THE EUROPEAN DIVING TECHNOLOGY COMMITTEE

MINUTES OF THE EDTC MEETING HELD ON

SEPTEMBER 19TH 2008 IN RAVENNA, ITALY

The meeting was held at the Ravenna Chamber of Commerce courtesy of AISI and the Ravenna Chamber of Commerce.

Those present:

Apologies for absence had been received from:

2. WELCOME BY THE REPRESENTATIVES FROM THE ITALIAN, REGIONAL GOUVERNMENT AND OFFICIALS

Welcome addresses were given by:

·        Mr. Germano Savorani, Town Councillor, Vocational Training Department – Province of Ravenna,

·        Mr. Giannantonis Mingozzi, Sindaco (?) of Ravenna,

·        Mrs. Paola Monigi, General Secretary, Chamber of Commerce on behalf of the Chairman, Ravenna Chamber of Commerce Mr. Giafranco Bessi,

·        Mr. Franco Nanni, Vice President Offshore Mediteriano Conference (OMC),

·        Honourable Gabriele Albonetti, Qusator (?) of the Italian House of Representatives,

·        Mr. Renzo Righini, President API.

A copy of some of the addresses given has been attached to these Minutes.

Crawford Logan, the EDTC Chairman thanked everyone for the warm welcome and the hospitality extended by both representatives of the Italian Government and Local Government Representatives and organisation and last but not least AISI for hosting the 2008 EDTC meeting. He expressed pleasure with the excellent work being done in Italy to bring training standards to an even higher level adopting international codes and practices thus hopefully assisting in the future free movement of labour within Europe.

3. APPOLOGIES

Apologies had been received as stated above.

The Chairman expressed a special apology on behalf of Claus Mayer who had been delayed during a project in central China and could not obtain a re-entry visa because of the Para-Olympics, if he left to attend this meeting.  

4.APPROVALS OF MINUTES FROM THE STAVANGER MEETING

There were no comments to the Minutes from the Stavanger meeting. The Minutes were consequently approved.

5. MEMBERSHIP

The Secretary presented the following changes to the membership since the last meeting:

Resignations:

·      Dr. Juha Kuokkanen, (Medical), Finland,

·      Mrs. S. Swiers (Industry), The Netherlands,

·      Mr. Patric Bergsman (Union), Sweden

·      Mr.  Terry Hall (OGP).

New members:

·        Dr. Martti Siimes (Medical), Finland,

·        Mr. Jeroen M. Baars (Industry), The Netherlands,

·        Dr. Jacek Kot (Medical), Poland,

·        Mr. Willy Hulthen (Union), Sweden,

·        Mr. Roger O’ Kane (Industry), United Kingdom,

·        Mr. Keith Stevenson (OGP)

The Secretary also reported the following:

·      The enquiry for membership from Lithuania referred to during the last meeting have not resulted in the receipt of an application for membership to date,

·      A number of members do not respond in any ways to Call for Meetings and in some few cases letters are returned marked ”address unknown“.  It is recognised that not all of the members will be able to participate in each and every EDTC meeting, and as long as the individual members maintain communication thereby signalling a continuous support this is entirely acceptable. See also paragraph 7.4 under the Chairman’s report.

6.ACTIONS FROM PREVIOUS MEETINGS

The following actions were recorded from previous meetings. Status of those is as follows:

7. CHAIRMAN’S REPORT

7.1         European Committee for Hyperbaric Medicine (ECHM)

The Chairman advised that following discussions between ECHM and the EDTC Medical subcommittee the Executive Board have agreed to offer Observer status membership to ECHM in order to formally tie common activities together. The Secretary had consequently been instructed to write to Dr. Daniel Mathieu formally inviting the ECHM to take up Observer membership.

                                                                    Action:                       Secretary

7.2         Revision of Safety Guidelines

The Chairman advised that as Claus Mayer, as the Chairman of the Safety Guideline working group cold not make it to the meeting Staffan Littorin, a member of the working group would give a short presentation. See paragraph 9 for further details.

