Safety & Prevention

DAN’s primary mission is to assist injured recreational divers. An important secondary mission is to prevent diving injuries. As part of a global campaign to reduce dive injuries and fatalities, DAN strives to fulfill its vision of making every dive accident- and injury-free by identifying and mitigating risks associated with diving operations.

Our hazard identification and risk assessment program aids in preventing injuries and losses by stopping accidents from happening. This requires a culture that promotes awareness, control and ultimately mitigation of health and safety risks.

Diver treatment facilities, especially those located in remote areas, are often lacking adequate staff, training, funding and essential maintenance. This directly affects their availability, their reliability and most importantly, the safety of the services they offer.

DAN has assembled an international network of recompression chambers and offers an assistance program to provide training, technical and safety advice, and other forms of essential support to chambers with such needs.

Return To Diving Safely

If you’ve been away from diving for a while, it’s a good idea to review your health and fitness and refresh your diving skills and equipment before you get back in the water. That’s why DAN has created this simple, four-step plan to help you return to diving safely. Take a few minutes, review the plan, and make your next dives safe and enjoyable.

Diver Safety

With diver safety at the forefront, DAN has resources available on a wide range of topics. These resources provide the information divers need to make informed decisions and to ultimately stay safe before, during and after dives.

Dive Operation Safety

DAN has provided a wide variety of initiatives dedicated to safety for dive operators worldwide. Our diving research, incident monitoring, accident prevention and evaluation of accidents programs have gone a long way to make sure that diving is safer than ever before.

Chamber Safety

DAN’s initial response to any diving injury or illness is to ensure that the diver receives appropriate first aid, and is evaluated by a medical professional, followed by the initiation of any required treatment which may include a hyperbaric chamber.

Report an Incident

Since 1989, DAN has maintained a comprehensive diving incident database. Originally limited to scuba diving incidents, our online reporting system now includes open-circuit scuba, breath-hold and rebreather incidents.