Swimming Pool and Spa Safety Starts with You!
Recreational time at public and residential swimming pools and spas is a favorite activity for children and adults all over the country. Whether enjoying pool time with family and friends, exercising, playing water sports, or learning to swim, everyone needs to be mindful of the potential for incidents and drownings in pools and spas.
Each year, nearly 300 children under the age of five drown in residential and public pools and spas. Submersion incidents requiring emergency-room treatment or hospitalization number in the thousands and many victims experience permanent disability, including brain damage.
Few people know of the hidden dangers from drain or suction entrapments. Drains with broken, missing, or faulty covers can entrap hair, the body, limbs, jewelry and clothing, or cause disembowelment/evisceration.
On December 17, 2007, the Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act (P&SSAct) was signed into law. This important child safety law became effective in December 2008 and strives to:
- Enhance the safety of public and private pools and spas
- Encourage the use of layers of protection
- Reduce child drownings in pools and spas (nearly 300 each year involving children younger than five)
- Reduce the number of suction entrapment incidents, injuries and deaths
- Educate the public on the importance of constant supervision of children in and around water
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is the lead agency in implementing and enforcing the P&SSAct. CPSC is working with other safety groups in the pool and spa safety community to encourage the use of layers of protection--such as fencing around pools, constant supervision, and requiring anti-entrapment drain covers and other safety devices.
Join the Pool/Spa information e-mail list to receive periodic updates from CPSC.
