Drowning is a leading cause of accidental death for children under the age of five, according to a new study released recently by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. The study confirms that pools and spas are particularly hazardous for young children. The new study, which includes statistics from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, reports an annual average of 390 pool or spa-related drownings for children younger than 15 for the years 2007 through 2009. Further, the study estimates an annual average of 5,200 pool or spa-related emergency department-treated submersion injuries for children younger than 15, from 2009 to 2011.

The study – Pool and Spa Submersion 2012 – was released by the Commission in conjunction with the kickoff of the agency’s “Pool Safely: Simple Steps Save Lives” campaign. Commission Chairman Inez Tenenbaum said in a news release that The Commission’s Pool Safely campaign has worked to prevent countless drowning. She says the Commission will continue to work “to save even more lives this year.” The study identifies three groups of children who are particularly at risk:

• Children younger than five represent nearly 75 percent of child drowning fatalities;

• African-American children ages five to 14 die from drowning three times more often than white children; and

• Hispanic children also have a higher risk of drowning.

The Pool Safely campaign is encouraging all parents and caregivers of children, especially African American and Hispanic children, to help them learn to swim and to take water safety seriously. The study revealed that 51 percent of the estimated injuries from submersion for 2009 through 2011, and 73 percent of the fatalities for 2007 through 2009 involving children younger than 15 years old, occurred at a residence. Residential incidents involving children younger than five accounted for 54 percent of the submersion injuries and 85 percent of the fatalities.

The study reported that 58 percent of fatalities involving children under 15 occurred in in-ground pools, and only 10 percent in portable pools. The Commission also released a report addressing the issue of so-called entrapment injuries caused by water circulation systems in pools and spas. According to Circulation/Suction Entrapments 2012, from 1999 to 2011 there were 106 victims of circulation entrapments in the U.S., including 12 fatalities. Only one of the reported fatalities involved an adult.

Source: Lawyers USA Online