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I learned to snorkel and free dive using a cheap mask and snorkel with no purge valve when I was young and too adventurous, but no problems. I always thought these looked questionable...
Full-face snorkel mask causes IPO fatality
Coroner warns full-face snorkel masks 'putting millions' at risk following the death of a snorkeller from Immersion Pulmonary Oedema (IPO)
divemagazine.com
A coroner has warned that full-face snorkel masks could be putting ‘millions of people’ at risk, following the death in 2020 of a tourist brought on by Immersion Pulmonary Oedema (IPO) while snorkelling near the Red Sea Resort of Hurghada.
IPO is a build-up of fluid in the lungs caused by an increase in pressure in the pulmonary capillaries, leading to a lack of oxygen (hypoxia) which can be fatal if not treated rapidly. People suffering from high blood pressure (hypertension) are particularly at risk due to the additive effects of being submerged in cool water.
The 63-year-old snorkeller, Angela Kearn, had recently been diagnosed with high blood pressure and was also undergoing hormone replacement therapy, which the coroner reported had also contributed to her death.
Ms Kearn had been wearing an ‘Easybreath’ full-face snorkel mask that she had purchased 5 years earlier and had previously used without incident. However, she began experiencing difficulties while snorkelling during her trip in January 2020, and died at Hurghada’s Nile Hospital after being taken from the water.
Full-face snorkel masks have long been thought to be the underlying cause of a number of snorkelling fatalities. Concerns were raised in 2018 following a series of snorkelling deaths in Hawaii, widely reported at the time to have been caused by an excessive build-up of carbon dioxide in the mask.
Egypt’s Chamber of Diving and Watersports (CDWS) warned against the use of full-face snorkel masks in August, 2020.