Comment by Swannie
9 years ago
Absolutely. This is also well known in the amateur caving community too, who follow similar practices to those outlined by yourself. I too find this crazy.
As they say in the diving industry about water and confined spaces: a deceptively easy way to die.
I've just realised that the word document linked to actually seems to be dated 1974 (google makes it seem possible that the incident was 1971). It doesn't excuse anything but I like to think we've gotten a bit better since then. I get the impression in caving circles at least, "bad air" is much better understood these days.
(irrelevant, but for the record, cave diving scares the pants off've me =) )
An PDF scan[1] shows that it's from the Vol. 11, No. 3 ("Spring 1966") issue of "Michigan's Occupational Health".
[1] http://www.michigan.gov/documents/lara/lara_miosha_moh_bulle...