Our crew inspects and cleans the rinse tanks between every dive
Gear rinse tub sanitation - a study
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I remember my first week of diving talking to my buddy who went thru OW with me about the lack of sanitation. Passing regs back and forth doing skills, rinsing the equipment in some water tank. There are some pretty nasty rinse tanks I've seen. If the water looks too nasty...I don't put my stuff in it. My mask goes off my head into my fins and into my bag...it gets rinsed on the next dive. My spare mask stays in pocket. Regs get a rinse of some kind of non-salt water, either in somewhat clean tank, water bottle, anything to get most of the salt water on it. My doubles get a hose usually when dropped off after a dive for a fill. If diving the next day I do tend to skip it.
Does it really take a study to say there's some icky stuff in a tank that people dunk things into out of some non sterile body of water? "Don't drink the water...fish wee in it."
Does it really take a study to say there's some icky stuff in a tank that people dunk things into out of some non sterile body of water? "Don't drink the water...fish wee in it."
hg frogman
Contributor
Thanks Muddiver for this interesting thread (even if the results of the study you quote aren't really surprising; mycosis can be a concern as well, though the study wasn't specific about it) and thanks NWGratefulDiver for this hilarious (and very pertinent) video of M. Carlin.
I use chemical defogger (because I found it more efficient than saliva) for my mask and when diving in the sea I always rinse it with salt water (usually not from the mask bucket). I don't see any need or reason for rinsing a mask in fresh water before a dive in the sea.
In my opinion and from what I have seen, many, many divers from all nationalities waste precious fresh water (especially in desert areas like around the Red Sea) by rinsing too much, and without real profit, their gear. I think that, apart from cameras and lamps, only the regulators (and the inflators) really benefit from immediate fresh water rinsing between the dives of the day, and after these dives ; and this can be done by each individual by just soaking his/her second stages (no need to rinse the first stage it it's a diaphragm reg) in a very small, personal, bucket (I mean just big enough that you can soak a second stage at once).
During a typical one week vacation, I think it's useless to rinse your wetsuit (especially in a communal bucket full of dirt !) unless you pissed in it; and if you pissed in it, please rinse it only in the sea, and not in the communal bucket, so others don't benefit from your intimate flora and fauna; to kill bacterias and mushrooms, it's good to expose the inner face of the suit to the sun (for a short while) till it's dry. The sun is a natural virus, bacterias, and mushrooms, killer ; just don't expose your suit too much once it's dry, otherwise the heat will damage the neopren. It's completely useless to rinse fins unless they have some stainless steels parts, and then you just need to rinse these parts with a little water. Same with a BCD. Etc. All this can be rinsed at the end of the vacation.
I prefer not to rinse my wetsuit, booties and mask than to rinse them in filthy communal fresh water (my gear may well be filthy too but I am not fond of sharing my dirt
).
I use chemical defogger (because I found it more efficient than saliva) for my mask and when diving in the sea I always rinse it with salt water (usually not from the mask bucket). I don't see any need or reason for rinsing a mask in fresh water before a dive in the sea.
In my opinion and from what I have seen, many, many divers from all nationalities waste precious fresh water (especially in desert areas like around the Red Sea) by rinsing too much, and without real profit, their gear. I think that, apart from cameras and lamps, only the regulators (and the inflators) really benefit from immediate fresh water rinsing between the dives of the day, and after these dives ; and this can be done by each individual by just soaking his/her second stages (no need to rinse the first stage it it's a diaphragm reg) in a very small, personal, bucket (I mean just big enough that you can soak a second stage at once).
During a typical one week vacation, I think it's useless to rinse your wetsuit (especially in a communal bucket full of dirt !) unless you pissed in it; and if you pissed in it, please rinse it only in the sea, and not in the communal bucket, so others don't benefit from your intimate flora and fauna; to kill bacterias and mushrooms, it's good to expose the inner face of the suit to the sun (for a short while) till it's dry. The sun is a natural virus, bacterias, and mushrooms, killer ; just don't expose your suit too much once it's dry, otherwise the heat will damage the neopren. It's completely useless to rinse fins unless they have some stainless steels parts, and then you just need to rinse these parts with a little water. Same with a BCD. Etc. All this can be rinsed at the end of the vacation.
I prefer not to rinse my wetsuit, booties and mask than to rinse them in filthy communal fresh water (my gear may well be filthy too but I am not fond of sharing my dirt
).
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vladimir
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New strains of swine and avian flu create a little hysteria because they--in contrast to the normal seasonal flu--are of unknown virulence, may have the capacity to infect the lungs, and may be completely new to the immune systems of most of the world's population. If a 1918-style virus did emerge, it would be too late to do anything about it if there was no sense of urgency in the public health community. It did get a little comical here though, when my dry cleaner took my temperature using an infrared scanner at arm's length before he would accept my laundry.
Mike Boswell
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Yes, and H1N1 is a threat to younger people:
"CDC estimates of the numbers of 2009 H1N1 cases, hospitalizations and deaths are that people younger than 65 years of age are more severely affected by 2009 H1N1 flu relative to people 65 and older compared with seasonal flu. CDC estimates that with 2009 H1N1, approximately 90% of hospitalizations and 88% of estimated deaths from April through December 12, 2009 occurred in people younger than 65 years old."
CDC H1N1 Flu | H1N1 Flu and You
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