HOME POOL SAFETY

OVERVIEW

The Keep Watch Home Pool Safety Campaign is a new initiative from Royal Life Saving reminding every home pool owner to check, fix and maintain their home pool this summer to help eliminate child drowning.

Every year over 35 Australian children under the age of five drown. Whilst all of these drowning deaths are preventable, it is the 50% that occur in home swimming pools where your immediate action can make a difference. Home pool fencing and effective supervision can reduce these tragic drowning deaths to zero immediately.

Drowning in home swimming pools remains one of the most significant causes of mortality in young children. A recent article "Safety Legislation, public health policy and drowning prevention" published in the International Journal of Injury Control and Safety Promotion by Royal Life Saving and the Royal Children's hospital in Queensland demonstrated the positive impact that swimming pool legislation in Queensland has had on reducing children drowning. The article reports on the comparison of drowning indices in the decade before (1982-1991) with those after (1992-2001) the introduction of the legislation. Over this period there were 53 drowning deaths (0-4 year olds) in home swimming pools. The age-specific drowning death rates fell after the introduction of safety legislation (6.54 compared with 1.85 per 100,000 per year); as did the ratio of pool drowning deaths to all drowning deaths in this age group (0.85 compared with 0.50). The age-specific annual drowning death rates for non-pool drowning deaths (1.17 compared with 1.85) did not change over the combined 20-year survey period of this study. Thus the introduction of safety legislation alone will reduce drowning rates in young children by more than 30%.