Is Your Swimming Pool Safe? Hidden Danger Lies in Unprotected Drains
With summer and beautiful weather approaching, pool use is on the rise. With proper pool use comes safety to prevent hazards. Drowning is the number two accidental injury-related killer of children ages one to fourteen. There are approximately 260 drowning deaths of children younger than age five each year in the swimming pools and an estimated 2,725 children are treated annually in hospital emergency rooms for pool submersion injuries, mostly in residential pools. One relatively unknown hazard, especially for children, is drain entrapment. Twenty-nine percent of people who own a pool are not at all familiar with entrapment, while thirty-seven percent are somewhat familiar. Entrapment can occur in a private or home pool, public pool, or spa/hot tub.
Drain entrapment occurs when part of the body becomes attached to a drain (body entrapment) as a result of the powerful suction of the water circulation system or an arm or leg is inserted into a drain (limb entrapment) with a missing or broken drain cover. Jewelry or part of the bathing suit could also get caught in a drain (mechanical entrapment). The force of a pool’s suction can be tremendous: 350 pounds of pressure for an 8-inch main drain with a standard pump. Death or serious injury can occur when the force of the suction overpowers the ability of a child to disengage from the drain and rise to the surface of the water. Often, the strength of an adult is not enough to remove a child who is entrapped by a drainage system. Entrapment deaths also can occur when long hair or a swimsuit gets tangled in the drain (hair entrapment) or an underwater object, such as a ladder. Evisceration or disembowelment could be caused by the suction when a child sits on an uncovered drain.
From 1985 to 2004, at least thirty-three children age fourteen and under died as a result of entrapment in a pool or spa. In a number of these cases, the child was playing with an open drain by inserting their hands or feet into the pipe and becoming entrapped by the increased suction and resulting tissue swelling. Since 1990, seventy-seven percent of body entrapment deaths and injuries were among children fourteen caused by playing with an open drain. Ninety-three percent of hair entanglement deaths or injuries were among children fifteen and under. Drowning due to entrapment could occur in any water depth.
There are methods to prevent entrapment and other hazards. Always supervise any child in your pool and isolate the pool with a fence. Teach children to stay away from drains and tie up long hair securely. Anti-entrapment drain covers are recommended to prevent the suction of hair or body parts into the drain. Safety vacuum release systems (SVRS) detect blockage of the drain and automatically shut it off. Having more than one drain can also help decrease the amount of suction at any single drain site. If a drain cover is loose, broken, or missing; do not enter the pool and notify the owner or operator.
Several states have passed pool-safety laws after children drowned or were disemboweled by drain suction. North Carolina, for instance, requires pools to have dual drains to diffuse the force of the suction and prevent children from being trapped. In December 2007, Congress approved legislation to ban the manufacture, sale, or distribution of drain covers that don't meet anti-entrapment safety standards. For more information about water-related injuries check http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/factsheets/drown.htm. For drowning prevention tips, check http://www.cpsc.gov/CPSCPUB/PREREL/prhtml04/04142.html.
If you are in need of an attorney because your child has suffered a serious injury as the result of improper pool safety, please contact an experienced attorney at the Law Firm of Reiff and Bily (http://reiffandbily.com/).