7.3         Members not attending meetings, nor responding to communication

As an all voluntary organisation with very limited means EDTC relies very heavily on the member’s willingness to participate in its activities and donating effort in the form of their time and resources in order to progress the committees business. Unfortunately some members have not participated in any meeting or activities for a considerable time and in some few cases not in any meetings or activities at all. This situation was discussed in the Executive Board meeting the previous day and has also been addressed and recorded in meetings/minutes some years back.

The Chairman asked the meeting to approve the Board suggestion that the Secretary write to those members and ask them if they wished to remain on the list. If no answer was received after 3 months then they would be removed from the list. The meeting agreed this course of action. The Secretary was as a result requested to write to those in question (those not having attended any of the last 3 meetings or submitted an apology for not being able to attend) inviting them to reconfirm their intensions to participate in EDTC activities, alternatively resign from their position in order to allow alternated representatives to participate.

Olav Hauso commented that the national Authority Representative should have an active hand in this process encouraging appropriate representation from each country.

Action:                      Secretary

7.4         EDTC Conference 2008

Members will remember that a committee was appointed at the Stavanger meeting to work out a plan for conducting an EDTC conference in 2008/2009 along the same lines as the Luxemburg meeting in the early 90’ties.

The plan was to develope our relationship with Mrs Angelilli, through the Italian delegation, however when contacted for support we were advised that as there is EU elections scheduled for early 2009 such a conference would have to be held no later that in December 2008. As this was clearly unachievable it was decided by the Executive Board to delay this activity to sometime in 2010.

The Secretary was requested and accepted to head up a small working group to into the proposed conference, how it could be run and its content. During the members meeting the following additional members volunteered to assist:

Jørn Ryberg (Sweden), Roger O’ Kane (United Kingdom), Giovanni Esentato (Italy). Jurg Wendling also offered his assistance in any medical issues.

7.5         EU Directive on the free movement of personnel – Recognition of EDTC under the 2005 EU Directive

As the members will remember EDTC approach to obtain recognition under the 2005 EU Directive was extensively discussed during the Stavanger meeting and the Secretary had been instructed to write a letter to the EU Commission addressed to Mrs. Angelilli seeking such recognition. However, some members were of the opinion that such an approach cold not be entertained by EU and a meeting was thus arranged at the United Kingdom Health and Safety Executive’s offices in London hosted by Chris Sherman. It was concluded during the meeting that the Directive is set up for countries organised and controlled by a central authority. This is however not the case in all member states as some are organised by national regions (such as Spain, Italy and Germany). It is therefore unlikely that an application to the EU Commission is going to give any result and the only way to influence national authorities is to work through the members Government Representatives getting them to lobby the Commission for recognition of EDTC. If some 6 to 8 countries coordinated such a promotion of the EDTC then there would be a chance to achieve recognition.

Another approach as to how to be recognised and be invited to participate in relevant activities was described by Pasquale Longobardi whereby his team had been invited to participate in a ”Task Force“ under the guidance of CEN and the Italian Standards Institute organisations.

8. REPORT FROM THE CHAIRMAN OF THE MEDICAL COMMITTEE

Dr. Jurg Wendling reported:

The effort of producing a common medical training standard for diving and hyperbaric medical doctors has been rewarded in many ways by:

·        Recognition by international organisations,

·        Application of the standards for training courses in Australia and South Africa,

·        IMCA using the standards as a basis for recognition of diving medical advisors worldwide,

·        DMAC/EDTCmed audit of courses being more and more requested,

·        UHMS award for the Chairmen of the joint medical subcommittee of EDTC/ECHM.

On the other side, the main goal, namely implementation in the national authorities and regulations has not been achieved up to now. No national regulation accepts EDTC standard for accreditation of diving medical advisors or approved medical examiners of divers in the regulations. However, 5 countries have established training courses according to the standards on a regular basis, 5 nations have training programs which are longer and more complex, including the EDTC standards modules, another 5 countries have no implementation or any kind of introductory courses or navy courses not equivalent to the standards.

The long term goal to revise and adapt the standards considering practical experience and inconsistencies of the member nations risks failing right now. The reason is that cooperation with our partners is actually refused by ECHM:

Lille 04: Unilateral development of a new project by an ECHM group introducing academic formulas, credits, subdivisions and additional prerequisites.

Barcelona 06: EDTCmed meeting with ECHM delegation, developing a new pathway considering the new proposals seriously.

