Models and Pretty Fish

I remember the first time I saw it - a full face mask with a snorkel incorporated into it. The video ad displayed a gorgeous model frolicking in the waves and looking at all the pretty fishies.

How could I not want one? I’d instantly be catapulted into the elite social strata of “models who frolic in waves and look at pretty fishies”. A dream come true for this old man.

And then, in January 2018, nine people passed away while snorkeling/diving in Maui, Hawaii. Now, out of fairness to the facts, the majority of snorkeling fatalities belong to inexperienced snorkelers, there are also the mitigating factors such as age and physical ability. Two of the nine deaths happened while the snorkeler was wearing a full face mask/snorkel combination.

Suddenly, frolicking in the waves with gorgeous models and looking at the pretty fishies didn’t seem too appealing.

Fast forward a year… my company manufactures breathing and metabolic simulators. Our machines simulate human beings - the Automated Breathing and Metabolic Simulator (ABMS) is designed and manufactured using the International Standards Organization’s 16900 series of requirements. This allows us to test every type of respiratory protective device (RPD)- and guess what our little model wearing snorkel mask is?

You called it - it’s a type of respiratory protective device - in other words, the snorkel full face mask protects us from breathing in water. It’s a stretch but bear with me…

Knowing what I know about diving, I spent 20 years as a United States Navy Deep Sea Diver - No, I’m not a SEAL - I’m a different kind of crazy - as ole Master Chief Billy Sunday (Robert De Niro) said in the greatest movie ever - Men of Honor, “The Navy Diver is not a fighting man, he is a salvage expert. If it is lost underwater, he finds it. If it’s sunk, he brings it up… If he’s lucky, he will die young, 200 feet beneath the waves, for that is the closest he’ll ever get to being a hero.” I might know a little bit about breathing underwater.

So, thinking like this, I got my grubby little hands on one of these things and strapped it to our grey man model, turned on my ABMS, and viola.

Long story short…I called my lawyer. 

I jumped a head a little bit. Let me start at the beginning... We pulled the mask out of it’s box and took a close look at how it was made. We found a couple of things that caused concern: one of the flapper valves was deformed, and the oro-nasal assembly (where your mouth and nose go) wouldn’t create a seal to the user’s face. These are potentially huge issues!

If this was a Navy dive side, all hell would break loose because we were going to hurt the diver. We weren't in the water, nor on the side... so off we went.

We quickly brainstormed what a tourist would do- they'd just strap it onto their head and jump on in. Now we knew we’d get some really high carbon dioxide numbers, but, if we wanted to know what the untrained, novice snorkeler would be exposed to as they go to frolic with the models and fishies we had to test it.

So, we strapped it to Dragon the ABMS (check out our site: Ator Labs to see some videos showing what an ABMS is). We ran her (yes... all of our ABMS' are named after ladies) for 5 minutes while she wore the mask and here’s what she told us: 

With the manufacturing defect, you are inhaling 1.79% CO2 - all this at a nice slow snorkeling pace. For comparison, we normally breathe between .04 - .06% CO2. That’s a 191% difference. For those of you that like science: The evaluation was at 18 RMV with a .72 CO2 injection rate (at STP).

Now - what does this mean to you? It means that you are starting out with a lower percentage of Oxygen and a higher percentage of CO2. Seems simple enough, right? 

Here’s where it gets tricky - there’s this thing called Shallow Water Blackout. Cool name, bad day…

Here’s what happens according to the US Navy Diving Manual (cool guy link: https://www.navsea.navy.mil/Portals/103/Documents/SUPSALV/Diving/Dive%20Manual%20Rev%207%20Change%20A.pdf) : Most people can hold their breath approximately 1 minute, but usually not much longer without training or special preparation. At some time during a breath holding attempt, the desire to breathe becomes uncontrollable. The demand to breathe is signaled by the respiratory center responding to the increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the arterial blood and peripheral chemoreceptors responding to the corresponding fall in oxygen partial pressure. During the breathhold, it takes an appreciable time for the body stores of carbon dioxide to return to the normal level then to rise to the point where breathing is stimulated. During this time, the oxygen partial pressure may fall below the level necessary to maintain consciousness… Air in the lungs is compressed during descent, raising the oxygen partial pressure. The increased oxygen readily satisfies the body’s oxygen demand during descent and while on the bottom, even though a portion is being consumed by the body. During ascent, the remaining oxygen is reduced rapidly as the hydrostatic pressure lessens. If the oxygen falls below 10%, unconsciousness may result.

Basically, a snorkeler takes a couple of really deep breaths - this causes the level of CO2 in the body to drop and the level of oxygen in the blood to rise. The snorkeler leaves the surface and swims around (10 -15 feet) looking at all the pretty fishies, this action causes the level of oxygen to artificially increase - meaning the body thinks it has more oxygen and less CO2 than it really does on the surface. 

When the snorkeler comes back to the surface, the opposite happens: the perceived amount of oxygen rapidly decreases and the amount of carbon dioxide rapidly increases. This abnormal drop in oxygen coupled with the abnormal rise in carbon dioxide has the potential to cause a loss of consciousness. I don’t know about you guys, but being unconscious underwater doesn’t sound like a good time - like frolicking with models while looking at fishies.

Please, please, please be careful out there. Check your gear before you use it - it’ll save your life.

Breathe easy, we got your back,

Rob