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Pools,
Spas, & Waterfalls:
Andy Hodak  Swimming
Pool Tragedy Incites Change
Andy Hodak is a
Peters Township resident and a 2005 graduate of Fork Union
Military Academy. He is employed in the pool and spa industry
specializing in construction.
The tragedy of
hundreds of children dying each year from accidental drowning,
and four times as many who become near-drowning victims with
devastating injuries, is made even more painful by the knowledge
that these types of accidents are preventable,” says Rep.
Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
While the thought of
a child drowning or being seriously injured in a backyard pool
is a terrible thing, it is unfortunately a very real occurrence.
According to a Safe Kids USA report, drowning is the second
leading cause of accidental death among children ages 1-14 in
the U.S., surpassed only by motor vehicle crashes.
In 2006, a bill was
introduced in the Congress providing for federal pool safety
oversight. Though defeated by a narrow margin, the bill was
reintroduced this year as the Pool and Spa Safety Act of 2007.
It dominated headlines when a 6-year-old Minnesota girl became
entrapped in a wading pool at the Minneapolis Golf Club.
According to Robert Bennett, the family’s attorney, “The
drain at the bottom of the wading pool was uncovered. She
slipped and fell.”
The Pool and Spa
Safety Act is intended to increase the safety of swimming pools
and spas by motivating states to pass laws that incorporate
layers of protection to help prevent drowning, drain entrapment
and hair entanglements. The legislation would provide grants to
states which require swimming pools and spas to introduce such
layers of protection as:
1. Installation of
physical barriers (such as a fence) around a pool to prevent
children’s unattended access.
2. Mandates pools to
be equipped with a suction outlet drain cover which prevents
hair and body entanglement.
3. Requires the
installation of a safety vacuum release system, shutting off a
pump if it detects blockage.
4. Public awareness
campaign regarding the importance of active supervision of
children at or near a pool.1
We can hope that the
bill currently before Congress will fare better than the last
pool and spa bill did. Until there is legislation to mandate
swimming pool and spa safety, there will be builders who will
install pools without safety vacuum release systems, suction
limiting vent systems, gravity drainage systems, or an automatic
pump shut off system.
Our advice is to be
pro active in the protection of children around swimming pools
and hot tubs, and we suggest you should voluntarily follow the
guidelines set forth by the Pool and Spa Safety Act or by The
Association of Pool and Spa Professionals www.TheAPSP.org). Make
sure that the contractor you hire is conscientious and cares as
much about safety as you do.
“Parents and
caregivers are ultimately responsible for their children’s
safety. The Pool and Spa Safety Act would make it easier for
caregivers who own or visit pools and hot tubs to make sure
their children are protected,” says Martin R. Eichelberger,
MD, chairman of Safe Kids Worldwide.
1 From a 2006
press release by U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz
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