Category: Blogs

If you own a pool, pool insurance is a must have to help protect your family and financial future in the case of an accident. Pool liability needs to be properly managed and mitigated to protect what you’ve worked hard to build. While many pool owners assume that their pool is covered automatically by their homeowners policy, this isn’t always the case. Some policies may exclude pools without an additional policy or rider. Other policies may provide coverage, but not in the amounts that are appropriate for true financial protection. Here’s how to talk to your insurance agent, evaluate your policy, and make sure you’re getting the right coverage and price.

The Reason For Pool Insurance

Insurance is designed to provide financial coverage in the case a certain, negative event would cause a large financial burden. WHen this event occurs within the specifications of your policy, the insurance pays out an amount meant to lessen the damage it causes to your financial well-being. There are two main reasons people with pools need to make sure they’re covered:

• Hazard – This part of insurance coverage is meant to help repair or replace the pool in the event it is damaged. While pools are usually (but not always) safe from hail, tornadoes, and flooding damage, earthquakes and destruction from debris can be a major concern. The pool insurance policy pays for the repair or replacement cost of your pool, less your deductible, to help offset the financial cost of getting your backyard oasis back in the game.
• Pool Liability – Accidents happen, and if they happen in or around a pool, they can be catastrophic. Liability insurance helps pay for the costs necessary to “make someone whole” after an injury happens related to your pool. This can cover the medical costs and in some cases pain and suffering of an injured party.

What To Look For In Your Policy

When discussing your pool insurance needs with your agent, there are several terms that you need to be familiar with as they come up:

• Coverage Limits – This is the maximum amount paid for a claim. Your policy may specify this limit is per occurrence or for the life of the policy. Life of the policy means that once you with the coverage limit, it’s done paying, even for future incidents if you continue to keep your policy in force. Per occurrence means once you reach that limit during a particular event, the policy will pay no more for that event, but may still offer coverage for future incidents.
• External Structure – If your policy labels your pool an external structure, that means that while your policy may have some coverage, it may not be covered as part of your home. You’ll want to ask if there is a percentage paid, or how it would be covered should repair or replacement due to a covered event be needed.
• Exclusions – This may exclude your pool from being covered, necessitating stand-alone pool insurance, or it may exclude certain events from coverage if conditions aren’t met, such as not covering drowning injuries if you don’t maintain pool safety fences or safety covers.
• Replacement Value – This is the cost to fully replace your pool in the event it is destroyed, and it is one of the coverage limits on your policy. This is how much the insurance company will pay to repair or replace the pool, less your deductible, and it has a large impact on the cost of your pool insurance policy. Lower replacement values equate to lower pricing, but can leave you left without the money to fix your pool if the worst happens.
• Discounts – Discounts are simple. You do things a certain way, belong to the right group, or install the right safety features, and your insurance company gives you a lower price as a reward. Everyone loves discounts. With pools, the right safety features could help you get them.

Why Your Pool Means You Need More Insurance

Insurance companies see one thing when they look at a pool: liability. Having a pool increases the risk of certain types of injuries and accidents. While many homeowners policies offer pool coverage, it may not be enough, and the pool insurance companies know that, which is why they design packages that offer additional coverage for your pool. In addition, you may be able to raise the limits and improve your coverage on your homeowners policy to get a coverage level that truly protects you.

As an example, a standard homeowners policy that covers pools may offer a $100,000 of liability coverage per person per event to help cover medical bills and lawsuits if you’re sued after someone falls into an unattended pool. Injuries, pain, and suffering can easily reach beyond that amount in emergency room and ambulance costs alone. To better protect yourself, You could talk to your agent about raising the limits on your homeowners policy. If they can’t raise it to an acceptable level for a reasonable rate, you might consider buying dedicated pool insurance or an Umbrella policy that covers any liability up to the maximum of the policy.

Likewise for hazard limits, the same disaster that destroys your pool could damage your house, so a coverage limit that allows for one or the other to be fixed isn’t in your best interests. You want to make sure your hazard limits will repair or replace both your house and your pool, or once again, you may need to raise those limits or choose dedicate pool insurance to make up the difference.

You’ll want to work directly with a knowledgeable insurance agent who can help guide you to the right coverage type and amount to make sure your protection. Be sure to talk to them about your pool’s safety features, or ask how adding safety features, such as fences and covers, might affect your premium. In some cases, upgrading your pool’s safety can end up paying for itself.

