US safety regulators have issued a warning to snorkellers concerning tens of thousands of full-face snorkel masks sold online, following reports of breathing problems and potential drowning risks.
On 5 March the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) warned snorkellers to stop using OUSPT full-face masks immediately because of the risk of serious injury or death from drowning.
According to the agency the masks can cause laboured breathing, which might lead to loss of consciousness or fluid build-up in the lungs – conditions that could result in drowning. The CPSC also said that the design could lead to increased carbon dioxide levels and worsen breathing difficulties.
The warning applies to about 84,000 units of the masks that were sold on Amazon between March 2019 and February 2026, according to the agency. Made in China, they are identifiable by the OUSPT marking on the snorkel tube.
Breathing difficulties
The agency stated that it had received five consumer reports in which users experienced breathing difficulties, felt light-headed or lost consciousness while using the mask. The CPSC also noted a lawsuit alleging that the product had caused a death through drowning.
The seller, Field Life of China, had failed to respond to the agency’s requests for information or to conduct a recall, the CPSC said. The resulting public warning advises owners of the masks to dispose of them safely, and not to sell or give them away.
Snorkellers who had experienced incidents or injuries involving the product were encouraged to report them through the US government’s product-safety reporting system.
There have been few previous recalls or safety notices involving full-face snorkel masks. Some scientific studies have examined their design, and research published in 2023 in the journal Diving & Hyperbaric Medicine found that during simulated use some could allow rebreathing of exhaled air, increasing CO2 and reducing oxygen levels compared with conventional snorkels.
A separate two-year snorkel safety study commissioned by the Hawaii Department of Health concluded that many snorkelling deaths in the state had been linked to rapid onset pulmonary oedema, the condition in which fluid fills the lungs, and that while this was often triggered by breathing resistance, it did not necessarily relate to any specific type of snorkel.
Thank you, Divernet, for highlighting what most of us have known. Great to have articles to back up what we have known. These are bulky and much harder to take off to talk or if a beginner is panicking. The possible rebreathing of CO2 rich air can be more panick inducing..
As far back as 1971 when I started diving, this type of mask was deemed “unsafe ” for all the reasons stated as was the snorkel with the ping pong ball.
These items should be banned completely. The ONLY. full face masks should be those SPECIFIC manufactured for air and mixed gas diving such as Aga and the other other similar products . These need to be used only by those trained in their use.
Tim Morris
BSAC Advanced Instructor
Retired HSE DIVER
Just one look at the pictured design screams “beating the lung” – excessive volume to be pushed in and out of the contained volume, allowing only limited interchange with environmental air, so re-breathing of exhaled CO₂, reduction of inhales O₂ … all the usual suspects.
Yeah, don’t do that.
Unfortunately, the people who need to know this are specifically those without any dive-training at all … who are precisely the audience that this sort of product are aimed at.
I’d be depressed, if I had a higher opinion of business ethics. It probably wasn’t designed with the intention of killing customers, but just the usual blithe overconfidence of MBAs.