More Children Drowning In Pools, Spas

WASHINGTON (AP) — A month before summer officially begins, a government report shows an increase in the number of children who drown in pools and spas.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) estimated 319 children under age 5 died in pool and spa incidents in 2005, the latest year for which the agency had death certificate details from coroners and medical examiners. That is 74 more deaths than in the year before, according to the report released May 21.

Children between age 1 and 2 account for the majority of deaths, and drowning occurred most often when children were in the water without an adult’s knowledge.

The report also showed that fewer children were treated in emergency rooms for pool and spa injuries. About 2,200 children went to the hospital for such injuries in 2007, compared with 3,900 in 2006.

New CPSC data also shows that between 1999 and 2007 there were 74 reported incidents involving entrapment, resulting in 9 deaths and 63 injuries. Six of the deaths occurred in pools and three occurred in spas and all of the deaths except for one involved children 14 or younger.

These entrapment incidents involve being trapped by the force of suction at the drain and can occur because of a broken or missing outlet cover.

Drowning occurs more commonly when children get access to the pool during a short lapse in adult supervision. To reduce the risk of drowning, pool owners should adopt several layers of protection, including physical barriers, such as a fence completely surrounding the pool with self-closing, self-latching gates to prevent unsupervised access by young children.

If the house forms a side of the barrier, use alarms on doors leading to the pool area and/or a power safety cover over the pool.

The report comes five months after President Bush signed into law a ban on the manufacture, sale, or distribution of drain covers that do not meet anti-entrapment safety standards. The Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act requires that by December 19, 2008, all public pools and spas have safety drain covers, and, in certain circumstances, an anti-entrapment system.

The goal of the law is to improve the safety of all pools and spas by increasing the use of layers of protection and promoting uninterrupted supervision to prevent child drownings and entrapments.