page_title: Underwater diving
section_title: Risk management
hierarchical_section_title: Underwater diving / Risks and safety / Risk management
caption_attribution_description: English: Peter Southwood 2
context_page_description: Underwater diving, as a human activity, is the practice of descending below the water's surface to interact with the environment.
  Immersion in water and exposure to high ambient pressure have physiological effects that limit the depths and duration possible in ambient pressure diving. Humans are not physiologically and anatomically well adapted to the environmental conditions of diving, and various equipment has been developed to extend the depth and duration of human dives, and allow different types of work to be done.
  In ambient pressure diving, the diver is directly exposed to the pressure of the surrounding water. The ambient pressure diver may dive on breath-hold, or use breathing apparatus for scuba diving or surface-supplied diving, and the saturation diving technique reduces the risk of decompression sickness after long-duration deep dives. Atmospheric diving suits may be used to isolate the diver from high ambient pressure. Crewed submersibles can extend depth range, and remotely controlled or robotic machines can reduce risk to humans.
context_section_description: Risk management is obtained by the usual measures of engineering controls, administrative controls and procedures, and personal protective equipment, including hazard identification and risk assessment (HIRA), protective equipment, medical screening, training and standardised procedures. Professional divers are generally legally obliged to carry out and formally record these measures, and though recreational divers are not legally required to do many of them, competent recreational divers, and particularly technical divers, generally perform them informally but routinely, and they are an important part of technical diver training. For example, a medical statement or examination for fitness, pre-dive site assessment and briefing, safety drills, thermal protection, equipment redundancy, alternative air source, buddy checks, buddy or team diving procedures, dive planning, underwater hand signals, and carrying first aid and oxygen administration equipment are all routinely part of technical diving.
caption: Solo diver managing risk of breathing gas supply failure by carrying a bailout cylinder (slung at the diver's left side)
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