Most children drown in pools attend hospital due to immersion injuries. Some of these children ended up having permanent brain damage.
Tips to stay swim safe
- STAY close to kids always in the pool. Effectiveness of pool safety depends on the vigilance of the adults supervising children in and around pools all the time.
- Start SWIMming lessons. Starting swimming lessons is not a substitute for supervision. However, learning to swim can reduce the possibility of drowning.
- Maintain a SAFE pool fence. Always make sure your pool gates are self-closes and self-latches and your pool fence is compliance with the current pool fencing laws.
What is supervision
It is not occasional glance while you are occupied with something else. It is a must that you constantly watching each and every child in and around the pool.
With children under 5 years of age, you should be in the water all the time within arms’ reach. With older children be ready to get into water in case of an emergency.
Make sure to have a designated adult supervisor. Rotate responsibility if there are many children to supervise. Must not appoint older kids to supervise younger kids.
Extended breath-holding can lead to death
Many people are not aware of ‘shallow water hypoxia’ or ‘shallow water blackout’ and this can be fatal. This often happens with repeated breath-holding games. Taking several deep breaths or hyperventilating before an extended period of breath-holding is extremely risky.
When holding their breath, a person ignores their body’s signal to breath. When a person is breathing fast on purpose or hyperventilation increases the amount of oxygen in that person and decreases the carbon dioxide levels. What triggers the body’s response to breath is the increase of carbon dioxide levels, and not the low oxygen levels. As a result if a person does not comes to the surface and breath at this point they will fall unconscious. If they are not taken out of the water immediately and resuscitated, they’ll die.
This can happen either the first time of hyperventilation before the breath-holding or can be triggered by continuous attempts of breath-holding. Experienced divers and competent swimmers have suffered brain injuries or have died due to shallow water hypoxia.
It is hard for the supervisors or life guards to distinguish between a person ‘playing’ on the bottom of the pool and someone who has passed out.
What can you do?
- All the time supervise the children in and around the water
- Act responsibly around water and set an example to others
- Teach others and make them aware about the risks associate with breath-holding games.
Why Choose Seymour Consultants for Your Pool Safety Requirements?
As market leaders in the area of safety, Seymour Consultants have been inspecting pools and pool fences for many years and make it our duty to stay up to date with all current pool safety laws applicable for your situation. At Seymour Consultants we pride ourselves on providing you with a professional, personalised and positive experience. We make it our mission to provide a level of service that separates us from our competitors.
Watch Queensland Government’s pool safety campaign video here