Alcohol, inexperience factors in canoeing deaths
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Canoeists and kayakers who want to enjoy the water while staying safe should wear lifejackets, get some training, and stay away from alcohol, suggest health officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Among the 38 people who died while participating in paddle sports in Maine between 2000 and 2007, more than two-thirds weren’t wearing lifejackets and 5 (of 31 tested) had blood alcohol levels above the legal limit for boating and driving in the state, Dr. Jon Eric Tongren of the CDC and colleagues found.
In 2006, paddle sports were the fastest-growing part of the recreational boating market, the researchers note in the CDC publication, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
They analyzed data on fatalities among canoeists, kayakers and rafters in Maine during 2000-2007. During that time, 46 percent of the boating-related fatalities in the state involved paddle boats—triple the national average of 13 percent.
Twenty-two of the deaths were associated with canoes, 12 with kayaks, and 4 with rafts. Twenty-three of the fatalities were due to drowning after capsizing, while 8 people died after falling overboard. Other causes of death included drowning after entrapment, cardiac arrest and hypothermia.
Twenty-one of the 22 canoeists who died weren’t wearing lifejackets, although 8 had them on board, the researchers found. Blood alcohol levels were tested for 31 of the fatalities, 5 of whom had blood alcohol levels above the legal limit for driving or boating. Among the 22 fatalities for which information was available, 10 had less than 20 hours of paddling experience. Ninety-two percent of those who died were male.
In Maine, the researchers note, personal flotation devices are only required for paddle sports among children younger than age 10. There are no requirements for registration or boating education for these vessels, although legislation proposed in 2007 would have required boating safety education.
“United States Power Squadrons, a nonprofit educational organization dedicated to promoting boating safety, offers a PaddleSmart seminar with safety information specific to paddle sports,” the researchers write.
This seminar and other prevention strategies that promote use of lifejackets, discourage alcohol use before and after boating, and support boating safety education, “might help reduce paddle sports fatalities in Maine,” the researchers conclude.
SOURCE: Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, May 15, 2008.
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