While owning a pool can provide relaxation and entertainment for family and friends, it also comes with a huge responsibility. Drowning is the number one cause of death in children and adolescents. Drowning and pool-related accidents are more tragic because they can occur from seconds to minutes and are often completely silent. You may not know if your child is going toward the pool or actually in the pool until it’s too late. Safety pool covers in Modesto are one of the ways to prevent these tragedies from happening.
Here’s a sobering statistic from the Consumer Product Safety Commission: almost 400 children under 15 drown in pools and spas yearly – about one every day – and 300 children under five years old. Most of these fatalities – 87 percent – occur not at public swimming pools or private resorts but at residential swimming pools and spas.
If you own a backyard pool and are parents of very young children, keeping safety a top priority whenever they are near or around the pool is essential.
Follow these layers of protection to keep your children safe in and around the swimming pool.
Consistently keep an eye on your children when near the pool.
Children can go under the water and drown in mere seconds. Be vigilant, and don’t let anything distract you from preventing that from happening. If your child is still learning to swim, keep them within arm’s length.
If you cannot be present for your children due to office work, household chores, etc., assign a pool watcher while your kids are in or around the pool or spa.
Never rely on flotation devices.
Swim rings, water wings, and life jackets are great safety devices for children and non-swimmers. However, it is best not to rely on them too much. They’re not always fail-safe and should not be used as an alternative or replacement for adult supervision at the swimming pool.
Take your kids to swimming lessons.
Swimming lessons are more than just a great activity for anyone – most importantly, they can help save lives. While swimming lessons still do not replace the need for adult supervision, learning to swim makes drowning less likely to happen. Participating in swimming lessons is linked with an 88% reduction in the risk of drowning in children aged one to four.
Look for swim schools in your area or schedule swimming programs that have qualified and experienced instructors. Or search the Red Cross website for classes taught by a qualified instructor.
Establish pool rules
Make sure your children, their friends, and the neighborhood kids invited to your pool follow the rules below:
- No running around the pool.
- No pushing or dunking others in the pool.
- No pulling other kids underwater.
- No diving into the shallow end of the pool.
- No swimming without adult supervision – even if the kids wear flotation devices.
Learn CPR
Every parent should learn how to perform CPR. It will come in handy if drowning occurs–CPR is the most important thing every parent can do to save their child from further danger. CPR brings blood to the heart, brain, and other organs and helps start breathing until emergency medics arrive to give the child additional life support. When done correctly, CPR can save a person’s life.
Install alarms, fences, and covers
Blocking access is one of the best ways to ensure pool safety. By installing various security barriers, you are protecting your child from danger and ensuring that your pool doesn’t pose a risk to neighborhood kids.
All pools (both inground and above-ground) and spas should have a fence around them with a self-closing, locked gate. Install alarms on fences and around the pool that will alert you that your child is going toward the pool area.
However, installing a safety pool cover is the best way to keep children (as well as pets and non-swimmers) out of the swimming pool when it’s not in use, or there’s no adult supervision.
The pool cover you want to purchase must have ASTM-compliant safety features. The ASTM standards for pool covers (labeled as ASTM F1346-91) make sure that the manufacturer meets the following four requirements:
- The cover must be able to hold at least 485 lbs. – the approximate combined weight of two average adults and one child to permit a rescue operation.
- The cover must pass a Perimeter Detection Test. The manufacturer must prove that any openings on the cover are too small for any objects to pass through and that they are strong enough to resist any efforts to pass through.
- The cover must pass a Surface Drainage Test. In this test, the cover should be designed, so that excess water does not stand and collect on the surface, either by using a semi-permeable material or a feature that allows the water to run off the cover.
- The cover must have proper labels, including manufacturer warranties and ASTM standard warnings.
Get an ASTM safety pool cover today from Pool Covers, Inc.
To ensure that your pool cover is ASTM-certified, you should get one from a reputable manufacturer, such as Pool Covers, Inc.
Pool Covers, Inc. offers safety covers for pools and spas of any shape, size, and style. It can cover new or existing pools or spas. Whether you want a manual pool cover, automatic pool cover, or spa cover, all of them are built to exceed ASTM standards, so your family’s safety is guaranteed.
If you want to learn about ASTM safety pool covers in Modesto and surrounding areas, contact us at Pool Covers, Inc. Our team looks forward to helping make your pool – and your family – safer.
