Diving in dark water
Nick Bailey, Discovering Safety — Diving Project lead, Health and Safety Executive offers a new take on public safety diving
RISK AWARENESS
Discovering Safety is an ambitious programme, which aims to bring about a step change in global health and safety performance using data and analytical techniques to provide new insights. As part of this research programme we have been looking at the current and past aspects of one sector of the diving industry, that of Public Safety Diving.
Diving is a high risk activity where the worker is in an environment hostile to normal human existence and requires a life support system and knowledge of physiological limitations to be able to carry out the work required. Diving work, whether from the offshore platforms of oil and gas infrastructures or in a dive school providing SCUBA experiences to children in a swimming pool, takes place throughout the UK and internationally. Police or Fire and Rescue personnel may be professional or part time members of a Public Safety Diving team. Their tasks can be challenging and unpleasant, such as looking for bodies following an incident or searching for evidence to support crime investigation officers. These people enter mostly dark cold water that may be swift moving, polluted, or contaminated with debris or pathogens. In some areas of the world there can be apex predators such as sharks or crocodiles in the water as well.
UNDERSTANDING RISK IN PUBLIC SAFETY DIVING
For the study we have looked at how UK Police Diving (as all public safety diving in the UK is
“Police or Fire and Rescue personnel may be professional or part time members of a Public Safety Diving team. Their tasks can be challenging and unpleasant, such as looking for bodies…” 18
PROFESSIONAL DIVER • SPRING 2020
