Applying water safety practices during Memorial Day can save lives
With Memorial Day weekend, and summer swim season officially opening, the Drowning Prevention Coalition of Palm Beach County encourages parents, caregivers, pool owners, and vacationers to make drowning prevention a top priority.
According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) “nearly 300 children younger than five drown in pools and spas each year, and about 3,000 suffer pool or spa-related injuries (including suction/entrapment incidents) requiring attention at hospital emergency rooms.”
Don’t have a loved one become a statistic. Apply water safety practices by utilizing the following layers of protection:
- Constant adult supervision
- Swimming in front of a lifeguard at the beach
- Physical barriers around a pool area (i.e. fence) that include self-closing, self-latching gates
- Window and door alarms that sound when breached
- Pool safety covers
- Pool alarms that float on the surface of the pool
- Alarms that go around a child’s wrist and sound if the wrist touches the water
- Staying away from pool and spa drains
- While at a party, designate an adult WATER WATCHER (using a distinguishable item such as a lanyard or funny hat) for 15 minutes whose sole responsibility is to watch the pool area and not read, talk on the phone or have outside distractions. After the 15 minutes conclude, hand over the distinguishable item to another adult for 15 minutes and so forth.
