Fitness to dive – a translational approach to physiological challenges in the hyperbaric working environment

Diving is a novel challenge to human physiology, and as a profession it is essential for under-water work where machines and robots are unsuited – as is frequently the case in Norwegian offshore industry. With continuing exploration and development of underwater projects, improved technology has led to reduced risk of injury from diving. But divers experience significant physiological stress, the functional basis and health challenges of which are still only partially understood. Divers are exposed to rapid pressure changes, elevated ambient pressure and potentially toxic levels of breathing gas components, all of which confer risk of adverse health effects. Additional risk may come from exposure to pollutants in closed hyperbaric habitats. Better understanding of the biological mechanisms that uphold physiological balances in the body of a diver is needed. Applicable knowledge of how specific factors such as individual capacity for oxygen uptake, vascular health and nutritional status affects fitness to dive may aid in choosing and preparing divers for underwater tasks. In addition to acute risk, there are potential long-term detrimental effects of diving. There is a need for prospective studies of the central nervous system after saturation diving, where retrospective studies have provided inconclusive or conflicting results. Ethical and tehnical barriers often prevent appropriate human studies of extreme physiology. In this project we study rats as well as human divers to examine acute and long-term effects of saturation diving on the circulatory and central nervous system, with the aim of generating knowledge that promotes safe human diving.