It’s Time for Laws on Pool Safety

How many more toddlers need to drown in family pools before someone takes notice and does something? Virtually all, if not every single one, of these deaths and permanent injuries is preventable. Communities must not turn a deaf ear to warnings about this problem.

Ignoring the problem will not make it go away. The rash of drowning incidents in Orange County during the past few months alone has become a disgraceful situation, where the importance of the safety of children has been neglected.

Leaflets and brochures have not worked. Parent instruction methods have not worked. The National Research Council and the Institute of Medicine warned that education by itself, without legal requirements and tough enforcement, “has rarely proved to be an adequate preventive approach. . . . Legislative and regulatory proposals could remove and reduce the danger of such accidents.”

I hereby demand that all lawmakers in Orange County adopt child-safety protective measures (regarding) swimming pools to include: Every family back-yard swimming pool shall be protected by an adequate enclosure, surrounding the pool area, sufficient to make such body of water reasonably inaccessible to small children.

If pools are made safe, kids won’t be drowning. It is easier to eliminate hazards than to rehabilitate the tragedies. The solution is to adopt and enforce local ordinances that require protective barriers directly around pools.

AL PALLADINO, Founder, Save That Child Foundation, Orange