Correspondence (letter to the editor): Emergency Equipment on Diving Boats

Diving sites used during holidays almost never have rapid access to a decompression chamber. Boats rarely carry oxygen on board. For this reason I have the following advice for diving stations, which is put into practice in a few cases: keep a full, compressed air cylinder in the boat. Attach a breathing regulator on a 10-meter high-pressure hose (available from retailers of diving accessories) and lower down. In the first signs of decompression sickness, take a dive down to the regulator, preferably accompanied (your own cylinder is most probably empty by this stage) and decompress once more, slowly. A fast and effective measure.