It is reported that more than 75% of 400 artisanal fisherman divers working off the Yucatan Peninsula experience decompression sickness (DCS) each year, making DCS an epidemic in this region. These divers use primitive hookah diving support systems (HDSS). Breathing air is supplied from inadequately filtered and poorly maintained gasoline-powered air compressors. We hypothesized that air supplies could be contaminated. Air contamination could produce symptoms consistent with some presentations of DCS. This could confound and falsely elevate the true incidence of DCS. A cross-sectional study was undertaken in a fishing community. Ten fishermen from a single cohort participated. Fishermen were instructed not to drain volume tanks following their last dive of the day before their diving air was sampled. Dräger carbon monoxide (CO) 5/a-P and carbon dioxide (CO2) 100/a Short-term Tubes were used to measure 1.0 liters (L) of gas through a Visi-Float flow meter at 0.2 L/minute. Average CO value was 42 ppm (8-150 ppm). Average CO2 was 663 ppm (600-800). Measurements exceeded recommended diving norms for CO of 20 ppm. CO2 exceeded one diving organization recommendation of 500 ppm. Separation of engine exhaust from compressor intake could decrease CO values in HDSS to acceptable standards thus eliminating one possible confounder from this DCS epidemic.
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