Pool Safety

Pool safety isn't just for the summer. Children can drown any time of the year. Having children visit you for the holidays? Take the right steps and install layers of protection -- high door/window locks, a removable pool fence, a pool alarm. Likewise, are you traveling to a home with a pool that might not be childproofed? Be responsible and bring your safety with you. The Safety Turtle is a pool alarm worn like a wristwatch on the child. If it goes underwater, the alarm in the house sounds. Great portable solution if you are traveling to a pool not setup for children. You can find them here:

www.poolbarrierofoklahoma.com

405.348.4114

Pool Safety - Pool Barrier of Oklahoma

Get real on pool safety, not statistics

November 18, 2013 By admin 1 Comment

Pool safety needs to get serious not just statistics

Hannah’s Foundation, Drowning Prevention, Awareness and Advocacy group says drowning prevention and water safety must get real to the public eye instead of just numbers.

Katherine Plint, Founder of Hannah’s Foundation said “Statistics are becoming really boring, people don’t understand them, they are not being listened to and parents specifically want the real facts on how people have died.”

“In response to the research by Pool Werx and Laurie Lawrence those stats are not surprising but they are actually lower than those previously researched over the last ten years.  To me that is PROGRESS on education to pool owners.  1000 people though isn’t really enough indication and some research funding would be better spent on Public education in the first place.”  Mrs Plint said.

“When we first lost Hannah, we were seeing over 85% of pools of non-compliant fencing where now that statistic in Qld most definitely is lower because rental properties are under the new legislation.”

“I was disappointed that any type of research didn’t break down owned homes vs rentals or even disclose such because in 2009 our records in regards to safety in rentals was the pivotal point of change for pool legislation in QLD”

“The last year saw seven children in Qld drown in backyard pools and yes they are all preventable tragic accidents but what we aren’t hearing is why they drowned in the first place.  The public need to the reason/cause and then a safety message from that tragedy, not statistics.”

“In Qld one gate was propped open giving access to the pool, the child was also in the sight of an older child, the message is clear pool gates are meant to be closed to prevent children under four from entering and only Adult supervision prevents drowning.  Pool legislation is for toddlers not older kids and people need to understand that.”

“Two children gained access through broken gates both children simply dropped the gate by standing on it.  The message is for pool owners to check their gates regularly and maintain them is crucial.”

“One was in a rental property where after a long deluge of rain the tiles on the bottom of the gate had shifted and prevented the gate from shutting.  Again it’s up to tenants to report faults so their agencies can have them repaired”  She said.

“A child drowned whilst visiting a family friend and sadly an object such as towel has been caught on the gate and prevented the lock from catching.  Again the message is never place objects such as towels, clothes or pool toys near the gate or fence”

“Two kids were over five and were left in Pools or were swimming at the time and floatation devices and lack of supervision by swimming alone was contributory.  The message here is don’t’ leave kids in floatation devices and never allow kids to swim alone, even if they are good swimmers”

Mrs Plint said “Qld now had to address home owners on pool safety and get their pools up to the new standard; we don’t wish to see an influx of panicked owners needing compliance and then facing fines in 2015 when there are needed to meet the new standard of pool safety”

“Councils across the country need to stop being so lazy and enforce pool legislation.  These laws have been enforceable since 1991 and not many councils have taken their powers seriously”

“Councils need to also educate their pool owners on how to maintain their fences and what issues to look for and public education information nights are the way to do that and social media”

“Sadly many parents believe that CPR and Swimming lessons will save their children, this isn’t the case.”

She said “If people understood that drowning is fatal that message is clear, watch your children and prevent the access to water because you don’t want to find out if little Mary’s skills will save her or your skills of CPR.  I knew CPR and Hannah could swim why is she dead?”  She said.

“Out of the five under four last year three of those had been in lessons since they were six months of age”

“The message is to always supervise around water even with a pool fence, it’s when supervision breakdown and a non-compliant barrier is in place is when a tragedy will occur”

“I call upon all the agencies to research inquests and speak to the families of these tragedies and understand how simple they happen and educate the public accordingly, we have been doing this now for six years and we are the only agency in Australia doing this”

“Many families want to tell their stories but they don’t trust big companies to do it because many in the past have been polished and haven’t addressed the real reasons in which drownings occur, that is why Inquest findings are needed to be able to print the facts and those facts can’t be disputed”  She said.

“Australia does need to get serious about preventing drowning because there is no cure.  We call on the media to help us do more.”  She said.

For more information on Hannahs Foundation please phone 07 5465 2000 or Katherine Plint on 0423 869 063 (directly) for radio or interviews.

Hannah’s Foundation Ltd is a registered charity and is the only charity in Australia supporting families and victims of drowning and water tragedies.