Sharm-el-Sheik 07: EDTCmed meeting with ECHM delegation: trial of a remodelling of the standards 97, including the revision proposals of ECHM (COST) and EDTC, welcome by ECHM which nominates a delegate for further editing of a revised standards version.

EDTCmed meeting in Graz with delegation of ECHM 4.9.08: In spite of the accepted roadmap one year ago demonstration of dissent concerning almost everything already arranged, no separate modules anymore, increase of the volume to 200% of hours, changing naming of the modules and certificates. Negotiation became difficult, as our partners change the face every time we meet, so that a clear line is almost not possible and after 4 years we have almost no progress. However, the final discussion was rather positive, semantical problems being probably easily resolvable, as well as a remodelling of the modules where there seems to be a consensus close to be accepted, the volume of the volumes will have to be discussed and changes as justified by the practical needs to be accepted. The way to a result will however only be possible if we can establish a close communication between the two partner groups and where the position of each group are reliable and will not change from year to year.

Unfortunately, two days after our meeting, the President of ECHM stated to their members of the general meeting that there is no common basis for a revision of the standards, as ECHM has clearly adopted the Lille 04 draft as their unilateral new standard. So, the only offer to EDTC would be to take that or leave that.

Consequences for EDTC: Before we go on and invest more time and efforts, we have to answer a few questions:

1)      In view of the power-play of the ECHM President (it seems to be principally his own opinion) should we go separate ways or should we swallow the ECHM fish?

2)      We have to clarify our task, what is the goal? Mutual recognition of diving medicals, medical certifications and national registration boards legislations.

3)      What is realistic? We have to consider, what we can achieve in the next 10 years (formal steps, role of the EDTC members in their home countries, national coordinators, international groups).

Personally, I regret that we are in a situation of loss of respect of our partners, as a common program would have enormous advantages, in particular because of the practical and financial difficulties encountered when organising a training course. It's up to the EDTC members to discuss and show us the way to the next step.

It was pointed out by the Secretary acting on behalf of offshore contractors that cooperation with ECHM was of no use to the offshore community as the offshore community uses standard issued by IMCA and DMAC both of whom are recognised by national authorities not only in Europe, but also in other countries world wide.

Dr. Kot stated that the 2004 update were actually based on the mutually agreed 1997 standards, but with an increase in the number of training hours. He also pointed out that neither EDTC nor ECHM were widely recognised organisations and that continued cooperation would benefit both organisations.   

Consequently Dr. Kot and Dr Wendling were requested by the meeting to seek a solution acceptable to both parties for continuous cooperation on promoting mutually agreed common standards.

                                                                    Action:            Dr. Kot/Dr. Wendling

9. REPORT FROM THE CHAIRMAN OF THE SAFETY WORKING COMMITTEE

In the absence of the committee Chairman Claus Mayer, Staffan Littorin reported that copies of legislation have now been received from 13 countries. There are considerable differences between the legislation, in particularly on the notice required prior to starting diving operations.

The working group are now in the process of trying to making up a compliance table of the legislation/standards received with the aim of publishing these in time for the next meeting.

Comments by the Secretary: Once this work has been completed applicable section of the EDTC webpage will be updated and the listing of legislation updated.

10. NATIONAL REPORTS

10.1     Poland  (Jacek Kot)

Jacek Kot reported that there is currently 10 companies conduction underwater operation sin Poland. The number of professional divers is estimated to be around 2000.

National regulation concerning health and safety was established in 1965 and medical assessment standard in 1971. The former only covers use of compressed air to 60 meters and use of hard hat system.

The individual diving contractor could thus choose the decompression to be used. The list of choices included Polish, Russian or US Navy tables.

In 2003 a new act on commercial underwater work was introduced resulting of the publishing on ”Regulation on Occupational Health for Underwater Work“ in 2007.

Health assessment is mostly conducted in accordance with the EDTC Standards and training of Diving Medical specialist in accordance with the joint ECHM/EDTC standards.

Poland has established a Centre for Hyperbaric Medicine in Gdynia. The centre is fitted out with ICU & HBO chamber for treatment of gangrene and 2 HBO chambers for treatment of ambulatory patients.  There is also a saturation system certified for operations to 200 meters. This chamber may also be used for treatments, including intensive care, and research. There are also facilities for surgical procedures available.

