has a number of articles on the website, an faq page, and if the information needed was not available from those resources, there is an email form to request information. specialised medical advice is reserved to active dan members. insurance cover dan europe provides insurance cover for members underwritten by international diving assurance. technical since 1997 the recompression chamber assistance and partnership program has been available to provide recompression chambers operators with equipment, training and emergency assistance, to help ensure that they are available, in good condition and safe when needed. training dan europe provides training and certification for divers professional rescuers and the general public and in aspects of first aid, and trains instructors to provide this training. courses available include: oxygen first aid for scuba diving injuries advanced oxygen first aid for scuba diving injuries first aid for hazardous marine life injures automated external defibrillation basic life support first aid oxygen first aid for aquatic emergencies on-site neurological assessment for divers medical oxygen rebreather dive medicine for divers (dmfd) paediatric basic life support diving medical technician instructor qualification course membership membership classes of dan europe include: ordinary members supporting members promoting members honorary members research examples of dan europe research projects: gathering data on circulating gas bubbles and analysing the data. "the economy of decompression": optimization of ascent profiles. investigating the causes of unexplained diving incidents. stress in recreational diving. risk of decompression illness relating to patent foramen ovale. managing asthma and diabetes in diving. physiology and pathophysiology of breath-hold in adults and children. hypothermia and diving. headache and diving. blood changes associated with diving. decompression sickness risk when travelling by air after diving. physiological effects of rebreather diving. effects of decompression stress on endothelial stem cells and blood cells. early biomarkers for decompression stress. the effects of normobaric oxygen on blood and in first aid for decompression illness. dan japan region of coverage includes japan, japanese islands and related territories, with regional idan responsibility for northeast asia-pacific. dan southern africa divers alert network southern africaabbreviationdan saformation17 january 1997 (17 january 1997)typengolegal statussection 21 not for profit companypurposescuba diving safetyheadquartersmidrand, gauteng, south africalocationrosen office park, dan building, halfway gardens, midrand 1685region served africa south of the equator and indian ocean islandsmembership >5000 (october 2018)ceomr morne christoumain organboard of directorsstaff five full time staff, twelve on-call diving doctorswebsitewww.dansa.org divers alert network southern africa is a public benefit organization with the primary purpose to provide emergency medical advice and assistance for underwater diving injuries, to work to prevent injuries and to promote dive safety. dan sa also promotes and supports research and education relating to the improvement of dive safety, medical treatment and first aid, and provides information on dive safety, diving physiology and diving medical issues of common concern to the diving public. legal advice relating to diving matters is also available. the organisation is funded by membership fees, training fees, donations and the sale of branded first aid, safety and promotional products. regions of coverage include south africa, angola, botswana, comoros, kenya, lesotho, madagascar, malawi, mauritius, mozambique, namibia, seychelles, swaziland, tanzania, zaire, zambia, and zimbabwe. timeline 1996: dan sa was founded and recognized as a valid membership organisation by international divers alert network. 1997: dan sa was registered as a section 21 not for profit organisation. medical hotline dan south africa provides emergency hotline for diving and evacuation emergencies. response staff and diving medicine specialists are on call 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, to provide information and assist with care coordination and evacuation assistance. a toll-free 0800 number is available for calls from within south africa, and an international number for calls from outside south africa which is not toll-free. medical advice dan sa also provides a diving medical information service. during business hours this can be accessed by telephone or e-mail. other related information is available from a faq and articles on the website. they are linked to the south african underwater and hyperbaric medical association (sauhma) diving medical practitioner database, and maintain an international list of diving medical practitioners for referral. legal advice dan has access to legal professionals with an interest in diving and who are experienced in local, regional and international law. members who are in need of legal assistance can contact dan via email. dan staff will consider requests and, if appropriate, refer the member to an appropriate legal expert within the network, who will make appropriate suggestions to the member on how best to represent or defend their interests. insurance cover dan sa is not an insurance company. it has a group insurance policy from aig south africa which allows it to extend emergency cover to members for specific diving, travel and medical emergencies. cover is limited according to membership level. cover includes: medical expenses for treatment of injuries which occur in the water and are a direct consequence of diving or snorkelling activities. emergency medical expenses while travelling outside country of residence. evacuation costs to nearest appropriate medical treatment facilities for incidents in categories above. technical a joint project of dan sa and subaquatic safety services (sss) network established the zanzibar hyperbaric chamber, which is the only publicly available hyperbaric facility in east africa. training dan sa provides training and certification for divers in aspects of diving first aid, and trains instructors to provide this training. courses available include: oxygen first aid for scuba diving injuries advanced oxygen first aid for scuba diving injuries first aid for hazardous marine life injures automated external defibrillators (aed) for scuba diving basic life support dan first aid on-site neurological assessment for divers diving medicine for divers (dmfd) diving emergency management provider (demp) programme: this is a package of: oxygen first aid for scuba diving injuries advanced oxygen first aid for scuba diving injuries automated external defibrillators (aed) for scuba diving first aid for hazardous marine life injuries the diving emergency specialist (des) instructor qualification course instructor trainer workshop membership several options for membership of dan sa are available: annual membership for individual divers and immediate family