Water Safety Pool Barrier of Oklahoma

Water Safety

Take Steps to Stay Safe Around Water

Swimming is the most popular summer activity. The best thing you can do to help your family stay safe is to enroll in age-appropriate swim lessons. Contact the Training Support Center at 1-800-RED-CROSS or support@redcrosstraining.org.

Follow these safety tips whenever you are in, on or around water.

Make Water Safety Your Priority

• Swim in designated areas supervised by lifeguards.
• Always swim with a buddy; do not allow anyone to swim alone. Even at a public pool or a lifeguarded beach, use the buddy system!
• Ensure that everyone in the family learns to swim well. Enroll in age-appropriate Red Cross water orientation and Learn-to-Swim courses.
• Never leave a young child unattended near water and do not trust a child’s life to another child; teach children to always ask permission to go near water.
• Have young children or inexperienced swimmers wear U.S. Coast Guard-approved life jackets around water, but do not rely on life jackets alone.
• Establish rules for your family and enforce them without fail. For example, set limits based on each person’s ability, do not let anyone play around drains and suction fittings, and do not allow swimmers to hyperventilate before swimming under water or have breath-holding contests.
• Even if you do not plan on swimming, be cautious around natural bodies of waterincluding ocean shoreline, rivers and lakes. Cold temperatures, currents and underwater hazards can make a fall into these bodies of water dangerous.
• If you go boating, wear a life jacket! Most boating fatalities occur from drowning.
• Avoid alcohol use. Alcohol impairs judgment, balance and coordination; affects swimming and diving skills; and reduces the body’s ability to stay warm.

Prevent Unsupervised Access to the Water

• Install and use barriers around your home pool or hot tub. Safety covers and pool alarms should be added as additional layers of protection.
• Ensure that pool barriers enclose the entire pool area, are at least 4-feet high with gates that are self-closing, self-latching and open outward, and away from the pool. The latch should be high enough to be out of a small child’s reach.
• If you have an above-ground or inflatable pool, remove access ladders and secure thesafety cover whenever the pool is not in use.
• Remove any structures that provide access to the pool, such as outdoor furniture, climbable trees, decorative walls and playground equipment.
• Keep toys that are not in use away from the pool and out of sight. Toys can attract young children to the pool.

Maintain Constant Supervision

• Actively supervise kids whenever around the water—even if lifeguards are present. Do not just drop your kids off at the public pool or leave them at the beach—designate a responsible adult to supervise.
• Always stay within arm’s reach of young children and avoid distractions when supervising children around water.

Know What to Do in an Emergency

• If a child is missing, check the water first. Seconds count in preventing death or disability.
• Know how and when to call 9-1-1 or the local emergency number.
• If you own a home pool or hot tub, have appropriate equipment, such as reaching or throwing equipment, a cell phone, life jackets and a first aid kit.
• Enroll in Red Cross home pool safety, water safety, first aid and CPR/AED courses to learn how to prevent and respond to emergencies.

Red Cross endorses Pool Barriers around pools

The American Red Cross urges the use of pool barriers that "enclose the entire pool area, are at least 4-feet high with gates that are self-closing, self-latching and open outward, and away from the pool."

Life Saver Pool Barrier of Oklahoma
405.348.4114
405.659.7241

www.poolbarrierofoklahoma.com
www.poolfence.com

Pool Barrier of Oklahoma

Drowning is the fifth leading cause of unintentional injury death in the US, where about 10 people die from drowning every day.

The risk is even greater among children aged 1-4, who have the highest drowning rates, and it remains the second-leading cause of accidental death (second only to motor vehicle accidents) for kids 1-14.1

What’s shocking, however, is that many drowning deaths among children occur when the child is being supervised and may be only a short distance from an adult. Occurring quickly and quietly, a drowning can happen right before your eyes, before you even realize what happened…

Many people believe a drowning person will flail about in the water, splash and make noise to call for help. But this image, widely used on TV shows to depict a drowning, is far from reality.

Francesco A. Pia, Ph.D., a former lifeguard and educator, coined the term “instinctive drowning response” to describe what happens when a person is very close to drowning. In the video above, you can see an example, in this case a boy who is little more than an arm’s reach away from several other swimmers who are oblivious to his distress.

As Pia explains, when a person is drowning, nature takes over and the movements become a result of instinct. For starters, the person will not be able to call for help, as their body is working on struggling to breathe first and foremost.

They also will not be able to wave their arms to attract attention, as the instinctive response is for your arms to extend out laterally and press down against the water’s surface in an attempt to keep your head above water. Children may even appear to be dog-paddling when in fact they’re drowning.

The other telltale sign of a drowning person is no movement from their legs; a drowning person will not kick but will instead remain upright in the water, sometimes appearing to be climbing an invisible ladder with their feet.

