What's Your H2O (Safety) I.Q.?
By David Smith, Ph.D., Commander, U.S.C.G. (retired)

About The Author:

Dr. Smith is a retired U.S. Coast Guard Commander and noted aquatic and boating safety writer and lecturer. Following his retirement from 25 years' duty in the Coast Guard, Dr. Smith established a training and consulting firm dedicated to providing state of the art expert witness assistance in legal cases. In addition, his firm also provides instructional programs in water rescue and safety. Dr. Smith has taught these accident prevention and rescue tactics to fire, police, E.M.S., and lifeguarding organizations. Through his firm, Dr. Smith has provided aquatic and boating safety information to tens of thousands of individuals around the globe. He has been a prime participant in reducing North American drownings by 40% during the last fifteen years. His programs in water safety, rescue tactics, hypothermia, boating and alcohol are approved for continuing education credits in the U.S. and Canada. He has also participated as an expert for defense or plaintiffs in hundreds of boating and water recreation cases. As indicated in the following article, much of what currently passes as accepted, conventional water wisdom, even among aquatic professionals, is frequently erroneous and based on misunderstanding and conjecture, rather than fact and scientifically gained evidence.

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The following 20 questions were the basis of a key address to the First International Boating and Water Safety Summit, in 1997. The Summit was sponsored by the National Water Safety Council and The National Safe Boating Council. This article is taken from the proceedings of the Summit.

How well can you answer these twenty boating and water safety questions:

1. [a] How many drowning deaths occur in North America annually?
   (About 5000)
   [b] What is the comparison of men to women drowning victims?
   (Four or five to one, males versus females)
   [c] Why?
   (Two reasons: First, women have a greater layer of subcutaneous fat making them more buoyant than men. Second, women do not have to demonstrate machismo. Actually, ladies when relaxed in the water, almost always float horizontally due to their distributed subcutaneous fat. Relaxed men float vertically.)


2. What three primary factors are shared by most drowning deaths?
   (Inability to swim, relatively or absolutely cold water, alcohol or drug impairment)


3. What percentage of drownings involve boats?
   (Historically, about one fifth of all water related deaths were due to boating. Recently this has apparently been reduced to one seventh. Remember, especially in July this catchy saying: Is killing a fifth on the third the best way to start the Fourth?)


4. Most boating related deaths are due to _______? (Drowning)
   [a] How long does it take a child to drown? How long for an adult?
   (20 seconds average for a child, 60 seconds for an adult)
   [b] What percentage of drownings are children age four or less?
   (10%. The primary form of accidental death for children under one is drowning.)


5. How far from safety are most drownings?
   (10 feet or less)


6. How many drownings are:
   [a] observed by relatively near witnesses?
   (Estimated 60%)
   [b] initially reported to a lifeguard in a supervised setting (lifeguard does not detect)? (Estimated 70% per American Red Cross survey, 1984)


7. What are the four main types of drowning?
   (Primary--dying at the scene of submersion. Secondary--dying within 72 hours of ingesting water and/or chemicals, pollutants, or biological matter into the lungs; there may be more of these than primary drownings--no one knows exactly. Wet--displacing air with water in the lungs and sinking to the bottom. Dry--suffering a non-released spasm of the larynx/epiglottis, not ingesting water into the lungs, remaining positively buoyant but unable to breathe; about 10-15% of all drownings.)
   
   [a] What are the four signs of drowning?
   (Sign1: Head back to establish airway; Sign 2: mouth open, but no verbalization--drowning people breathe in, they do not cry out; Sign 3: above the water breast stroke; Sign 4: bobbing up and down)
   [b] What is usually not a sign of drowning?
   (Crying out)
   [c] What is the longest survival of submersion with total recovery?
   (66 minutes, summer of 1986)


8. What happens to a person wearing heavy clothing, such as fire fighter turn out gear, if they fall into the water?
   (Nothing, besides getting wet if they know what to do and have practiced fully clothed, relaxed back floating. Where is their PFD? And fire fighters' PFD's work best when worn under turn out coats.)
   
   [a] How fast does an immersed body lose heat to water?
   (Up to 25 times as fast as to air of the same temperature)
   [b] How fast does a submerged body lose heat?
   (The area above the collar bone loses about 40% of the body's heat. If the head is submerged, heat loss rates increase to at least 25 times that of similar air temperatures and higher.)
   [c] What is the difference in heat loss rate between still and moving water?
   (10 times as fast in moving water)
   [d] What are your primary heat loss areas and how should you protect them?
   (Head and neck, armpits and sides, groin. Do H.E.L.P. if alone, Huddle if with others.)
   [e] What temperature of water is cold?
   (Depending on a number of variables having to do with size, fitness, nutrition, clothing, sobriety, will to live, general health level, etc.--water less than body temperature may be lethal)


9. If an unconscious person wearing heavy clothing and a Type I or II PFD falls face forward into water, will the PFD turn them to an upright, head out of the water position?
   (Probably not. Air trapped in multiple clothing layers and boots may counter PFD turning moment. Moral: Try your PFD in the water in types of situations where you would be likely to use it. On the job training while drowning is a very poor form of education!)


10. What is torso reflex?
    (Torso reflex or inhalation response occurs when an unsuspecting, untrained person is suddenly plunged into relatively cold water. Immediate exposure to cold environments automatically results in lung inflation in order to increase metabolism. If a person's head/mouth is submerged when uncontrollably gasping they will drown. Basic protection: conditioning yourself and others to always breathe before water entry and covering your mouth on the way in.)


11. What operational characteristic of Personal Water Craft frequently confuses inexperienced operators, thereby leading to potentially serious collision situations?
    (You must maintain throttle to turn the craft. Releasing the throttle and then turning causes a PWC to continue in its original direction.)
    
    [a] At higher levels of intoxication, approaching 0.2 BAL at night, which two primary colors are difficult to discern? (Red and green)
    [b] What color is the stop light in your car?
    (See one of the two colors in 16 [a] immediately above)
    [c] What percent of fatal auto accident victims, and presumably boating victims too, have a BAL approaching 0.2?
    (Possibly as high as 25%)


12. What percent of serious boating accidents happen on sea coasts or the great lakes? (10%)
    
    [a] What is the average size of boats involved in fatal accidents?
    (Under 16 feet)
    [b] How fast is the average boating victim's craft moving at the time of the fatal accident?
    (It's sitting still or drifting. Remember, most boating deaths are due to drowning when a non PFD wearing, frequently alcohol affected, poor or non-swimmer falls out of, capsizes or swamps a small craft!)
    [c] What is the primary cause of deaths to hunters?
    (Drowning and/or immersion hypothermia)


13. What are the four behavioral effects of drinking intoxicants, ranked from those whose effects first appear at the lowest levels?
    (Balance is degraded at relatively low dosages, one or two beers per hour in an average adult male. Next is vision; then sensory integration--going from simultaneous to sequential; then judgement)


14. The basic number of persons required for safe water skiing is two, an operator and a skier. (Wrong. For the best possible safety situation, three persons should be involved: driver, skier and a specifically designated observer. The observer is not required in some states if the driver has a wide angle, rear-view mirror.)

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