Secure Zone Safety - Pool Safety

Pool Safety

In this country, drowning is a leading cause of death for children under the age of five. About 350 children under five years of age drown each year in swimming pools, and most of those pools were residential. Another 2,600 children under the age of five are injured as a result of submersion incidents and treated in hospital emergency rooms across the country. Some of these children suffered permanent brain damage from their injuries. Obviously pool safety is a serious and vital subject that we all need to learn more about so these things don't happen to our families.

Pool Safety Tips

The best thing to do to ensure the best pool safety you can provide is to have many defenses in place. Do not rely solely on a life jacket or a pool alarm. These are good to have, but why not have as many precautionary measures in place as you can at any given moment to ensure the safety of anyone in or near your pool? Here are some pool safety guidelines:

Fences and walls surrounding the pool should be at least 4 feet high, the gates of which should be self-closing and self-latching, latches must be out of the reach of small children.
Any door that leads from the house directly out into the pool area should be equipped with an alarm so you know when little ones might be sneaking out.
Use a power pool safety cover that goes over the water when the pool is not being used.
Keep all rescue equipment nearby, including a cordless phone with emergency numbers handy.
Learn CPR
If your pool is above ground, make sure that steps and ladders are secured, locked, or removed when not using the pool.
If you cannot find you child, look first in the pool- every second counts.
Install a pool safety alarm that will alert you when something enters the water, even if you are in the house.

The most important and reliable way to prevent a drowning is to closely supervise children at all times while they are in the water. Pool safety cannot be ensured if you depend upon the safety products alone. Monitor your children's comings and goings even when they are not in the pool, make sure that doors that lead to the pool are closed and locked.