Although official summer is still weeks away, Memorial Day weekend is a traditional time for most area pools to open and, experts say, a time for parents to learn how to keep their kids safe from drowning.
In Virginia, between 2005 and 2009, there were 464 fatal drownings and 83 percent of those were "unintentional injury deaths," according to Heather Board, who manages the Virginia Health Department's Injury Prevention Program. (Not all of those deaths are from swimming pool drownings.) Drowning is the #1 leading cause of death for children ages 1-4 in Virginia, she noted.
Also this week, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission kicked off the second year of its Pool Safely: Simple Steps Save Lives campaign. The Pool Safely campaign is a national public education effort to reduce child drownings and nonfatal submersion and entrapment incidents in swimming pools and spas.
CPSC's new statistics show, based on reported statistics, 96 percent of victims involved in a submersion incident will die. Fatalities usually occur the day of the drowning event. For the victims who survive the event, most will succumb to their injuries within a week. Only 4 percent of near-drowning victims will survive beyond a week, and many will have severe injuries and require intensive medical care, the agency noted.
Swimming Safety Tips from the Virginia Department of Health include:
- Even if a child has had swimming lessons, a designated adult should be supervising at all times.
- If a group of children is swimming, parents should take turns being a "designated water watcher."
- Board said the bulk of drownings happen when a parent is nearby but is distracted and not keeping an eye on his or her child. "Be present," she noted. Don't spend time checking e-mail, texting, reading, etc.
- If you own a pool, it should ideally have a four-sided fence around it, in addition to the yard being fenced in. Latches on the fence should be self-closing and high enough to be out of reach of children.
- Doors leading to your yard should be locked.
- Invest in a water motion alarm for your pool.
- Do not rely on water wings, noodles or floats to keep your child from drowning.
- If a child is in trouble, Board said you will not hear a lot of splashing or cries for help. Especially for children 4 and younger, "they would drown very quietly."
- Know CPR. "If something happens, you might be able to save someone in those few moments," Board said. Contact your local Red Cross for a CPR class.
Pool Drain Cover Recall
On Wednesday, the CPSC announced a recall of eight pool and in-ground spa drain covers due to incorrect ratings, saying the covers pose a possible entrapment hazard to swimmers.
The recalled drain covers were incorrectly rated to handle the flow of water through the cover, which could pose a possible entrapment hazard to swimmers and bathers, the CPSC said. For more information, see http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml11/11230.html
Do you have any water safety tips to share? Post them in the "Comments" box following this article.
0 comments:
Post a Comment