Full-face Snorkeling Mask Implicated Again

Worries over deaths caused by full-face snorkeling masks led to their ban in Hawaii. Undercurrent has written many articles (see January and March 2020 issues), on several problems, including trapped CO2.

In 2020, a British snorkeler, 63-year-old Angela Kearn, died while using a full-face snorkeling mask in Egypt's Red Sea. The cause of death was attributed to immersion pulmonary edema (IPE). At the inquest this year, a UK coroner issued a public warning about the risk to a snorkeler using a full-face mask who has underlying health conditions.

Kearn had been snorkeling with a Decathlon Easybreath mask, of which 16 million have been sold. She had been using it for five years, but just before her death she had been diagnosed with hypertension. She was also using hormone replacement therapy.

The coroner, Caroline Topping, concluded that the full-face snorkel mask had contributed to Kearn's death because negative pressure in her lungs rose from the increased effort of breathing through the snorkel mask and inhaling elevated levels of CO2 as she drew air through the dead space in the mask. (The same could be said about conventional snorkel tubes in certain circumstances.)

The Decathlon Easybreath is similar to other full-face snorkeling masks. It now carries a warning that it should not be used with underlying health conditions, should be used only for mild-to-moderate exercise, and should not be used for active swimming.

More information on IPE can be found at https://tinyurl.com/2cjpw9ks