Preventing Pool Mishaps

Thank you for the editorial “Child-Proofing the Swimming Pool” (Aug. 22). For those of us active in drowning prevention groups who feel like “voices in the wilderness,” it is gratifying to see this issue discussed by the media. Unfortunately, it takes deaths of young children to catch the public’s attention that swimming pool/spas can be “accidents waiting to happen.”

Many pool accidents go unreported and it is thought there are about 10 occurrences for each one which is documented. Some of these incidents of “near-drowning” cause devastating lifelong brain damage. There are presently more than 80 survivors of near-drownings residing in state hospitals.

The recommendation of Los Angeles City Councilwoman Joy Picus regarding pool alarms would only be a Band-Aid applied to a larger wound. Layers of protection are needed around pool areas which could include alarms but also should have self-closing, self-latching gates on fences, with locks at least 54 inches from the bottom of the gate as well as automatic pool covers.

But the two components most necessary will be the hardest to implement. They are the human factor of constant visual supervision and mandated four-sided fencing around the pool itself (not just around the property line). The latter has been initiated through AB 1050, which former Assemblyman Mike Roos introduced in March, and which is similar to the Arizona legislation. Regrettably, it seems to take legislation (as it did with child passenger safety seats) in order to decrease the deaths and disability of vulnerable young children.

JUDY COOK, Chair

San Gabriel Valley Drowning

Prevention Task Force