Ten years of diving-related illness in the Royal Navy

The period from 1 January 1980 to 31 December 1989 produced a total of 244 training and operational diving accident reports involving Royal Navy and Royal Marines personnel. Because the incidence figures fluctuated widely year by year, a clear trend over the decade failed to emerge. However, the incidence of Type II decompression sickness, as a percentage of total decompression sickness, was greater in the second half of the decade than in the first, a trend similar to, although more moderate than, recent experience of dysbaric illness amongst sport divers. Student divers were disproportionately highly represented in the statistics, particularly with regard to pulmonary barotrauma and near-drowning.