Lowering Your Risk

Pool insurance is all about lowering risk, and that’s a cause close to our hearts. We’re proud to help our customers create safer pool areas with removable pool safety fences that help them retain their beautiful pool landscape and pool safety covers and nets that provide a physical barrier to help keep a person in distress entering the water. If you have any questions about creating a safer pool space, call our experts at 866-651-POOL. Protect your friends, family, and pets with A Safe Pool today.

Pools can be a lot of fun for the whole family, and the best pool safety products help you make sure that fun isn’t marred by accident or injury. By adding safety features like child safety pool fences, you can create a safer environment that helps you monitor your pool area and keep it safer. Many pool emergencies are almost entirely preventable, but no one can be vigilant continuously 24/7/365. That’s why finding the right safety equipment for your pool area is so important.

Mitigating Risk

Pools offer unique hazards not found with most other home features. The majority of drownings for children under 4 happen in home swimming pools, and in one study cited by the CSPC, 70% of those drowning victims were not expected to be in the pool area. Kids are small, fast, and curious, making the perfect storm for overworked parents who find their attention split in a dozen different ways. The best pool safety products help make up for these gaps in attention by lowering the risk that a momentarily unsupervised child (or unauthorized adult) might end up being injured by your pool.

Common Preventable Pool Accidents

Sometimes all it takes is a few moments unsupervised for an accident to happen. These are a few of the most frequent hazards that lead to preventable water injuries.

• Slips And Falls – Kids love to play chase one another, shove and tag one another, and even wrestle, but around the pool it can lead to disaster. A slip or fall can dump a child directly into the deep end of the pool, which they may not be ready for. A surprised inhalation as they unexpectedly fall into the water can fill small lungs with water. Either of these scenarios can be a nightmare.

  A bigger threat, however, may be if they fall and hit their head on the edge of the pool. They can easily be concussed or lose consciousness, and end up in the water and unresponsive. Even if they land safely away from the pool, a fall could lead to bumps, bruises, cuts, and lacerations that can end a fun day of swimming on a sour note.

• Unauthorized Pool Access – If you don’t have child safety pool fences installed, there’s nothing to stop any kid from accessing your pool without supervision. Kids are naturally brave, bold, and often too curious for their own good. A child may end up in water that is far above their skill level, be hurt by pool equipment, or otherwise end up in an area you’re not expecting them to be, hurt and afraid.

  In addition, kids, teens, and young adults could enter your yard to access your pool if you don’t have it secured by the best pool safety products. While they may be in an area where they were not given permission to be, in many cities and states, you can still be held liable if they are injured in an unsecured pool

• Inappropriate Objects In Or Near The Pool – Only toys and accessories designed for swimming should be in swimming pools. Lawn furniture, food, and inside toys should be kept out of the pool by an adult. While these objects may be safe to use by kids on dry land, they can represent different challenges to kids already unused to navigating the water.

  The most dangerous culprits could be electrical devices which have no business being around the pool. Shock or electrocution can happen if water mixes with electricity, and it doesn’t take much of either to injure a child. While battery-operated toys pose less risk to pool users (but may not survive the encounter), plugged-in electrical equipment–like the chargers used for tablets, phones, and computers–or extension cords should stay clear of the pool area.

• Pets In The Pool Without Supervision – More than just our 2-legged children can end up in a dangerous pool situation. A pool that’s not secured with the best pool safety products can easily allow unintended access to the family dog or cat. Once in the water, they can become tired quickly, and may struggle to get out at the edge or locate stairs or ladders that can help them escape. When making your pool area safe for human children, don’t forget the family pets too.
• A Distressed Swimmer Needs Help – Even if you do everything right, an accident can happen while your back is turned. Whether it’s a coworker who’s had a little too much sudsy refreshment at your annual summer pool party or a child who becomes tired in the deep end and can’t call for help very loudly. It only takes a moment of inattention for things to go bad.

Preventing Pool Injuries

Most of the above can be prevented entirely or have their severity reduced by appropriate supervision of the pool area, but you can’t spend 24-hours-a-day sitting by the edge of your pool. That’s where the best pool safety products can help. The installation of child safety pool fences and pool safety covers can help make sure your unsupervised pool stays safe and secure. Removable safety fences and safety covers provide a physical barrier to keep friends, family, and pets from entering the water and can be a vital tool that helps prevent accidental drowning injuries.

Made of material designed to stand up to the elements and resist ripping under stress, they’re the best pool safety products to help you create a safer pool environment. Whether you have to run inside for a moment or you aren’t planning to use the pool for a few days, professionally installed safety covers and fences limit access to the pool when you aren’t going to be able to supervise the swimmers. Just ask for people to clear the pool area, and latch the gate or engage the cover. Your pool is off-limits and your guests, children, and pets are safer.

