Australian / New Zealand Diving Standards

AS/NZS 2299.1-2015 Occupational diving operations Part 1: Standard operational practice has now been published.

The Australian / New Zealand Standards diving committee has been actively reviewing several Standards over the past few years with the final Standard in this current piece of work to be published being the AS/NZS 2299.1 – 2015 Occupational diving operations Part 1: Standard operational practice.

The latest version of the Standard was published earlier in the week and the major changes from the 2007 edition include the following:

a) Revised guidance for the use, calibration and testing of the various pressure gauges used in diving operations.

b) A review of the provisions for breathing gas quality, with a specific emphasis on the following:

(i) Simplification of determining acceptable water content to avoid risk of condensation or freezing.

(ii) Acceptable composition of breathing gases, including gas used for enriched air nitrox (EAN) diving.

(iii) A review of the testing and monitoring requirements for breathing gas quality.

c) A review of the flange requirements and further considerations for the use of worksite chambers.

d) The introduction of a maximum partial pressure of oxygen to be breathed by the diver.

e) The addition of a section on the specific requirements for EAN diving, which includes—

(i) equipment requirements;

(ii) breathing gas supplies for SCUBA and SSBA; and

(iii) EAN procedures.

f) A minor review of medical requirements.

g) A review of the guidance for medical practitioners in Appendix M.

h) The removal of reference to specific decompression tables for diving.

i) The removal of the extract of the DCIEM tables due to an inability to renew copyright approval.

The Standard is available for purchase from SaiGlobal.