.  The diver would wear a helmet that mates directly to the drysuit to minimize leakage that can occur with a full-face mask and has redundant exhaust components that can minimize the potential for contaminated droplet inhalation. We do not recommend the use of a full-face mask when diving in high levels of contamination. We immediately address drysuit leakage for contaminants that could endanger the diver’s health. The use of a helmet is also crucial when there are overhead hazards to the diver that could cause them physical harm, as was noted in this article. When heat exhaustion is possible, adding a cooling vest that uses insulated cold packs can make the job safer and more comfortable. Next we ensure that the decontamination approach will be successful for the type of contamination present, which may result in using multiple different solutions, Contaminated-Water Dives FROM THE SAFETY STOP LETTERS FROM MEMBERS GREG LASHBROOK