There's an article on boating that appeared in the LA Times today. The
writer's email is charles.duhigg RemoveThis @latimes.com
Stern alert
Dragging behind a boat or even hanging out near exhaust puts boaters
at risk for carbon monoxide poisoning. Some blame engine design and
lack of warning labels, but others point to operator error.
http://www.latimes.com/features/outdoors/la-os-teaksurf24aug24,1,70196...story?c
By Charles Duhigg
Times Staff Writer
The air that killed Mark Tostado on Labor Day weekend was calm and
hot, the product of the sunny days that draw boaters year-round to
Lake Havasu, on the California-Arizona line.
Tostado, 31, a Huntington Beach personal fitness trainer and military
veteran, had waded into the lake's shallow Bridgewater Channel last
year to say goodbye to a woman standing behind two idling boats. She
playfully stole his hat and turned away. When she looked back less
than a minute later, Tostado was gone. His body was found the next
day.
An autopsy revealed that Tostado's blood was 40.7% saturated with
carbon monoxide, a colorless and odorless gas released as engines burn
gasoline. Tostado presumably breathed a pocket of exhaust from nearby
boats, passed out and drowned.
A spate of such deaths, more than 100 nationwide since 1990, prompted
the California Assembly to recently pass a bill that would force boat
sellers to put carbon monoxide warning labels on vessels and outlaw
boaters from standing or hanging onto swim platforms attached to the
stern while an engine is running. The state Senate passed the
legislation Monday.
But the families of carbon monoxide victims, legislators and
physicians want boat makers and the Coast Guard, which regulates boat
and marine engine design, to do more. They say improved marine engines
and an aggressive public-awareness campaign about carbon monoxide
dangers will help save lives.
In addition to the 111 confirmed deaths from carbon monoxide,
independent and government scientists say that boat exhaust may be a
factor in 40% of all drownings near boats, as many as 200 per year.
The data are uncertain because many drowning victims never get tested
for carbon monoxide poisoning.
"We solved this problem with cars," said Dr. Robert Baron, medical
director of the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area in Arizona. "If
five or 10 years ago boat manufacturers had put efforts into research,
these people would still be alive."
Boat and engine manufacturers say that it's time-consuming and costly
to develop new engines, and that boaters behave irresponsibly.
They point to "teak surfing," in which swimmers hang off the swim
platform. In May 2003, teak surfer Anthony Farr, 11, inhaled carbon
monoxide from a boat's exhaust pipes under the platform, passed out
and drowned in Folsom Lake near Sacramento.
"The issue is the stupidity of people who let their kids hang around
the business end of a boat," said Larry Meddock, director of the Water
Sports Industry Assn. "If this was a crisis, the Coast Guard would be
responding differently. They haven't issued any regulations on this
issue."
Platform dangers
Researchers from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and
Health say carbon monoxide poisoning fatalities began increasing in
the 1970s when boats were equipped with swim platforms. Scientists
estimate that three inhalations of carbon monoxide-rich air can cause
death.
"When I was growing up, there were no swim platforms, just ladders on
the sides of boats," said Tom McAlpine, an Alabama lawyer who
represented the estate of a child who died of carbon monoxide
poisoning after hanging onto the swim platform of an idling boat.
As part of a settlement, manufacturer Correct Craft began adding
carbon monoxide warnings to its boats in the late '90s. The
2-by-4-inch sticker reads, in part, "Stay off and keep away from
boarding platform while engine is running."
Meanwhile, the company and another major boat maker, MasterCraft, sell
showering attachments that many users operate while standing on the
swim platform. According to boat dealers, the engine must be running
to provide a steady stream of hot water for the shower.
"One of their own designs forces people to stand in an exposure area.
It doesn't make any sense," said Jane McCammon, a researcher for the
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
Correct Craft executives and the company's chief engineer, Bill Snook,
declined to answer questions regarding the shower units. A MasterCraft
representative said its owners' manuals and decals warn against
standing on the swim platform while the engine is running.
Weak warnings?
Boat industry critics, including physician Baron, attorney McAlpine
and researchers from the national Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, which, in a 2000 report, recommended removal of swim
platforms, say the manufacturers' current sticker warnings are
insufficient.
Studies by the Coast Guard and other government agencies show that
carbon monoxide poisoning can occur inside boats, particularly in back
seats.
"CO levels in the stern [back] seat of a ski boat are high enough to
be cause for concern," one study reads. "CO levels at 20 feet behind
the towed boat are high enough to affect towed tubers who tend to be
young children."
In a 1997 incident, a 13-year-old girl lay on the back seat of an
open-air powerboat as it headed to an Arizona lakeshore. Fifteen
minutes later, when the boat docked, she was dead of carbon monoxide
poisoning, according to the examining physician.
The American Boat and Yacht Council recommends that stickers on boats
include warnings to not "occupy aft lounging areas when engine[s] or
generator[s] is running." Stickers by MasterCraft and Correct Craft
contain no such warnings about back-seat risks.
