The significance of health selection among divers and its effect on diving safety

Diving is a kind of human activity that requires special health predispositions due to the nature of an aquatic environment. The environment of an increased atmospheric pressure imposes a significantly greater burden on the respiratory and circulatory system as compared with normobaric conditions. Due to their health status, not everyone among those that wish to take up diving should undergo diving training, as diving can have an adverse effect on their condition while staying under water and considerably raise the risk of an occurrence of a diving accident. As regards diving activities performed within the Armed Forces, individuals with particular health burdens are eliminated via the medical checks conducted at the time of recruitment to the diving service. The checks, based on detailed parameters and described in legal acts, minimise the risk of an occurrence of a diving accident. This problem is quite different when it comes to recreational diving, where quite often, by presenting a health certificate, an interested diver candidate begins a training course and further individual diving activities while being aware of a medical condition that may affect their future safety under water. An analysis of the effect of health selection on the level of diving safety was performed.