Recreational Boating Turns Deadly

June 6, 2003 -- — It happens every summer — tragic deaths from drowning on the nation's lakes, rivers and oceans. But boating experts say some of these deaths may have actually been caused by an invisible hazard, carbon monoxide poisoning.

It's long been known that carbon monoxide from boat engines and generators can build up and prove deadly, inside a boat's cabin, but it is becoming clear that this hazard also exists outside the cabin, and people are dying after being exposed to carbon monoxide in the open air.

"We have death after death after death proving that this is occurring," said Dr. Robert Baron, an emergency room physician and the medical director of the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, which includes Lake Powell, where a number of these deaths have occurred.

According to a study released in March by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, carbon monoxide has caused at least 93 deaths and 377 poisonings in or around boats since 1990. That number is considered low because many poisonings are written off as a drowning.

The Silent Killer

A new fad called "teak surfing," in which swimmers hang on to a swim platform (often made of teak) to be dragged behind a motorboat, is being blamed for many of the latest deaths.

Stacey Beckett, 15, from Ontario, Calif., died while "teak-surfing" in Mexico behind a friend's Master Craft ski boat. What Beckett didn't realize is that she was putting her face right in a stream of carbon monoxide gas from the boat's engine.

"She ultimately was overcome by the fumes, let go and drowned in the water, although her carbon monoxide levels alone were sufficient to be fatal," said family attorney Jim Tierney.

Beckett's case sparked a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court this week against 11 ski-boat manufacturers.

They allege that the companies need to do more to warn boaters about the danger, and need to work on technical fixes to reduce CO emissions.

"You don't know where the carbon monoxide is accumulating and where it's going, and that's the danger," said Steve Beckett, Stacey's father.

Government tests have shown the fumes can accumulate right around the engine and generator exhaust vents. Concentrations have been measured as high as 30,000 parts per million. NIOSH considers 1,200 parts per million as posing an immediate danger.

"The concentrations that are occurring at the back end of the boats are so high that it sometimes takes just a few breaths to render someone unconscious," said Baron.

People have been poisoned swimming under the rear platforms of houseboats, playing in the water near generator exhaust vents of cabin cruisers, even sitting on the swim platforms of ski boats while the engine was running.

"I think the boating manufacturers need to step up and they need to warn everybody that buys a boat, and there should be stickers all over the boat, especially around the swim steps, that death may occur if you're around the boat when it's running," said Sherry Beckett, Stacey's mother.

Cleaning Up

Houseboat manufacturers have been working to reduce emissions from generators, and to vent CO in vertical stacks, much like you see on tugboats. But the ski boat industry says right now, there are no such technical fixes available to them.

The National Marine Manufactures Association says since 2002, any boat that is certified as safe by the group must have a carbon monoxide warning sticker on the rear of the boat.

The NMMA has also produced a pamphlet about carbon monoxide hazards and warnings are included in owner's manuals. But the focus of much of that literature has been the hazard inside boat cabins. The NMMA says it is rewriting the material to include much more information about the open-air risk of CO poisoning, and specially to warn swimmers against "teak surfing."

Manufacturers insist boaters bear some responsibility. "Clearly people that are on these swim platforms while the engines are running, clearly that is a misuse of the product," said David DeHorn is the manager of engineer standards for the National Marine Manufactures Association.

John Dorton, the CEO of MasterCraft, insisted "there is no defect in the design" of the boat, and he said that the boat is designed for water sports and not for teak-surfing, which, he said, is clearly a dangerous activity.

Ultimately Baron says the industry must come up with a technical fix — that education of boaters alone won't work. "You have to cut the poison off at its source," says Baron, "If you continue to design structures that put the poison where the people are meant to occupy, [deaths are] going to continue to happen."