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Safety and Health Topics: |
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| Commercial
Diving |
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In Focus |
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Professional divers consist of a diverse group of individuals
and companies involved in a wide range of activities. Divers are exposed not
only to the possibility of drowning but also to a variety of occupational safety
and health hazards such as respiratory and circulatory risks, hypothermia, low
visibility, and physical injury from the operation of heavy equipment under water.
All employees, whether classified as commercial divers or not, who dive as part
of their job assignment, are exposed to underwater hazards. The type, length,
frequency of dive and the type of operation increase the already high risk of
this strenuous work. Additional hazards are also associated with the actual work
of underwater cutting and welding, materials handling, hull scrubbing, and other
types of work using hand and power tools. The following questions
link to resources that provide information about commercial diving.
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In Focus |
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What's New
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Commercial Diving Operations.
OSHA Federal Register Entry (2004, February 17). OSHA is
issuing this final rule to amend its Commercial Diving Operations (CDO)
standards. This final rule allows employers of recreational diving instructors
and diving guides to comply with an alternative set of requirements instead of
the decompression-chamber requirements in the current CDO standards.
News Releases
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OSHA Amends Commercial Diving Operations Standard. OSHA News
Release (2004, February 13). OSHA has amended its commercial diving operations standard to allow
recreational diving instructors and guides the opportunity to use
alternatives to an on-site decompression chamber. The revision only
impacts recreation divers who rely on SCUBA gear at depths of 130 feet
or less. These divers can use nitrox breathing gas under specified
conditions, making a decompression chamber near the dive site
unnecessary. The revised standard was published in a Feb. 17, 2004
Federal Register notice.
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| Revised: 16
March 2004 |
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