DEPTH Blog

The most useful snippets from our authors, all in one place. DEPTH discusses topics of diving, equipment and environment, physics and physiology, technique and technology, and hyperbarics.

New: BPC Diver Education Partner Program

Coming in 2025 BPC will be rolling out a new "Diver Education Partner" program! 

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How to Establish a New Income Stream for Your Dive Business

We hope you got to see our Booth Reps, Alyson and Beth last week at DEMA Show in Las Vegas, NV (pictured below). Best Pub Co was at DEMA Show talking to dive business owners about how to establish a new income stream by reselling our books. 

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Open Water Scuba Diver Certification Supplemental Book Set

Attention Dive Shops & Dive Pros! We're sharing a sneak peek at a new book bundle for distributors that will be rolled out at DEMA Show 202 - it's called the Open Water Scuba Diver Certification Supplemental Book Set. 

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Hal Lomax, Author

If you ever have the opportunity meet Hal Lomax in person, you're in for a treat. Hal is a fascinating human with a rich life story around the sea and commercial diving, and one of the nicest and most humble people you'll ever meet. 

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Anatomy of the Skin (An Introduction)

Anatomy of the Skin Anatomy of the Skin An Introduction

Skin is an integumentary system at the interface between the human organism and its environment. The boundary limits of skin are found at its transition to mucosal surfaces of the respiratory, alimentary, and urogenital systems; at the conjunctival epithelium of the eye; at the ductal epithelium of the lacrimal and mammary ducts; and at the tympanic membrane of the ear.

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How Accidents Happen In The Hyperbaric Environment

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For some accidents there is a "smoking gun". However, most accidents are caused by a combination of factors, each of which contributes in some manner. Often these factors accumulate over some period of time preceeding the accident. This chapter addresses the factors that foster conditions under which accidents are more likely to happen and discusses some of the steps to be taken to avoid them. Also included is a case history illustrating several of the factors. 

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The 2 Aspects of Hyperbaric Safety

Learn Hyperbaric Facility Safety

There are two distinct aspects to the field of hyperbaric medicine that influence safety: 

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Kid-Friendly Earth Day Ideas and Resources

Earth-Day-Kids-Website-Graphics Celebrate Earth Day with BestKids Club

Kid-Friendly Ideas and Resources

Create Egg Carton Turtles

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Tribute to Alese Pechter: A life of love, joy, and wonder

Alese Pechter, an icon of the scuba diving industry, has left a legacy of love, joy, and constant wonder at the world around her. 

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An Unexpected Odyssey

We had entered a dense fog bank! I had a rather helpless feeling, as a boy of 18, guiding 2,300 tons of steel into the unknown at ten knots, with no way of notifying anyone. Fortunately after a few minutes, which seemed like an eternity, the mate returned to the bridge. Flipping on the radar on the port side of the wheelhouse, he remarked, "Looks like we've got a bit of thick weather." He stepped out on the bridge wing and blew his police whistle to alert Kalle Holm, my watch partner. Kalle immediately stuck his head over the top of the bridge ladder and was ordered to the bow to stand lookout. 

When the radar had warmed up, the mate said, "Looks like we've got another ship out there. Give her five degrees starboard."

I heard the ship's bell strike three times . . . It was the other ship's bow lookout and we were directly in his path! I saw a huge bow as high as our wheelhouse loom out of the fog!"

The above is just one of the hair-raising experiences described by Dr. Kindwall as he writes of his time in the merchant marines, and via Yale and Harvard, running a safe-house for the CIA, submarine school, patrol on an early Polaris nuclear submarine, and work with "sandhogs" in compressed air tunnel construction. 

Find more details here about the book, "Unexpected Odyssey, From Merchant Sailor to Hyperbaric Physician" by Eric P. Kindwall, MD

 

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What can be used to disinfect acrylic chambers?

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In many hospitals that treat hyperbaric patients, the task at hand is getting the infection control policy makers to understand that many of the hospital-based disinfectants cannot safely be used on the acrylics of both multiplace and monoplace chambers. The most-asked question is, “What can now be used to disinfect acrylic chambers?” With the increasing concern over nosocomial infections and the possible effect they have on patient outcomes, keeping the hyperbaric chamber infection free is a major concern for all. On page 274 of Hyperbaric Facility Safety: A Practical Guide, 2nd Edition you can find the most current list of disinfectants that can used on the acrylic portion on both multiplace and monoplace chambers, and the products that have been identified acceptable for use on acrylic hyperbaric chambers for infection control.

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Gas Gangrene: Antiobiotics vs. HBO2

Although the incidence of clostridial myonecrosis infections has dropped precipitously in recent decades, it always remins a threat in injuries where contamination and severe tissue disruption have occurred. The decreased incidence of clostridial myonecrosis is attributed to the increased diligence of clinicians in preventing clostridial organisms from proliferating. This has been realized through the immediate initiation of antibiotics in open injuries, the use of prophylactic antibiotics in surveries, and the appreciation of the value of meticulous debridements in injuries where amssive contamination (e.g., farm-related), severe trauma to tissues (e.g., combat-related), and tissue death from hypoxia have occurred. 

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Clinical Presentation of Carbon Monoxide Poisoning

Carbon monoxide exposed patients commonly present with nonspecific symptoms that mimic influenza-like illnesses (Table 1). Symptoms typically include headache, dizziness, nausea, vomting, weakness, and fatigue. The most common symptom reports is headache.

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Dr. Michael Strauss Receives Inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award

Dr. Michael Strauss received the inaugural Best Publishing Company Lifetime Achievement Award on Thursday, June 28, 2018. The award was presented during the UHMS Annual Scientific Meeting in Orlando, Florida.

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Your Complimentary Copy of the UHMS Pressure Newsletter - 2018 First Quarter Issue

 

Our friends and colleagues at the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society (UHMS) invite you to enjoy a complimentary copy of Pressure, the Society's bimonthly newsletter.

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[Videos] Penguins in Antarctica

Dan Orr, author of Scuba Diving Safetyrecently returned from a trip to Antarctica. He shared these two videos for BestKids Club members to enjoy.

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DEMA Show 2017 - Booth #2438

 

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Upcoming Events Fall 2017

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Spending Time with Mary Higgins Clark

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Recently Alese Pechter, author of Skyward Bound attended the BookExpo in New York City, NY. BookExpo is the largest trade book show in the USA. She was promoting her recently released children's book, Skyward BoundWhile at the show, Alese had the good fortune of meeting and spending time with world famous author Mary Higgins Clark who was also at the show promoting her new book. 

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Dan Orr Kicks Off Shark Week Celebration in Driggs, Idaho

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Dan Orr is no stranger to shark diving. In 2008 he took his first shark dive trip to Guadalupe Island, Mexico, and Dan was instantly hooked.

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