Volume 62 (2018): Edition 1 (March 2018)

The quality of breathing air plays a key role in the safety of divers and hyperbaric facilities. Paradoxically, the change of regulations concerning quality requirements for breathing mixes has imposed the need for verification of the technical and laboratory bases used in their production and control. This article presents the results of research related to the rationalisation of the process of production and supply of breathing air for the purposes of hyperbaric oxygenation. The work was carried out using the SixSigma method.

When a man has mastered the ability to travel by sea, he began to wonder what is the depth clearance under the keel and how to measure the depth. Initially, only coastal shipping was practiced. Cargo ship sailing, fishery, underwater scientific research, recreational diving as well as resource exploration and operation of submarine cables and pipelines laying were developing dynamically in this part of the continental shelf. That is why accurate bathymetric information was of great importance to masters, scientists, fishermen, ship-owners and all seafarers.

Cartographic compilation of even a primitive nautical chart was a huge challenge. It was a painstaking process and required, first and foremost, a large amount of data, which was primarily obtained through not efficient measurements. As technology progresses, new techniques and methods of ocean exploration have developed. The technology, systems, devices and instruments of underwater exploration have gone through a long way of change, modernization and improvements, ultimately creating the potential for a bottom surface visualization as three-dimensional spatial models. A significant role has been played by multibeam echosounder which revolutionized the hydrographic surveys and proved to be efficient means of hydrographic and oceanographic surveys.

The aim of the article is to conduct a literature review in relation to the psychological aspects of diving. The acquired knowledge can currently be qualified as belonging to various branches of applied psychology, as well as underwater medicine, sports medicine, psychiatry and psychotherapy. The literature on this subject matter raises two main issues of the psychological perspective: the degree of psychological adaptation of an individual to the underwater environment, and the psychophysical condition of a man involved in a specific type of diving and the resulting skills/competences to perform underwater tasks. The article presents selected reports from around the world related to diving psychology resulting from the applied structure/classification of psychological theories, explaining various mechanisms of psychological functioning underwater. The paper presents studies from the perspective of psychodynamics, psychology of health/stress, psychology of individual differences and personality. The main conclusions indicate that in addition to the main problem of an optimal/lack of adaptation of humans to the underwater environment, there is insufficient psychological knowledge (including Polish reports) in the area of personality differences between various types of divers, their social functioning, mental health and psychoeducation with regard to underwater exposures.

Therapy with hyperbaric oxygen (HBOT) was first used in pediatrics in Russia in the 1920s (1927). At present, HBOT is used in children in similar indications as in adults, as well as in perinatal, neurologic and neuro-developmental conditions, even though there is only limited evidence of it offering any benefit for such conditions. The aim of this publication is to present current indications and risks of the use of HBOT in children.

Pathogenic micro-organisms can easily transfer from the surface of a diver’s skin onto the surfaces of a protective suit. A long-term stay in a hyperbaric chamber during a saturation dive increases the risk of infection if in the chamber there is even a single carrier of disease-causing pathogens.

The conducted research has confirmed that the diving equipment located in Diving Centres is a place of many different bacteria and fungi, including pathogenic ones. The vast majority of microbes found on the surfaces of wetsuits, etc. are commensals (with some being opportunistic organisms). This fact allows us to realise that the surfaces of diving equipment are an excellent “transmission route” for various dermatoses and other diseases. In order to reduce the risk of infection the diving equipment used by various people should be subject to the process of decontamination. The authors recommend decontamination with the use of gaseous hydrogen peroxide which does not cause damage to equipment.

During the last decades, there has been a rapid development in the research and use of hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBO), and modern medicine is increasingly taking advantage of its beneficial effects. The aim of the study was to check the level of knowledge of future doctors (medical students) on hyperbaric oxygen therapy.

The survey was conducted among 240 students of the medical faculty (3rd and 5th year of study) of the Military and Medical Faculty of the Medical University of Lodz. The author’s questionnaire with forced-choice questions was used as research tool.

The students’ knowledge of hyperbaric oxygen therapy was varied and in some cases was not dependent on the year of study. It was observed that students’ knowledge of the subject matter depends on the number of teaching hours allocated to it.

This paper presents an analysis of thermal and oxygen conditions of the Charzykowskie Lake in the years 2014-2016 in the period from May to August. The measurements were carried out once a month, at points representing three different basins in the lake, and the temperatures and oxygen content dissolved in the water were recorded every 1m from the surface to the bottom at the deepest point of each basin. The changes in temperatures and content of dissolved oxygen were analysed in each of the representative measurement points for particular parts of the lake. It has been shown that the deficit of oxygen dissolved in the bottom layers of the water starts occurring by the beginning of the summer stagnation period, whereas at its peak (August) the anaerobic zone includes hypolimnion and part of the metalimnion. The hypothesis that the thickness of the thermal layers varies within the lake basin was confirmed. It was also shown that the oxygen content curve at representative points, in all years of research, evolves to the form of a clinograde at the peak of summer stagnation, where the concentration of dissolved oxygen decreases with the depth.