Assistant National Secretary Ian Bray is circulating the following information for Divers to assist with the information contained in the new draft of a new Standard prepared by the Joint Standards Australia/Standards New Zealand Committee SF-017, Occupational Diving, to supersede AS/NZS 2299.1:2007., and to indicate matters that impact the diving membership, and highlight some of the areas that may be of importance when forming your view for public comment in the draft. The draft can be read here.
Members, the MUA has been represented on the Joint Standards Australia/Standards New Zealand Committee SF-017, Occupational Diving, for several years. In the last 6-12 months there have been some significant issues arising that impact the way the standards can be written. The most notable change is that The Department of National Defence (Canada), Defence and Civil Institute of Environmental Medicine (DCIEM) is no longer funding research informing dive tables; furthermore, the DCIEM tables can no longer be published in Australian Standards without payment of substantial copyright fees.
At the last meeting mid-late 2013, the committee were advised that there was no possibility for SF-017 to include any DCIEM Tables in AS2299.1. The reasons were that there was no budget for this, and no ongoing assurance that DCIEM would be the most current reference available.
A new Standard was prepared by the Joint Standards Australia/Standards New Zealand Committee SF-017, Occupational Diving, to supersede AS/NZS 2299.1:2007. This version does not include any copyright infringements. A Dive Table Supplement will be made available.
On this basis the MUA member representative was left with little alternative but to indicate to the committee that we would highlight certain sections during the period of public comment to see what the majority view of the membership is in regards to working draft.
The new Standard AS/NZS 2299.1:2007 public comment period commences 7th May 2014 to 8th July 2014.
The purpose of this notice is to assist you with the information contained in the new draft, to indicate matters that impact the diving membership, and highlight some of the areas that may be of importance when forming your view for public comment in the attached draft.
See additional information attached to this email that highlights points of interest as a guide.
You can view the draft and any incoming comments here after entering your Standards Hub login details.
Further information on how to make comments can be found in our Hub GuidesTutorials
We encourage all our diving membership to participate in the consultation process.
In Unity
Ian Bray
Assistant National Secretary
