Avoiding Any Infections from Scuba Equipment

Covid-19 infection from others must now be at the focus of keeping your gear clean, especially if you are using rented or borrowed scuba equipment. Carrying your own mouthpiece may bring peace of mind, but remember that the air you inhale has rattled around inside the body of the second stage of the regulator before it gets to you. You need to be confident the regulator remains pathogen-free, especially if it's rented.

You see, in closed-circuit equipment, the rebreather counter-lung mirrors the user's own lungs, so it is essential that no lung infection gets introduced into the closed circuit. The medium of choice, as recommended by major CCR manufacturers, appears to be a 1:100 solution of ChemGene HLD4L. One should soak counter-lungs and corrugated breathing hoses in it to kill any pathogens, then thoroughly rinse in potable fresh water.

ChemGene HLD4L is a high-level laboratory surface disinfectant with claimed efficacy against viruses as well as mycobacteria and fungi. https://tinyurl.com/tn79oek

Unfortunately, the company has closed for the duration and is now unable to ship orders.

Another disinfectant, this one recommended by Poseidon for its CCRs, is Schülke Gigazyme, which is readily available through most of its CCR distributors.

According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), many household cleaners are effective against Coronavirus. Sanitizing equipment can be by immersing it in a 10 percent solution of household bleach or using cleaning products such as Sterimine tablets. A comprehensive list of products suggested by the American Chemistry Council Center for Biocide Chemistries can be found here: https://tinyurl.com/rq9teqr

A note of caution: After disinfecting kit, always rinse off with plenty of cold potable water until all the disinfectant has been washed away and then allow to dry naturally. Also, clean snorkels and BC oral inflation valves.

However clean your regulator, dropping it into a rinse tank will undo all your good work. Maybe it's better now to hold it under a freshwater shower after a dive. Or just leave it as it is until the next dive. One must wonder if The Virus will mean an end to rinse tanks.

If you're using a borrowed or rented mask, you can give it a good cleaning with an antiseptic wet wipe beforehand, then rinse it with potable fresh water. (It's something to consider when trying different masks for fit in a dive store.)

Since many divers today still spit in their masks to defog them, it makes no sense to drop yours into a rinse tank, which has become a communal spit bucket. These rinse-buckets have always been a major source of cross-infection between divers.

There's little evidence that infections such as athlete's foot or verrucae can be transmitted to bare feet through rented slipper-fins, but if you are worried, it's a simple matter to employ some ordinary nylon socks, which also will reduce the chance of minor abrasions from rubbing.

Luckily, scuba equipment gets regularly washed with millions of gallons of seawater, so apart from breathing equipment, there's little else to worry about. That said, that hot towel you might be handed on reboarding your boat -- who used it before you? Some liveaboards simply tumble-dry towels between dives. They are not laundered, so you need to be assured that you are using the same towel each time. Many liveaboards identify these towels by a cabin-number tag, but some guests can be casual about searching out the one allocated to them. Maybe take your own clearly identifiable towel and ask the crew to substitute it? Yes, times have changed. Will anyone ever practice buddy breathing again?

- John Bantin