A full copy of Dr. Kot’s presentation has been appended to this minute.

10.2     Turkey (Akin Toklu)

Akin Toklu reported that Turkey is preparing changes to the Turkish legislation incorporating EDTC standards.

He also advised that Hyperbaric Medicine is classified as a medical speciality in Turkey requiring 4 years training/experience.

Turkey has now implemented a standard form for medical examination of divers.

10.3     IMCA (Jane Bugler)

Jane Bugler reported that the following codes had been issued or updated:

·        IMCA D014 (Rev 1): IMCA International Code of Practice for Offshore Diving,

·        IMCA D 042: Diver-based concrete mattress handling, deployment, installation, repositioning and decommissioning,

·        IMCA D 043: Marking and colour coding of gas cylinders, quads and banks for diving application,

·        IMCA D 028 (Rev 1): Guidance for the use of chain level hoist in the offshore subsea environment,

·        IMCA D 010 (Rev 3): Diving operations from vessels operating in dynamically positioned mode.

There is also work in progress to revise current IMCA guidelines, as follows:

·        AODC 035: Safe Use of Electricity Underwater,

·        AODC 049: Code of Practice for High Pressure Water Jetting,

·        AODC 055: Protection of Water Intake Point for Diver Safety,

·        IMCA D011: The DESIGN suite of documents,

·        MCA D 022: Diving Supervisors Manual.

The following new guidance documents are being prepared:

·        Isolation and Barriers of Safe Diving Intervention,

·        Guidance on Hyperbaric Evacuation Systems.

Finally Jane Bugler reminded the members about the annual IMCA Marine & Diving Seminar which this year will be held in Kuala Lumpur on November 5th and 6th. 2008.

10.4       United Kingdom (Chris Sherman)

Chris Sherman reported that activities continue to be high in UK sector and that a range of new Diving Support Vessels (DSV’s) were being introduced. This has resulted in a lack of personnel in spite of turning out 600+ divers in 2007 and 300+ to-date in 2008. In addition to those UK based personnel in excess of 200 overseas candidates have been issued UK certificates both in 2006 and 2007.

He also reported that there have been no fatalities the last year, but an increase in major accidents while the over 3 days away from work statistics have remained steady.

The UK Health and Safety Department is currently engaged in 3 R & D projects, namely.

·        Helmet noise reduction,

·        Differential pressure hazards, and

·        Helmet Protection Testing.

He then reported on resent incident all associated with non oil and gas activities.

A copy of the full presentation has been attached to this minute.

10.5     IDRF (David Parkes)

David Parkes reported from the IDRF meeting held in London the preceding week. The objective of the IDRF is to share information and standards, particularly on diving training with the aim of mutual recognition. Such training must be based on government approved and controlled certification standards.

The IDRF is somewhat concerned that the oil industry client group OGP is going on their own with new international standards.

The IDRF will make up comparisons of standards in order to identify differences.

IDRF expressed some concern with the fact that due to a shortage of offshore personnel many experienced instructors were now being tempted away from the training schools and was looking at possible schemes were Trainee Supervisors could be used to man the panels together with an experiences supervisor thus keeping a high training standard while also allowing Trainee Supervisor to obtain necessary panel time.

10.6     Italy (Enrico Buffa)

Italian diving contractors have participated in of oil and gas activities from the very beginning and were the first to introduce dynamically positioned DSV in the early 1970’ies (Copalaonga) as well as cursors for control of diving bells (Drass). Italy, as the rest of Europe have a shortage of offshore (and diving) personnel and when trying to train new personnel there is a waiting list of at least 6 months and limited availability.

The Association of Italian Diving Contractors (AISI) was founded in 2000 with the aim of improving safety standards in commercial diving. Due to a limited internal offshore marked in Italy many diving operations conducted by Italian contractors are performed abroad. This has caused some problems, in particularly with regards to certification of divers due to a lack of suitable Italian legislation and control of diving training standards.