Get A Safer Pool Today

It all starts with a phone call. Reach out to our customer service department to speak to an expert about your pool needs. We’ll walk you through the process and make sure you’re getting the best pool safety products for your pool area. Contact A Safe Pool for your child pool safety fences today.

Swimming cramps can be debilitating, especially in less-experienced swimmers who may find themselves suddenly hobbled in an area of the pool at the edge of their swimming level. Abdominal, calf, and foot cramps while swimming are all common occurrences that are part of growing as a swimmer who’s familiar with the way their body moves and responds in water. Understanding why they happen and how to prevent them is an important part of this growth that will help you swim at a higher level and make your pool experience safer and more comfortable.

What A Cramp Is

At their core, swimming cramps are violent, uncontrolled muscle spasms that lead to painful contractions of a muscle or muscle group. It can be spasmodic, flexing and relaxing rapidly and painfully, or a single, lasting contraction that will not relax. These contractions can interfere with the rhythm of your swimming, throwing off your timing at best, or can be severe enough to impede muscle function and create a dangerous situation in deep water.

Cramps happen when the signals your body sends to your muscles begin to become jumbled. Several distinct situations can cause this.

• Dehydration – When you don’t have enough water, your body stops working efficiently. Waste products aren’t eliminated from cells fast enough; meanwhile nutrients and oxygenated blood are slower to arrive. This can degrade muscle performance and cause an electrolyte imbalance leading to swimming cramps.
• Electrolyte Imbalance – Even if you’ve been drinking enough water, not eating foods or drinking beverages rich in electrolytes can lead to cramps. These salts help your body communicate with itself properly, and if they’re out of balance, so is the communication to your muscles.
• Lack Of Conditioning – Particularly in foot cramps while swimming, muscles and tissues that become fatigued due to over use or when you’re not used to using them can develop micro-tears, such as in the plantar fascia of your foot. In addition, the body has not trained itself on how to process exertion in the area, leading to a lack of sufficient circulation bringing much-needed oxygen.

What To Do If You Get Swimming Cramps

Get to safety. Your first concern should be removing yourself from a dangerous situation. If you are near an edge that will allow you to get out of the water, you should do so. If you are in deeper water and not near an edge or ladder, make your way as safely as possible to one so you can exit the pool and work on the cramp. If swimming is impossible, attempt to float yourself to the edge of the pool. Some cramps can be gently massaged out, while others may take additional attention.

How To Prevent Cramps

The easiest way to fight through swimming cramps is to not have them in the first place. The first step of avoiding cramps is understanding the conditions in your body that lead to them, then taking active steps to mitigate those conditions.

• Stay Hydrated – The first step to avoiding cramps is making sure you’re staying hydrated. This includes drinking plenty of water, but can also mean getting electrolyte-rich sports drinks that give your body the salts it needs for better performance. There are plenty on the market, so do your research and find the one that works best to support your body’s needs.
• Eat A Healthy Diet – Well fed muscles perform better and get fewer swimming cramps. Aim for a balanced diet that includes plenty of protein to help you build stronger muscles, healthy fats to support proper revery and cell growth, and carbs that provide ready energy for your muscles to use while swimming. This should also provide a wealth of vitamins and minerals your body can break down and put to use in helping it stay healthy and active.
• Train Your Body Patiently – Because swimming is considered low-impact, many people don’t take the time to acclimate their body to increased activity. Whether you’re just starting out, getting back into a regular routine, or taking your routine to the next level, it’s important to start slow and work up to your goals. This helps you avoid overworking your body and helps prevent injuries.
• Take Time To Stretch – Stretching is important for any exercise or sport regimen, and it can be a vital part of keeping swimming cramps at bay.
  • Plantar Fascia – Stand with one foot directly in front of the other, heel to toe, with your front toes slightly elevated on a step, platform, or the like. Bend both knees slowly until you feel the stretch in the bottom of your leading foot. Slowly straighten your knees to your starting position. Repeat with both feet twice. This is perfect is you frequently suffer from foot cramps while swimming.
  • Soleus – This stretch helps work the back of your lower leg and helps ease both foot and calf cramps. Lean forward against a wall with your feet heel to toe. Bend both knees, lowering yourself while keeping your heels on the floor until you feel the stretch. Slowly return to the starting position and repeat twice for each leg.
  • Gastrocnemius – This stretch works your lower leg from heel to knee. Lean against a wall with your feet in the same position as before, but this time as your front leg bends at the knee, keep your back leg straight and heel planted firmly on the ground until your feel the full stretch. Return slowly to the starting position and repeat twice with each leg. This really works through your calves to prevent swimming cramps in those muscle groups.