5 Signs of Drowning to Memorize Before Your Next Trip to the Beach or Pool

According to Dr. Pia and Mario Vittone, a former US Cost Guard rescue swimmer:2

“The Instinctive Drowning Response represents a person's attempts to avoid the actual or perceived suffocation in the water. The suffocation in water triggers a constellation of autonomic nervous system responses that result in external, unlearned, instinctive drowning movements that are easily recognizable by trained rescue crews.”

You, too, can learn to recognize the signs that a person is in need of immediate assistance in the water. If a person is shouting and waving for help, they may still be in distress and need assistance. However, the five signs that follow, reported inOn Scene, the journal of US Coast Guard Search and Rescue,3 may occur when a person is only 20-60 seconds from disappearing below the surface:

• Except in rare circumstances, drowning people are physiologically unable to call out for help. The respiratory system was designed for breathing. Speech is the secondary, or overlaid, function. Breathing must be fulfilled, before speech occurs.
• Drowning people’s mouths alternately sink below and reappear above the surface of the water. The mouths of drowning people are not above the surface of the water long enough for them to exhale, inhale, and call out for help. When drowning people’s mouths are above the surface, they exhale and inhale quickly as their mouths start to sink below the surface of the water.
• Drowning people cannot wave for help. Nature instinctively forces them to extend their arms laterally and press down on the water’s surface. Pressing down on the surface of the water, permits drowning people to leverage their bodies so they can lift their mouths out of the water to breathe.
• Throughout the Instinctive Drowning Response, drowning people cannot voluntarily control their arm movements. Physiologically, drowning people who are struggling on the surface of the water cannot stop drowning and perform voluntary movements such as waving for help, moving toward a rescuer, or reaching out for a piece of rescue equipment.
• From beginning to end of the Instinctive Drowning Response, people’s bodies remain upright in the water, with no evidence of a supporting kick. Unless rescued by a trained lifeguard, these drowning people can only struggle on the surface of the water from 20 to 60 seconds before submersion occurs.

Pool Barrier of Oklahoma

"A drowning person will not call out for help or wave their arms; a person who is drowning will be quiet and can slip under water in 20-60 seconds, often in close proximity to others who are unaware the person is in distress." 

Also, drowning has been upgraded to the #1 cause of accidental death for children under 5, surpassing motor vehicle accidents.

Call Pool Barrier of Oklahoma
405.348.4114

www.poolbarrierofoklahoma.com

Pool Barrier Child Resistant Safety Fence

A child must be taught what is an acceptable level of risk and what is not.  a simple example is learning to walk and run.  There is an acceptable level of risk involved in this learning process and you should expect the associated bumbs and bruises from fling.  This risk of minor injury is part of the price we pay for learning to become mobile.  However, running through the house near furniture with sharp corners or on a slippery surface and around the pool present risks of a much more serious nature without any benefit to be gained --  UNACCEPTABLE!

Call Pool Barrier of Oklahoma today to learn more about our Removeable Child Resistant Safety Fence.

Life Saver Pool Barrier of Oklahoma
www.poolfence.com
www.poolbarrierofoklahoma.com
405.348.4114
405.659.7241

Pool Barrier of Oklahoma

The responsibility of the primary caretaker in the home products a stress unlike any other job.  A good safety awareness program can add the necessary confidence needed to let your child explore without needless interruptions for a NO-NO and help get him/her through this wonderful age of curiosity, wxperimentation, and daily adventure without the havoc contributed by  unnecessary accidents.

Around the pool area the best safety devise is a Pool Barrier -  a Child Resistant Safety Fence around your swimming pool.

Call POOL BARRIER OF OKLAHOMA TODAY!
for a free evaluation of your pool area.


Pool Barrier of Oklahoma
www.poolbarrierofoklahoma.com
405.348.4114

Pool Safety Pool Barrier of Oklahoma

Accident prevention and safety awareness skills that need practice, sort of like a sixth sense for danger.
Most Children will learn safety from their mothers.  It is your attitude on safety and how you react to situations that will influence your children for the rest of their lives.  This attitude will determine how they regard their own safety and that of others around them.

Mothers are often torn between keeping a baby safe( for example, by limiting his area to a playpen) or allowing him to explore with more freedom.  Obviously, a child cannot be confined forever.  With your awareness of potential dangers that exist in your home, a few safeguards, and good supervision, your little person can begin to expand his world, making new discoveries all the time.

Backyard swimming pools provide hours and hours of family fun and memories.  Keep your little ones safe by installing a Pool Barrier Child Resistant Safety Fence around your pool decking.

Pool Barrier of Oklahoma provides the best Pool Safety Fence in the marketplace today, as a result of our Solid Reinforced Pole which can withstand up to 105 lbs of pressure.

