Feds Target Pool Safety

Swimming Pools • CPSC Warns of In-Home Drowning Dangers • New Study Highlights Dangers in the Water • Pool And Spa Safety Law Takes Effect This Week • Drowning Season Opens; Pools a Major Menace to Children • Backyard Pools Pose Danger to Kids • Legal liability • Feds target pools

August 3, 2004
As part of its efforts to reduce the rate of child drownings, and deaths and injuries due to entrapments in pool and spa suction outlets, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is holding hearings this summer on pool and spa safety.

The most recent hearings have been in Phoenix and Tampa, cities with a high per capita number of pools.

In recent years, an average of about 250 children under age 5 drowned annually in swimming pools nationwide. Drowning has been a leading cause of death from unintentional injuries to children under 5 years old. To address this, CPSC has set a strategic goal to reduce the rate of drownings of children under age 5 by 10 percent over the next 10 years.

CPSC is in the process of revising its Guidelines for Entrapment Hazards: Making Pools and Spas Safer, originally published in 1998. The guidelines provide pool and spa owners with CPSC's recommendations on actions they should take to eliminate the potential for suction entrapment or hair entanglement in pools and spas. A draft of the updated entrapment hazard guidelines and information about all types of drowning prevention can be found at CPSC's Web site.

Earlier this summer, CPSC began a major pool drowning prevention information and education campaign, which included a video news release broadcast to television stations across the country to highlight the drowning hazards associated with residential pools. CPSC encourages pool owners to have layers of protection, including at a minimum, a barrier completely surrounding the pool, such as a fence with self-closing and self-latching gates. Additional layers include door alarms, pool safety covers, and pool alarms. Constant supervision of young children also is extremely important.

CPSC invited local, state and federal legislators, building code officials, emergency first responders, community groups, interest groups, and leaders of the pool and spa industry to attend the hearing and provide their recommendations to the Commission.

Scheduled presenters at the Phoenix hearing include representatives from the Phoenix and Tucson Fire Departments, the Arizona Child Fatality Review Team, Phoenix Children's Hospital, St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center, the National Drowning Prevention Alliance, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the National Spa and Pool Institute, the National Swimming Pool Foundation, National Safe Kids Campaign, and drowning victim family members.

"Campaigns like these remind pool owners of how critical the basics are to pool safety," CPSC Chairman Hal Stratton said. "An earlier CPSC study showed that almost 70 percent of the young victims were not expected to be in or even around the pool. Close supervision and barriers are paramount in keeping young children safe."

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