Safety First

Swimming can be and healthy, fun way to exercise. Just make sure you’re listening to your body and staying safe. We’re always ready to help you create a safer pool area with removable pool safety fencing and pool safety covers. Contact A Safe Pool today for a safer pool for your family.

Pool safety signs are an important safety feature that should be found near every pool. From water safety signs that supply generalized information to more specific signs meant to notify swimmers of important safety equipment, they serve a vital purpose that is too often overlooked. When properly displayed, these signs can help make sure your wet and wild fun doesn’t end in a preventable accident.

Why Signs Are Used

Pool safety signs are an efficient mode of communication. Giving a tour and briefing to every person every time they use your pool isn’t practical (or fun), but posting signs with the relevant information is a simple way to give the safety information needed in an obvious, yet unobtrusive format. Generally, signs fall into 3 main categories:

• Rules – Every pool has rules. From the ubiquitous and kitschy “This is our pool” sign to the standard Pool Rules sign found at most public pools throughout the country, rules signs are meant to convey general advisories about the expected pool use and conduct for friends and family.
• Hazards – Hazard signs advise swimmers of irregular dangers or specific dangerous areas they need to be aware of. Often posted to advise of conditions, situations, or equipment that could cause injury or harm under the wrong circumstances.
• Locations – These water safety signs let people know where important equipment, items, or features can be located. This can help avoid confusion in an emergency situation.

Where Signs Should Be Posted

Pool safety signs should be prominently displayed where they are easily seen. Many people like to post rule signs near the gate of their pool safety fence, that way anyone entering the pool has a chance to see them. Hazard signs and location signs should always be placed in a visible area near the important area they are meant to draw attention too. Signs should be checked regularly to make sure they are still easily read and haven’t been faded by the elements.

Important Pool Safety Signs

While there are many signs available, the right strategy for each pool is unique. A sign needed for one pool may not be needed for another. There are, however, some common signs that have a place in most pool areas.

• The Rules – A general rules sign is always a good idea, as they tend to lay out general advisories based on common sense pool safety. This can help swimmers understand best practices to help keep them safer.
• No Diving (In Shallow End) – Diving into shallow water can result in injury, paralysis, or death. A diver can easily impact the bottom of the pool, causing immediate damage. Many people choose to paint this sign around the pool edge, but then extra care should be taken to ensure it stays clear.
• Exits – In an emergency, low-profile ladders or stairs may be difficult for swimmers to identify quickly. Use contrasting paint or clearly printed water safety sign to help them find their way out of the pool in a hurry.
• First Aid Kit – Every pool area should have a well-stocked first aid kit close at hand that’s ready for everything from bumps and scrapes to CPR. This pool safety sign lets people know immediately where to find it.
• Rescue Equipment – From floatation aids to grab bars, if a swimmer is in distress, others need to know where the life-saving equipment that can help prevent drowning is located.
• Electrical Hazards – Water and electricity don’t mix. Electrical devices and open wires should never be near the pool, but if you have a hazard in the general area, it’s important to mark it clearly. Your guests will need to know to avoid puddles or dripping swimsuits anywhere near it.
• Slip/Fall Hazards – From loose cement to gravel or painted cement that becomes slippery when wet, slips and falls in the pool area can be dangerous. The unforgiving concrete can easily cause lacerations or more severe injuries, and someone who injures himself before slipping into the pool is at immediate risk of drowning injury.
• Mechanical Hazards – If your pool area has machinery, such as an automatic pool cover motor, it should be clearly labeled to avoid pinch injuries from untrained operators attempting to operate it incorrectly.
• Pool Safety Cover Control/Shut-Off – If you have an automatic pool safety cover, make sure the location of the control and any safety shut-offs are known. This can prevent accidental activation which could lead to someone becoming trapped under the water.
• Emergency Pump Shut Off – While modern pools are built with anti-entrapment drain covers, you’ll still want to clearly mark the location of your pump’s control and/or shut-off with a pool safety sign. In the event someone’s body, suit, or equipment becomes trapped by the suction of the pump, it is vital that the shut-off can be activated quickly.
• Pool Feature Controls – If your pool has a slide, ramp, fountain, or other additional feature, add a water safety sign to inform users of its control location. This not only increases safety, but fun, as responsible, experienced swimmers can help you monitor and activate these features as needed.

