EPA’s Use of Online Contaminated Water Dive PSD FATALITY Planning Tools Immersion Pulmonary Edema WATER: Just a Drop Dental Barotrauma, Can Kill You Candida Infection and 'Choices' PSDiver Monthly Issue 96 Greetings word pork floated around their table. No one knew the word. They looked back at me questioningly. .. I Once when my wife and I were in Florence, Italy we thought for a second and then shoved my nose up and went to a restaurant we heard about from a local. It flat and snorted.. shornk shnok … They lit up in turned out to be one of the best eating places on that understanding and smiled and laughed at the crazy trip. We had something Italian and a pitcher of wine. American. When I say laugh, I mean tears flowing, And it was very good wine… snot dripping, laugh. Even the guy at the head of the table cracked a smile. I thought they were making fun We finished our meal before we finished the wine and it of me at first until I realized they were happy and was so pleasant to be there we took our time and relieved of the language barrier. They all ordered the sipped on our wine. The waiter spoke only broken pork. English and my Italian was just about as good so we enjoyed the game of talking to each other. Between When we left, they all waved and smiled and said... customers he would come by our table and we tried to something in Japanese… chat. We had found some common ground – food. A group of 16 Japanese women came in followed by a single man. He sat at the head of the table and looked I read a variety of magazines related to the fire miserable when the rest of the women sat across from service, ems and even law enforcement. In the ones I each other talking nonstop. The waiter introduced seem to enjoy most, they offer a section where himself and asked if they would like anything before subscribers or readers can submit recipes. One of the they ordered. He was met with blank stares. They did few things we all have in common is food and not speak Italian and he did not speak Japanese. They sometimes I try out a recipe that looks like it will be looked to us for help and I quickly discovered that none good. of them spoke English either. Stalemate…. With that in mind, I am inviting you to submit your A few of the women pulled out laminated pictures of own recipes. Starting with this issue I am adding a new food on plates and pointed at various things while the feature for us to share our favorite family recipes. For waiter tried to figure out what they wanted. One of the now it is simply called For Foodies. I would appreciate women looked across at me and held her hands up and any recommendations for a name change too… just smiled faintly. Dive Safe! If you would like to submit an Most of our pitcher was gone by now so I told her the Mark Phillips article, mission report, recipe or pork dinner was really good. A noise similar to the Editor / Publisher comment, email to: LETTER TO THE EDITOR PSDiver Monthly Issue 96 2 cars and ambulances are overheating. Air conditioners Special To PSDiver once thought to be accessories are not able to keep up with the extreme heat. Water – Just a Drop Can Kill You Let’s face it, it is hot and we know it. Protect yourself Mark Phillips from heat injuries, stay hydrated. We know that. Maybe Global Warming is becoming more of a reality than Since we are experiencing such extreme temperatures we thought. Maybe we as aware and intelligent people are our local water ways – even those that are tidal or flowing starting to pay more attention to the cause and effect of - are being affected. They are warming up and some things. Maybe we are noticing a planetary cycle that has shallower waters are getting hot. always existed but we were not able to recognize it before As PSDivers we have more issues to deal with. Do we now. Regardless of which statement you hold to be true, allow our divers to dive in jeans and a t-shirt so they do it is hot and keeps getting hotter. not overheat on shore? Or do we have them suit up in an Our firefighters are working more than ever to control encapsulated dry suit shell and supply them with drinking more frequent and larger water until they are wildfires. Urban through with their dive firefighters are learning rotation and can undress? that they have to monitor With limited personnel or themselves and each equipment, that may be a other for heat related real decision for a lot of us. injuries. Incident We know our local waters. Command is learning to We know what is safe…. put a much higher Right? priority on rehabbing But – there is always a but crews. isn’t there? Police Officers are As the temperature rises sometimes torn between and maintains, the overheating in a microorganisms that live in bulletproof vest and that water will likely having to deal with flourish and multiply. questionable individuals Warm water can be home while unprotected. Squad to a very large number of PSDiver Monthly Issue 96 3 microorganisms that proper PPE for protection. The point has been hammered we cannot see with the home a number of times. naked eye - nasty creatures that can What we did not discuss is what is going to get you and cause our divers any what it will do to you. We keep pretending that we are number of ailments aware of our risks and that “it will never happen here”. from stomach cramps We tell ourselves that we have to do the job because no to rapid death. As one else will and justify our risk when in fact, the best divers we work in water course of action may be to do nothing but wait for a body and we expose to float and hope we can find it. ourselves to these We accept risk based on our current knowledge and do creatures through a what we do. There is hope that we will CONTINUE to learn variety of routes of more and recognize more and greater risks and modify transmission. These our risk assessments. exposures can come from ingestion of the Coliform is the name given to water, dermal contact a whole group of bacteria either by contact with which can occur in water. skin or mucus Divided into two groups and membranes or through measured in cells in 100ml of inhalation. water. The two groups are identified as Total coliform How can this be? Contact with skin we get. Mucus contact and Fecal coliform. Fecal with water – think about how many times you wipe your coliform is the more serious nose when you are in the water. Ingestion though, that group and the one we are never happens because your regulator is never left most concerned with. dangling in the water, right? Oh, you use full face masks. And you ALWAYS adhere to mask on BEFORE you enter What follows can be verified the water and mask off when you EXIT the water? OR with independent research does it sometimes find itself dangling in the water too? and you are encouraged to When it does, the air coming into the mask has the ability do so. to atomize, causing you to breath in water droplets. Every now and then we hear But, we know that. We have droned on and on about how about or read about flesh eating bacteria. We gross out at our divers can be contaminated and how they need the thought, feel bad for the poor soul who got it and PSDiver Monthly Issue 96 4 marvel at how fast the doctors amputated a leg, arm or sign of infection. It can other body part. It is really an infection that is caused by enter your body through bacteria called Streptococcus pyogenes. The infection is any break in the skin. known as necrotizing fasciitis. ANY break. Necrotizing fasciitis, even gangrene, can be caused by Because the list of signs more than one type of bacteria. Streptococcus iniae is a and symptoms of the vast pathogen found in freshwater fish that can cause infection number of organisms is in humans through injuries received by handling the fish. somewhat similar, Streptococcus pyogenes is mostly found in warm salt consider that ANYTIME water and seems to be most reported near or on coastal within 2 to 48 hours after areas. a dive you experience swelling, redness, It can be fatal. At its worst, to stop it from spreading, tenderness, itching or almost immediate amputation of an effected limb is pussing of a wound, performed. Redness and swelling caused by cellulitis is a headaches, unusual muscle soreness, skin blistering, fever or chills, vomiting or diarrhea, a change in taste or smell, bleeding from the ears or eyes, hallucinations – you need to seek immediate medical help. How will your agency treat you? Will you be able to file for medical coverage under your workman’s comp or will you be told it took too long for you to file and be denied? 48 hours after you dive you come down with wild symptoms – will YOU think to relate it to a possible exposure in the water? A bug that literally eats your flesh that is super aggressive and hard to stop.