Description

A Pocket Guide for Cold Water Survival, 2012 Edition (IB946E)  

This publication is a guide to cold water survival. It begins by exploring cold water hazards and their effects before going on to look at the following:  

• The survival phase: in a survival craft or cold water  

• rescue guidance for those engaged in search and rescue  
• medical advice and guidance.  

This guidance is intended primarily for seafarers. It provides information that will help you if you are unlucky enough to fall into cold water, have to enter it in an emergency or use a survival craft in cold conditions. It also provides information which will help seafarers, trained as first-aid providers, to treat those rescued from freezing conditions.  

This guide briefly examines the hazards of exposure to the cold that may endanger life and provides advice based on the latest medical and scientific opinions on preventing or minimizing those dangers. It is a sad fact that people continue to die at sea through a lack of this knowledge. Knowing what is likely to happen if exposed to cold water is a survival aid. A thorough understanding of the information contained in this booklet may someday save your life – or someone else’s.  

It is essential to realize that you are not helpless to affect your survival in cold water. Understanding your body’s response and simple self-help techniques can extend your survival time, particularly if you wear a lifejacket. You can make a difference; this guide is intended to show you how.  

A pocket guide to cold water survival. Contents Listing:

1. Introduction
2. Cold water hazards and their effects: the knowledge that can improve survival chances
3. Actions prior to abandoning the ship
4. The survival phase: in a survival craft
5. The survival phase: in the water
6. The rescue phase: guidance for those engaged in search and rescue
7. Treatment of people recovered from cold water
8. Treatment of people recovered from survival craft
9. The apparently dead
10. Summing up