Pool Barrier of Oklahoma
Edmond, OK
405.348.4114
www.poolbarrierofoklahoma.com

Visit our website and learn about pool safety fence.

Pool Barrier of Oklahoma

Household items can be very hazardous to young children.  Even with the best supervision, their ability to get themselves into trouble is uncanny.  Once a child is up and moving around his world expands rapidly.  Your task is to be aware of what potentially dangerous situations he could get into long before they happen.

Swimming pools add an additional very dangerous situation.  

Drowning is the largest cause of death for children under the age of 5 years.

www.poolbarrierofoklahoma.com provides protection around swimming pools, with Removeable Pool Fencing, wrist alarms, water alarms, etc.
405.348.4114
Call today for more information.

Pool Barrier of Oklahoma

Providing a safe environment for your children is a a blow-by-blow experience and a constant challenge to your imagination.  For the first few years they grow at an incrediable rae, both in physical and mental capabilities.  During these first years they look to you for all their needs, including protection from themselves and your environment.

www.poolbarrierofoklahoma.com provides protection around swimming pools, with Removeable Pool Fencing, wrist alarms, water alarms, etc.
405.348.4114
Call today for more informations.

Pool Barrier of Oklahoma

An unprotected pool is over one-hundred times more dangerous to your child than a loaded gun (Freakanomics, 2005). Drowning is the #1 cause of death for children under five, beating out all others, including car accidents. Pediatricians, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission, and the Center for Disease Control all agree that an unprotected swimming pool is the greatest danger to a child’s life. 
www.poolbarrierofoklahoma.com

Pool Barrier of Oklahoma

How important is a pool fence?

An unprotected pool is more dangerous to your child than a loaded gun*. And so the safety of your pool area cannot be an afterthought. If you wouldn’t buy a car without a seatbelt, you shouldn’t have a pool without a fence. It’s your responsibility to keep your family safe from your home’s greatest danger.
www.poolbarrierofoklahoma.com 

Pool Barrier of Oklahoma

Pool Fence in Oklahoma City

If you need a quality pool fence in or around Oklahoma City that will ensure the safety of your children, we can help you. At Pool Barrier of Oklahoma, we are the safety fence experts for swimming pools.

www.poolbarrierofoklahoma.com

Pool Barrier of Oklahoma

Openings in the barrier shall not allow the passage of a 4 inch diameter sphere.

   Solid barriers shall not contain indentations or protrusions except for normal construction tolerances and tooled masonry joints.

www.poolbarrierofoklahoma.com
405.348.4114

Pool Barrier of Oklahoma

All swimming pools with children and grand children should have a Pool Barrier Safety Fence.  The top of the barrier shall be at least 48 inches above finished ground level measured on the side of the barrier which faces away from the swimming pool. The maximum vertical clearance between finished ground level and the barrier shall be 2 inches measured on the side of the barrier which faces away from the swimming pool. Where the top of the pool structure is above finished ground level, such as an above ground pool, the barrier shall be at finished ground level, such as the pool structure, or shall be mounted on top of the pool structure. Where the barrier is mounted on the pool structure, the opening between the top surface of the pool frame and the bottom of the barrier shall not allow passage of a 4 inch diameter sphere.

www.poolbarrierofoklahoma.com
405.348.4114

Pool Barrier of Oklahoma

www.poolbarrierofoklahoma.com 1988 - 2013 - 25 years of protecting children from the dangers of swimming pools.   Life Saver's Pool Barrier mesh fencing is easily removable and is a breeze to take down and set up.

Life Saver Pool Fence has been going strong for 25 years.

Call Pool Barrier of Oklahoma for more information.

405.348.4114
www.poolbarrierofoklahoma.com

Pool Barrier of Oklahoma

Spring is almost here -  time to think about the kids and playing outside and protecting them from the dangers of your swimming pool.

 An unprotected pool is more dangerous to your child than a loaded gun*.  And so the safety of your pool area cannot be an afterthought. If you wouldn’t buy a car without a seatbelt, you shouldn’t have a pool without a fence. It’s your responsibility to keep your family safe from your home’s greatest danger.

*Freakanomics, 2005

Life Saver Pool Fence

www.poolfence.com

www.poolbazrrierofoklahoma.com

Pool Barrier of Oklahoma

How can you help prevent pool drowning? 

Here are some safety tips: 

* Make sure an adult or designated "Water Watcher" is supervising whenever children are swimming, playing, or bathing in water. The adult must remember not
to engage in any distracting activities such as reading, talking on the telephone, or using the bathroom while attending to the children. If an adult must leave, 
they should not do so until they have someone else to watch the water in their place. Unfortunately, 1 out of 10 children have drowned while under adult supervision. 

* Never swim alone or in unsupervised places. Teach children to always swim with a buddy.

www.poolbarrierofoklahoma.com