Portable pools dangerous, no matter what their size
July 6, 2011
As families look for easy and affordable ways to cool off during an exceptionally hot, dry summer, a new study is warning about the alarming danger of portable pools.
Researchers at the Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus are reporting that every five days across the United States, a child drowns in a portable pool, and that almost half of these deaths happen in very shallow wading pools.
(According to the Mayo Clinic, a baby can drown in one inch of water. As well, the Drowning Prevention Coalition states that 75 percent of preschooler drownings take place in less than five minutes.) The vast majority occurred in the child's own yard.
According to lead researcher Dr. Gary A. Smith, the very low-costs of the pools and their easy assembly, means that parents lower their guards; adults simply do not believe that portable pools harbor dangers implicitly accepted with in-ground pools.
While an entire safety industry has evolved to support costly in-ground pools, Smith points out that portable pools enjoy no such precautionary products - they're just not expensive enough to merit the additional cost. Other experts, also concerned about backyard pool safety, agree with Smith: portable pools are simply too small to make expensive safety fencing feasible, Safe Kids USA president, Meri-K Appy, says. But paradoxically, Appy notes that these "backyard pools ...are too large to make them easy to empty and secure safely after each use."
Of course, drowning is not a new or unrecognized child-safety risk. According to the CDC, fatal drownings remain the second leading cause of unintentional injury-related death for children under 14 years of age, while the Orange County California Fire Authority warns that swimming pools are almost 15 times more likely to result in the death of a young child than a motor vehicle.
Just as devastating as drownings may be the results of near-drownings. The American Academy of Pediatrics reports that for each drowning death there are as many as four "nonfatal" submersions in which the child ends up hospitalized. "Children who still require cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) at the time they arrive at the emergency department have a poor prognosis, with at least half of survivors suffering significant neurologic impairment," the academy states.
But perhaps most shocking of all is the role that adults play in the new data. The Drowning Prevention Foundation states that almost one-fifth of children who drown do so with certified lifeguards present, and the Drowning Prevention Coalition finds 70 percent of children drowning "in the care of one or both parents."
The new study puts forth similarly dire statistics, warning that in the case of portable pools, over 40 percent of the drowning deaths take place while an adult is looking on.
The Director of Trauma and Injury Prevention at Children's Hospital of Pittsburg is quoted in a U.S. News and World Report story as warning, "while water is very inviting for children, it is also extremely hazardous." Dr. Barbara Gaines recommends that wading pools be emptied out when they're not in use.
The newly released study, part of the July edition of Pediatrics journal, implies that nothing can replace the in-arms-reach vigilance of an adult, given that, in almost 20 percent of the studied cases, chatting with neighbors, answering the phone or taking care of a chore occupied the adult's attention long enough for the drowning to occur.
Parents who invest in affordable, readily-available backyard pools should also be willing to put in in rigorous and close supervision. "Never underestimate water," Gaines said.
-- The Boerne Star in Boerne, Texas
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