On Wednesday, March 28, 2001 1:26 AM, Kuty wrote:

(snip)
> A few years ago, I had a good friend who was the manager of the diving
> operation in the "Oceanic Resarch Institute" in Israel.  She was an
> experienced diving instructor.  She was asked by the scientists, running
> the reasearch there, to set the standards for the diving operation -
> especially for the students.

(big snip)

> The safety record during her time was excellent.  A year or two after she
> left there, they had one fatal diving accident and a few non-fatal ones.
I
> wonder whether there is any connection between the events.

G'Day, Kuty! (Sorry for the delay, but I figured you were still sleeping
while I may have been typing!) :-)

As far as I'm aware the countries, (but may include others),  that either
have Scientific Diving standards; are interested in controlling the
activities of diving scientists; or are considering implementing forms of
common practice or controls, are:
Australia: Austria: Belgium: Canada: Chile: Denmark: Egypt: France: Germany:
Greece: Ireland: Italy:  The Netherlands; New Zealand; Norway; Portugal;
South Africa: Sweden:; Switzerland; Turkey; United Kingdom; United States of
America; and the European Union!

Those that actually have codes of practice for this form of diving are:
Australia: Canada: Italy: New Zealand: South Africa: United Kingdom: United
States of America.  In many instances these 'Codes' are independent of any
government controls.

I suspect, from what you say about the increased level of injury after your
friend no longer exercised control over training, that her considered input
and attitude made a difference to the approach that diving scientists
adopted.

But as one individual it depended very much on her overseeing the approach
taken by the university.  (It's one of the reasons that - at a personal
level - I believe there's often a need for a documented approach to diving
practices!)  :-)

Strike