"The boat companies encourage people to sit back there by putting in
seats and drink holders," said Teresa Stark, chief of staff to
California Assemblyman Paul Koretz (D-West Hollywood), who introduced
the bill that would require boats sold in California to carry large
warning stickers. The measure would also prohibit boaters from
occupying, hanging onto or bodysurfing behind swim platforms while a
boat was operating. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has not stated his
position on the bill, but Stark expects him to sign it into law when
it reaches his desk.
Boat manufacturers maintain that operator error, not boat design,
results in carbon monoxide poisoning.
"There is virtually no risk of carbon monoxide poisoning" when boaters
comply with state and Coast Guard regulations, Snook, Correct Craft's
chief engineer, said in an e-mail.
"It's not my fault you've got parents who stick their kid behind an
exhaust pipe," said Rick Lee, president of Fineline Industries, a
powerboat manufacturer. "Why weren't these kids wearing life jackets?
For over 80 years, society has been smart enough to not breathe in
stinky exhaust."
But Glenn Palmer, a 20-year Phoenix paramedic trained in carbon
monoxide detection, says he had no clue when refueling his boat in
November that he was inhaling the odorless gas. The refueling
mechanism required a running engine.
"There was no smell of exhaust or fumes, no lightheadedness, nothing,"
Palmer said. "I was standing there talking to my wife for about five
minutes, when she said my eyes rolled up in mid-sentence and bam, I
was out. It hit me so fast, if I had fallen in the water, I would have
had no chance."
New controls
In the 1960s and 1970s, Congress addressed concerns over carbon
monoxide emissions from automobiles by passing laws that required car
manufacturers, but not boat makers, to decrease emissions.
Relatives of carbon monoxide victims say manufacturers have had
decades to develop cleaner engines. Use of catalytic converters — a
honeycomb filter that transforms carbon monoxide into safer gases —
would essentially eliminate the emissions, they say. Boat exhaust
contains 188 times more carbon monoxide than the average emission from
an automobile.
But marine engine experts say the automotive solution won't work in
water.
"Catalysts and water don't mix," said Dick Rowe, founder and chief
executive of Indmar Products, a major marine engine manufacturer.
"When you put an engine in the water, everything changes."
By 2008, however, the California Air Resources Board will effectively
require new boat engines to incorporate catalytic converters. To
establish the standard, it hired the Southwest Research Institute in
San Antonio to equip four marine engines with catalytic converters.
The project took four years and cost $1 million, according to chief
engineer James Carroll, and the engines have successfully performed in
freshwater lakes for more than 400 hours.
Regulators, including Andrew Spencer, an air pollution specialist at
the Air Resources Board, say manufacturers could have produced safer
engines more than a decade ago if they had made them a priority.
Manufacturers say they expect to surmount the technological challenges
before 2008, but until then, consumers will dictate their agenda.
"Why haven't we solved carbon monoxide?" asked Rowe of Indmar.
"Because there are other research priorities that are rewarded more by
consumers. We're not sure we know how to market a catalytic
converter-equipped boat. We are a small company. We can't afford to
spend money on research consumers won't appreciate."
Critics also blame the Coast Guard for insufficiently policing the
industry. The guard has no regulations related to carbon monoxide.
"How can the Coast Guard know this is happening and not require
warnings?" asked Mike Farr, father of the boy who died while teak
surfing on Folsom Lake near Sacramento. "How come there are no
regulations from the Coast Guard about boat design to keep people away
from the backs of boats?"
The Coast Guard's specialist on carbon monoxide emissions defends the
agency's approach, noting that it sponsors media campaigns and
workshops about the dangers of the gas.
"We have raised the issue of requiring warning labels at our
workshops, but the manufacturers have blocked that proposal," said
Richard Blackman, an engineer in the Coast Guard's Office of Boating
Safety. "I'm not sure it's worth the investment."
Blackman said the Coast Guard is reluctant to issue regulations that
will meet industry resistance. "The Coast Guard says if industry can
regulate themselves, then it's in the best interest of everyone for
companies to choose what should be done," he said.
Meanwhile, many boaters blame adults and fate for carbon monoxide
deaths. "I would never let a kid hang off the back of a boat without a
life jacket," Charlie Hardke, 32, said as he drove his powerboat
around Folsom Lake. "But if there are toxic levels of carbon monoxide,
I'd like to know."
One of Hardke's passengers, Robyn Westlake, a physician specializing
in internal medicine, floated in the water near the back of the boat.
"I don't think it is any worse than the freeway, is it?" she asked.
On a day set aside for water play, victims often do not realize air
quality is hazardous until it's too late. Charles Duhigg is a Times
staff writer. He can be reached at charles.duhigg RemoveThis @latimes.com.
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I guess some idiot slipped and fell on a frozen