AISI have therefore taken the following steps in order to rectify the problem:

·        Through UNI (Italian Standards Organisation) have developed ”Guidelines for the diving and hyperbaric activities and for diver training and qualifications“. These guidelines are corresponding with the IMCA and EDTC guidelines & standard and will be issued by December 2008,

·        Through the Emilia Romagna local Government diver training standards and qualification has been published (Regional Official Gazette, March 2007, No. 335). The local government will also administrate and issue diver certification (Professional training is under regional jurisdiction in Italy),

·        Centro di Formazione Offshore di Ravenna (CFO) are already performing diving training in accordance with the above standard,

·        A government inter-regional committee is taking care of harmonisation of the regional rules and AISI is now lobbing this committee with the aim of having the Emilia Romagna diver training standard accepted and used by all Italian regions.

The above will provide Italian divers with internationally recognised certificates.

10.7     Norway (Olav Hauso)

Olav Hauso advised that Norway is now reverting back to the 1991 regulations for definition of ”Deep Diving“ which are 180 metres. The same applies for:

·        Times for saturation period (time at bottom depth),

·        Times for bell run, and

·        Time for ”in water“ period.

The following changes to regulations are proposed:

·        Requirements for 100% hyperbaric evacuation capacity on each side of the DSV. These requirements will only apply to new vessels.

·        In the event of only one hyperbaric lifeboat, restrictions will apply (free side for launching). This will apply for all DSV’s.

He also advised that NORSOK U-100 Industry Standard for Manned Underwater Operations has been issued as edition 2.

After inactivity in providing bell diving training (from1996) bell diving training are again being conducted at the Bergen University College, Faculty of Engineering (formally the Norwegian State Diving School). The University College will receive a new saturation diving system by the autumn 2009, however, a course have already been completed where 11 of 12 candidates successfully completed the course.

The Norwegian Commercial Diving School (NYD) located close to Oslo is providing a range of training courses including Class 1 course in cooperation with INPP in Marseille, France. This school currently conduct in excess of 80% of the training in Norway and have modern onshore facilities, including a quay providing a depth range from 10 to 120 meters!

          A copy of Olav Hauso’s full presentation has been attached to this report and will explain the rationale behind the new requirements being proposed.

11. ELECTIONS

The Chairman advised that two candidates had been proposed for election for the two seats on the Board due for election. The nominees were:

·                         Claus Mayer (Germany),

·                         Jørn Ryberg (Sweden),

He therefore proposed that as only two vacancies were available that the two nominees be confirmed as elected to the Executive Board. This was unanimously accepted by the members.

He also advised that as previously discussed and confirmed in the Executive Board the previous day Claus Mayer had been formally elected Chairman of EDTC meaning that he was retiring as of the end of this meeting.

Jane Bugler, on behalf of the Executive Board and the members thanked Crawford for his 5 year as Chairman of EDTC and wished him well in his retirement. 

12.ANY OTHER BUSINESS

12.1     Estonian Membership

Jørn Ryberg advised that he had been approached by a representative from an Estonian diving contractor enquiring about membership in the EDTC. It was advised that each European country was entitled to membership by 4 representatives (Government, Medical, Industry and Union) and that individual memberships would not be entertained. Members thus need to be nominated and/or supported by a national trade organisation or government authority.

Jørn Ryberg confirmed that he would convey this message back to the applicant advising them that a formal application be forwarded through the Secretary.

12.2     Website

Akin Toklu suggested that the EDTC website be updated and given a more contemporary look. It was also suggested that additional information such as Call for Meeting and Minutes of Meetings be included. He offered to assist in the process and was invited to open communication with the Secretary on the issue.

13. NEXT MEETING

The Danish delegation has confirmed that they can arrange the next EDTC meeting in Copenhagen 2009.

Post meeting information: The Danish delegation have now confirmed the meeting for September 25th at the Danish Maritime Authorities in Copenhagen. Further information will follow approximately 2 months before the meeting.

The Czech delegation offered to hold the 2010 meeting in Prague. Details for this meting will be confirmed during the 2009 meeting.  

14. ACKNOWLEGMENT

The Chairman thanked AISI and in particularly Adolfo Magrin and Giovanni Esentato for arranging the meeting and for the hospitality offered to the EDTC members during the stay in Italy.