Awareness of Hazards
To determine whether or not diver considered
their occupation to be hazardous (the probabilities
of harmful consequences as a result of exposure
to these hazards are high) or not, the divers
were asked to compare whether they considered
diving to have higher risks of death and of injury
than the known jobs of fishing with a net or operating
a boat. The divers were also asked whether
they would give up diving if they could earn the
same income doing a different job. To develop an
understanding of what the divers perceived as
their exposure to hazards while diving, the divers
were first asked, in an open question, to list what
they considered to be the most important hazard
underwater. Relating to the stated hazard, the
divers were asked in an open question “what the
cause of the hazard was.” (At a later stage in the
questionnaire, with a view to verifying the response,
the divers were asked in a separate question
to rank six different elements in order of priority
as to what scared them while diving).