Bill promotes low-cost safety gear to prevent childhood drownings

WASHINGTON – Requiring drain covers that cost as little as $30 and other simple swimming pool and spa safety measures are part of new legislation that could cut childhood drownings, its bipartisan sponsors said Monday. Drowning is the second leading cause of accidental death for children ages 1 to 14.

“Childhood drowning is an entirely preventable tragedy that we can and must take action to prevent. We cannot stand by as young victims tragically lose their lives in pool and spa drownings through no fault of their own,” Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., said.

The drain covers can prevent children and adults from being sucked underwater and killed.

“Supervision is imperative when a child is near water,” Wasserman Schultz said. “But, we all know that supervision lapses, when someone answers the phone for that quick second or switches the clothes from the washer to the dryer. When supervision lapses, we must have that obstacle in the path of a child to prevent drownings.”

She said the legislation pushes for other safety devices around pools, including four-sided fences with self-latching gates. The bill calls for either drain covers that comply with Consumer Product Safety Commission guidelines or safety vacuum release systems that shut off immediately if they sense blockage.

Wasserman Schultz isn’t new to pool safety law. She introduced state pool safety legislation that became law when she was in the Florida legislature. She was joined Monday by Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., and Sen. George Allen, R-Va., to announce the introduction of National Pool and Spa Safety legislation at a press conference at the William H. Rumsey Aquatic Center a few blocks from the Capitol. Children splashed about as the members of Congress talked.

Wasserman Schultz said the bill would provide federal grants to states that mandate “layers of protection through pool and safety devices” to prevent drowning, drain entrapment and hair and body entanglements.The legislation would also provide participating states with funds for education programs.

“A key part of this legislation is public awareness,” Allen said.

Allen said that, at $30, the drain covers are part of a “very logical, reasonable and common sense approach” to ensure spa and pool safety.

Alternatives include pools with no drains or pools with two or more drains to evenly distribute suction power, Allen said. In pools without multiple drains, one drain can exert the equivalent of 400 pounds of suction and could easily suck in a child, making it almost impossible for someone to pull them out.

Allen said that more and more pools are being built in Virginia without drains. Owners are opting instead for skimmers that graze the bottom of the pool, cleaning it.

Dr. Martin Eichelberger, president of Safe Kids Worldwide, which tries to prevent childhood accidents, applauded the effort.

Nancy Baker, who lost her 7-year-old daughter, Graeme, to a suction entrapment drowning in a spa four years ago read a typed statement by her father-in-law, former Secretary of State James Baker, who was unable to be at the event.

“This legislation,” she said, “in a sense, is a memorial to our children.”