Pool Access Safety

Make sure that children can not access your pool without adult supervision. This includes your neighbor's kids. It should not be easy for any kids on the street to walk to your backyard and play in your pool. A gate with some kind of locking mechanism should be installed so kids can not access your backyard pool and play in it.

Children Safety Zone

• Never leave a child unattended in the water or pool area for any reason. Don't be distracted by doorbells, phone calls, chores or conversations. If you must leave the pool area, take the child with you, making sure the pool gate latches securely when it closes.
  
• Always keep your eyes on the child or children. Designate a child watcher, whether you or someone else, when you attend a party or have friends or family over.
  
• Talk with baby-sitters about pool safety, supervision and drowning prevention.
  
• Post rules such as "No running," "No pushing," "No dunking" and "Never swim alone." Enforce the rules.
  
• Don't rely on swimming lessons or "floaties" to protect your children in the water.
  
• Don't assume that drowning or a drowning incident couldn't happen to you or your family.
  
• Don't have a false sense of security just because you think your pool area and home are secure. Always watch your children, whether in the house or outside.
  
• Attend a CPR class. Make sure your baby-sitter knows CPR.
  
• For the nearest cardiopulmonary resuscitation class, contact your fire department, Red Cross or hospital.
  
• Encourage your neighbors to follow pool safety guidelines, including keeping their back gates and doors locked, and their pool gates securely closed and latched.
  
  

Body Entrapment

Under normal conditions, pipes leading from a pool's drain, or into the pool's pumps, draw water from the pool creating suction. If something blocks the pool drain leading into this pipe (for example, pool's skimmer filled up with leafs), the amount of suction will increase on main drain in the bottom of the pool, as the pump draws water. This increased suction can entrap parts of a person's body, causing the person to be held underwater. In wading pools, if a child sits on the drain outlet, the suction can cause disembowelment.

A 16-year-old New Jersey girl drowned when her body was sucked down against a drain on the bottom of a spa. Her body apparently formed a vacuum seal against an outlet for circulating water and she was held underwater.

• Before swimming always make sure that the skimmer is not clogged up.
• Keep surrounding areas of pool clean of falling leafs so they don't end up in the pool. (Bougainvillea shed leafs and flowers which easy clogs skimmer basket, these plants should be kept away from pools) .
• Keep away from pool and spa suction intakes.
• Make sure that drain suction covers/grating are securely attached.
• Consider dual-drain (two drains) pools vs. pools with single drain coverings.
• Always keep your head above water in spas to prevent hair entanglement.
• Keep pool pump speed below 6 feet per second.
• Install anti-vortex plates and drain covers to pool and spa suctions.
• Install remote shut-off switches for pool pumps.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions regarding body entrapment danger in your pool.