members temporary membership for short duration trips student membership for entry-level students commercial membership for commercial divers and diving contractors industry partner for dive businesses diving safety partners for dive businesses research dan sa cooperates with dan europe and the university of stellenbosch in gathering crowdsourced data for decompression and other diving physiology and medicine, and diving accident research projects. most of these are long term projects, but annual statistical reports are published, and contributing divers can get immediate feedback on relative risk of their uploaded dive profiles. alert diver (sa edition) the alert diver is a magazine containing information on dive medicine, the latest dan statistics, and research, safety and training advice by dan staff. it is published twice-yearly in paper and digital versions. non-members can download the digital version of the alert diver for a nominal fee. dan world regions of coverage include the bahamas, british and u.s. virgin islands, caribbean, central and south america, guam, micronesia and melanesia (except fiji), puerto rico, and any other places not covered by the regional organisations. research completed programs flying after recompression treatment study. online survey of divers in 2003 who were recompressed for decompression illness within the previous five years and then flew in an airplane. the study was published in the management of mild or marginal decompression illness in remote locations workshop proceedings. diabetes & diving. two studies were made on recreational diving by persons with diabetes who showed good general blood glucose control prior to entry to the study. the first followed adults with diabetes who were previously certified to dive and the second studied teenagers with diabetes immediately following their certification training. us navy survey. dan conducted a survey of recreational divers to obtain information about diver demographics, dive experience and diving habits on behalf of the us navy in early 1998. live-aboard doppler. researchers assessed the effects of age, gender and dive profiles on post-dive vascular bubble presence in volunteer participants during 1988/9 using doppler monitoring devices. aging diver study. preliminary evaluation of the effects of age and associated medical conditions on dive style and dive outcome using pde methodology. breath-hold study. the effects of hyperventilation, work, breathing mixture and dive depth on immersed breath-hold duration were investigated to allow an increase in breath-hold time to a maximum safe level without excessive risk of loss of consciousness or functional incapacity due to hypocapnia, hypoxia or hypercapnia. flying after diving. dan conducted human trials from 1993 to 1999 to investigate how long to wait after diving before flying for recreational divers with support from the us navy. first aid oxygen rebreather. performance studies made on first- and second-generation closed-circuit oxygen rebreathing circuits developed for remote duty first aid applications confirmed effective performance in the second-generation device. cialis™/viagra™ and the risk of oxygen toxicity. a rat model produced positive results of increased risk of oxygen toxicity risk using these drugs. ongoing programs flying after diving calibration study. to find out how exercise affects the minimum safe waiting period before flying after diving. risk/benefit of pfo closure. to find out if divers with pfo who underwent the closure procedure are better off than divers with pfo who continue diving without the closure. sudafed and risk of oxygen toxicity. this study uses an animal model to find out whether sudafed increases the risk of oxygen toxicity. extreme diving field study. to analyse aspects of safety including decompression safety, physical fitness requirements and cardiovascular effects of extreme diving. incidents and accidents in compressed air diving. dan compiles case reports of diving incidents, injuries and fatalities in air, nitrox and mixed-gas diving and includes data from these reports in the dan annual diving report. incidents and accidents in breath-hold diving. both fatal and nonfatal cases are collected to identify risks and aid in public education. data from case reports is included in the dan annual diving report. project dive exploration (pde). dive profiles, diver characteristics and diver behaviour are uploaded by volunteers using the dive computer's dive log software and recorded for statistically accurate analysis. this is a prospective observational study of the demographics, medical history, depth-time exposure and medical outcome of a sample of the recreational diving population, with the intention of finding the incidence of decompression sickness in population subgroups and the relationship of dcs probability to depth-time profile and dive and diver characteristics. the data also provides an injury-free control population for comparison with dan's injury and fatality data to identify possible risk factors associated with injury and death. the results of this study are likely to be useful in the development of future decompression models. divers using one of many compatible dive computers may contribute their electronic dive log data to pde. dan membership health survey (dmhs). to establish the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors, diabetes and asthma, access to primary health care and the diving practices of dan members to help the diving community decide on preventive measures for injuries and fatalities. database of dive exposure and dive outcomes. data from the us navy, duke university, pde, dan europe's dive safety lab and the institute of nautical archaeology are converted to a format which can be used as a reference database for calibration and evaluation of decompression algorithms. diver physical fitness study. physical fitness of divers and the physical fitness required for typical diving activities will be assessed. fatality database. dan collects data on diving fatalities of recreational divers in the us, canada and diving destinations frequented by us and canadian divers, compiles case reports, and includes the data in the dan annual diving report. publications dan publishes research results on a wide range of matters relating to diving safety and medicine and diving accident analysis, including annual reports on decompression illness and diving fatalities. most are freely available on the internet, many of these at the rubicon research repository. conferences rebreather forum 3 in may 2012, dan along with the american academy of underwater sciences and the professional association of diving instructors hosted the rebreather forum 3 (rf3) which was organised by rosemary e lunn. this three-day safety symposium was convened to address major issues surrounding rebreather technology, and its application in commercial, media, military, scientific, recreational and technical diving. experts, manufactures, instructor trainers, training agencies and divers from