Lives have been saved in the UK and internationally thanks to improved water safety guidelines and public information informed by University of Portsmouth research.
The Challenge
Each year drowning accounts for around 320,000 deaths globally. Many people do not know how to respond upon finding themselves suddenly in open water or struggling in water.
What did we do?
Mike Tipton and his team extensively researched the potentially fatal ‘cold shock’ response exhibited in sudden exposure to cold water, and the dangers of anxiety and threat appraisal in these situations, finding that anxiety increased the risk of cold water immersion. The research determined that the actions taken before and during the initial minutes of immersion are critical to survival, leading to the development of a series of water safety measures, informing coordination of rescue efforts, and shaping national and international campaigns.
Over 100,000 children have received ‘Swim Safe’ training which advocates the safety measures proposed by Mike Tipton and his team. The ‘float first’ technique is recommended by the UK Coastguard to 999 callers for maritime in-water incidents, as well as various national and international maritime and healthcare bodies.
The Impact
The ‘Respect the Water’ campaign detailing crucial water safety advice reached millions of people across social media, print and broadcast media, a dedicated website, and YouTube. This has resulted in an increased awareness and understanding of water safety and behaviour changes. This in turn has saved lives, with some individuals explicitly stating knowledge gained from the campaign as the reason for their survival.
The international use of safety measures designed by the team at University of Portsmouth places this research as central to the rescue and survival of countless individuals.
Float to live
Drowning is the second or third
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most common cause of accidental death around
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the globe.
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We lose around about a thousand people
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a day. In the UK, it's a death about
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every 20 hours, a child a week.
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Nearly half of the deaths are people
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under the age of 15.
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That loss of a life, of
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a potential, of a contribution to society.
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That's the driver to try and help
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people survive the experience
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of going into cold water.
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The background to this project
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certainly started in '83 with my
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PhD, which was in human responses to cold
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water immersion and adaptation to cold.
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And pretty much everything we've done
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from there has made some contribution.
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We work with lots of external organisations.
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Over the years, the Royal National Lifeboat
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Institution have supported
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our research and have used our research a
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lot. We work with Surf Life Saving GB.
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We work with the Coast Guard.
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We work with the Fire and Rescue Service.
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They cover what we do when we work with all
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the groups -- the fantastic groups we work
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with -- is from lab to lifesaving.
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So we can produce the science, and
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we can interpret that science, and then they
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can take it and turn it into campaigns
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like Float to Live.
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You can probably trace everything that's
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happened subsequently to people just before
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they go into the water, people as they
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go into the water and people five minutes
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after they've been in the water.
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When they go into water, it's impossible for
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them to breath-hold.
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They take a gasp, which is two to three
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litres. Just with that first, [INHALE],
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you've crossed the lethal dose for drowning.
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Now, once the skin gets down to water
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temperature, which takes about a minute or
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two, then that response
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goes away. And so, if you look now five
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minutes into an immersion, you will see the
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responses are much lower.
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And so that led us to conclude that
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the majority of these deaths that
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are occurring in the first minutes of
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immersion are due to cold shock. If you can get through that phase, you've now got a much
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better chance of surviving.
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And what you've got to do to get through
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that phase is float to live.
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It's a great privilege and an honour to work
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with these organisations with the common
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purpose of saving lives at sea.
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I was at a conference, it was called Coast
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Safe, which is a collaboration between
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various maritime organisations in Devon
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and Cornwall, which actually came
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about following a tragic incident in North Cornwall.
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And Mike introduced
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the concept of float to live.
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From this, the emergency services that were
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there, which was ambulance, police, fire,
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coastguard, took the information
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and came across a decision that we would
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impart this data, this information
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source, into our operations rooms so that
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when we would get phone calls of people in
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difficulty in the water if we could get a
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message that person that was in the water to
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lie back and float that they would
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have a better chance of survival.
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So the research from the University of
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Portsmouth has been absolutely critical to
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the success of the RNLI's Float to Live campaign.
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Drowning numbers in the UK around the coast
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have been in a gradual decline over the last
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four to five years.
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And whilst we can't attribute that fully
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to the impact of the campaign, we would like
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to think we are contributing to making
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a difference there and to the point that we
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have between 25 and 30 survivors
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stories who have proactively contacted the
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RNLI now to say that the float to live
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advice has helped save their life.
