Sports
Aquatic equipment
ISO is active in many areas of safety and accident prevention in sports and leisure activities. Increasingly, ISO work is tackling the aquatic equipment used on the water for leisure activities and which might cause accidents or dangerous situations. ISO's International Standards work more and more to prevent drowning accidents, to minimize the risk of them occurring, and to tighten up the security arrangements for equipment and procedures for rescue.
A series of International Standards for inflatable boats of all types, for example, has been available since 2000. ISO 6185:2001, which consist of three parts under the general title Inflatable boats, focuses on a categorization system, flotation stability, the permissible number of passengers/load, motorization, driving/sailing performance/towing/residual buoyancy and driving performance after failure of a main air chamber, grab ropes and life lines (even after capsizing) as well as warnings, markings and consumer information.
Also available is a series of International Standard for immersion suits that have proven useful in protecting against hypothermia. The aims of protection given in the standards for immersion suits ISO 15027, Parts 1 to 3, include: classification system, thermal protection according to the class, compatibility with the life-jacket, preservation of mobility for self-protection, as well as warning, marking and consumer information.
ISO/TC 188, Small craft, is in the process of developing International Standards for personal flotation devices that will serve as a valuable contribution to the prevention of drowning.
The main goals of protection in standards ISO 12402, Parts 1 to 10, Personal flotation devices, are: suitability in case of an accident; suitability for an unconscious person; comfort; visibility in poor visibility conditions, audibility (signal); minimization of the flooding of the respiratory tracts, and facilitation of the recovery (classification, marking and consumer information).
Ice hockey
Ice hockey players, goalkeepers and referees risk head and face injuries every time they step onto the ice. According to the CSA (Canadian Standards Association), sports of all kinds carry a risk of serious eye injury or blindness, but with proper protection, virtually all sports eye injuries are preventable. For example, in the 1974-1975 season - before minor ice hockey players were required to wear facemasks - there were 258 eye injuries, including 43 blinded eyes, whereas in the 2001-2002 season, only four eye injuries, including two blinded eyes were reported.
ISO is helping to reduce the frequency and severity of injuries to the head and face without compromising the form or appeal of the game, thanks to ISO 10256, Head and face protection for use in ice hockey.
The standard, which has received support from the International Ice Hockey Federation, specifies performance requirements and test methods for helmet and face protectors. It is intended help manufacturers design equipment capable of protecting players, goalkeepers and referees by distributing and dampening the force of impact and preventing the penetration of objects.
The standard is for manufacturers, conformity assessment agencies, users and ice hockey associations - both national and international.
Scuba diving
Scuba diving is a fun sport that anyone in good average health, meeting the age requirements, can participate in. However, it is a complex activity and requires careful forethought and planning, from choosing competent instructors to procuring the correct equipment.
Consumers expect reliable assessments of quality and qualifications for services provided.
ISO is developing a series of standards under the general title of recreational diving services, covering safety requirements, including first aid, for the training of recreational scuba divers (ISO/DIS 24801), for the training of scuba instructors (ISO/DIS 24802), and for recreational scuba diving service providers (ISO/DIS 24803), who must ensure the quality of the equipment and qualifications of the instructors.
Winter sports equipment
ISO on skis and skates? Yes, indeed, in the field of skiing, ISO International Standards do some excellent work in protecting skiers from the accidents caused by defective winter sports equipment. Sound and reliable material is vital for safety. If the days are (essentially) over when broken legs caused by faulty skis, boots and bindings were commonplace, ISO's standards, well applied by the ski industry, can justifiably take some of the credit.
In all, ISO has more than 60 standards devoted to sports equipment, and plenty of others are under development by ISO technical committee ISO/TC 83, Sports and recreational equipment, subcommittee SC 4, Skis and snowboards. These run the gamut from standards for test devices and requirements for the setting of the functional unit ski/boot/binding, and the assembly, adjustment and inspection of an alpine ski/binding system, all the way to the determination of deformation load and breaking point of alpine skis and the determination of mass and location of balance point, and determination of elastic properties of cross-country skis. Even ski poles have their standards, such as safety requirements and test methods. Snowboards and ice hockey, two sports where accidents occur all too often, benefit from standards, too (such as test methods for snowboard strap bindings for soft boots and protective helmets for ice hockey players). Such areas as rental ski shop practice - sampling and inspection of complete and incomplete alpine ski-binding-boot systems in rental applications - is covered by an ISO standard. And, to be quite sure everyone is talking about exactly the same thing, a vocabulary standard makes everything crystal clear.
