It is reported that: 55% of cold water deaths are due to the combination of cold shock and subsequent swimming failure. Hypothermia, dropping core temperature, accounts for 25% of deaths and 20% of deaths are due to "post rescue collapse", the effects of pulling a chilled individual out of the water improperly and other effects of lung damage, and damage to the blood vascular system etc. In general, cooling time is effected by body mass, extent of marine turbulence, water temperature and clothing. The USCG has some rather advanced computer programs now for estimating survival time and they are using the data to estimate how long they should carry on searches for victims lost at sea. Chuck Sutherland *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Sun Mar 25 2007 - 20:31:52 PDT
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