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And so, we would suggest that's probably the
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tip of the iceberg of the really proactive
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people that have actually come forward to
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us. So we're really proud of the impact that
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this had and the fact that float to live is
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now sort of universally accepted
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in the UK as one of our national safety
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messages, and it's talked about as part of
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the Coast Guard script.
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If someone calls in to say there's someone
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drowning in the water to talk through what
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to do. It's been picked up by schools.
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We know it's a lifesaver now, and hopefully,
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it'll save many more lives in the future.
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The research at the University and Professor
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Mike Tipton and his team, because it is a
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team, has really allowed me to understand
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what are those things that I need to think
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about and, more importantly, my 10,000
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volunteers. What do they need from me
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in order for them to learn the knowledge
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that has been gifted on behalf
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of Mike Tipton and his colleagues
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in order that our organisation and
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organisations around the country and around
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the world can use it to help keep people
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safe? And it's critical actually from the
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science making it into reality.
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Three words: Float to Live
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will leave a huge legacy.
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So the float technique is something that
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has been developed by the University of
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Portsmouth and Mike Tipton in cooperation
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with ourselves, the RNLI.
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The technique is very simple - it's almost
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a star shape. Legs out wide, arms
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out wide and head back.
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That gives you maximum surface area.
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The buoyancy that happens to be in your
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clothes will help you come to the surface of
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the water. Some people will find they'll
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have to scale a little bit with their hands
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in order to stay afloat.
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Some people are naturally more buoyant.
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And that position there just helps
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you acclimatise to that cold water,
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keeps your airway clear of the water
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and helps you relax and work out what your
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next move is, whether that's to call for
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help or whether it's to swim to a safer place.
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I would actually consider myself to be quite
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safety conscious.
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The only problem was it was dependent on me
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being attached to my surfboard.
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I think it was probably the first wave of
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the next set I came off
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my board. I realised quite quickly that the
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leash had broken.
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Wave after wave after wave was just
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smashing on top of me,
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and I just thought, This is it.
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About three or four days prior
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to going out surfing on my own,
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I had asked an RNLI lifeguard,
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what's the best thing to do if my leash
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breaks? The advice that they'd given about
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float on your back relax,
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that all came flooding back to me
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immediately.
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I mean, in my mind, that was the only way I
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was going to survive.
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The way I feel about the sea has completely
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changed. The key message
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is you do have it within
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your power to relax and
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have some control over that situation with
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that float to live information.
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Education is a really critical
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component feeding into preventative
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medicine. So if people know
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what's going to happen to them when they go
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in the water, they tend to deal with
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it better -- we've done studies that prove
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that. If they know how to behave and you
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teach them how to behave, then survivability
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just goes up off the scale.
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So we're running a session this afternoon
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with St Agnes Surf Lifesaving Club, a group
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of their nippers, their younger members are
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going to be down here, and we're going to be
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showing them the float to live technique and how they do it.
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Eventually, these young children, seven
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or eight years old as they are now, will be
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the 16, 17, 18-year-olds that
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we at the RNLI will be recruiting to be
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lifeguards that will, in turn, will be
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keeping us safe when we visit the beaches.
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So my hope for the future around the
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campaign and the work in general for water
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safety is that we carry on having an impact,
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and it's really brought it home to me the
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last couple of years that we have made a
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difference in real people's lives.
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The crucial thing is having the University
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of Portsmouth as part of that research that
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is the flagstone of everything we're all
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doing here in doing drowning prevention.
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We all need to work together, and it's that
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interoperability, which is really key.
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Many lives that we save, not just in the UK,
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but around the world.
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So the legacy for this research in my eyes
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is that it has, we know, helped to save
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lives, and I don't think from an academic
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point of view, you can really ask for
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anything more than that. And the key really
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for us is that this research, which is a
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lifetime's worth of work for Mike and the
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team, has now been applied in a way and at
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a scale that is genuinely making a
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difference. And so if we can keep doing
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that, I think that will be the legacy and
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hopefully for many years to come floating to
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live will be in the same kind of safety
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message bracket as wearing a seatbelt or
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something like that that just becomes normal
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life and that, for me, will be success and legacy.