Advertise Safety

Pool safety signs help make safety a priority in your swimming fun. If you have questions about creating a safer pool area with removable safety pool fences or safety pool covers, contact our experts today. Keep your backyard oasis accident-free with A Safe Pool today.

Staying alert and focused while you’re around the pool this summer is vital to drowning prevention and water safety awareness. But in an age of constant distraction, it can be hard to stay focused. With that in mind, we put together some life-saving tips to keep you focused on supervising kids, family, and loved ones around the pool.

Essential Tips for Child Drowning Prevention

To ensure you stay focused, keep these tips in mind:

• Give Kids Your Complete and Undivided Attention: If you’re the designated lifeguard/pool supervisor when the kids are swimming, ensure you never take your eyes off of them. Limit or refrain from cell phone use completely.
• Wear Life Jackets: Young children, even if they’re actively taking swimming lessons, should be encouraged to wear life jackets as much as possible.
• Don’t Let Kids Swim Alone: Never let kids swim alone. Always try to implement a buddy system so that no kid goes unaccounted for.
• Learn CPR: This is among the best life-saving tips we can recommend in terms of drowning prevention. Check your town’s local fire or health department’s websites or forums for CPR classes.
• Exercise Caution Around Pool Drains: Pool drains can be dangerous, especially for young and inexperienced swimmers. Ensure your kids understand that they should swim far away from pool drains.
• ALWAYS Check the Pool First if a Child Goes Missing: This goes without explanation, and should be practiced in tandem with never leaving kids unsupervised around the pool.
• ALWAYS lock your pool fence and gate: Lock up your pool fence and cover the pool when it’s not being used.

Avoid Distractions Around the Pool

When it comes to drowning prevention and water safety awareness, it’s getting increasingly difficult to stay focused. Parties, drinking and swimming, and even just casual days by the pool can bring their fair share of distractions. If you’re supervising kids around the pool, ensure you’re aware of these common distractions:

• Cellphones: These are by far the most distracting devices each of us interacts with on a day to day basis, even if we’re not trying to stay safe by the pool. According to research firm DScout, most people touch their phones a whopping 2,617 time every day. This doesn’t even account for people who have to supervise kids around a pool. That’s why it’s imperative for drowning prevention that you minimize or eliminate cell phone use whenever you’re around your pool.
• tablets, radios, and other electronic devices: While not as addictive as cell phones, these personal devices still constitute some pretty big distractions, especially if you’re using them with headphones or earbuds. It may seem like common sense, but any electronic devices that eliminate your ability to see and hear clearly are immediately dangers to drowning prevention.

A Safe Pool: Your Go-To Resource for Water Safety Awareness

A Safe Pool is an industry-leading resource for parents and families seeking the best custom pool safety and maintenance equipment. We have over 15 years of expertise installing:

• Pool safety fence featuring self-closing, self-latching, and lockable gates
• Pool safety nets
• Automatic pool covers
• Pool safety mesh covers
• Leaf covers
• Pool alarms

All of our products are backed by unmatched expertise and knowledge, and we’re confident that you’ll find all of the equipment you need to keep your family safe. We aim to help owners create pools and outdoor spaces that are as safe as they are fun, and this starts by having the best fencing and covers to prevent drowning and injury.

If you’d like to learn more about drowning prevention and water safety awareness, read our blog and shop our collection of pool safety products

As one of the warmest states in the US, Arizonans are blessed with pool weather pretty much all year long. But with that blessing comes a great responsibility to home and pool owners statewide. Arizona’s pool laws are fairly strict, and with good reason. Pool fence regulations help ensure families stay as safe as possible.

Although, it can be kind of challenging to understand every single detail and requirement of the state’s laws. That’s why we put together this handy overview of the state’s specific pool fence and enclosure gate requirements.

Arizona Pool Laws

Arizona pool laws are governed under Statutes Title 36, specifically: Public Health and Safety § 36-1681. Pool enclosures; requirements;  exceptions;  enforcement. These are the state’s primary pool fence regulations that specify measurements for enclosures and gates leading to above and in-ground swimming pools.

According to Title 36,

• A. A swimming pool, or other contained body of water that contains water eighteen inches or more in depth at any point and that is wider than eight feet at any point and is intended for swimming, shall be protected by an enclosure surrounding the pool area, as provided in this section
• B. A swimming pool or other contained body of water required to be enclosed by subsection A whether a belowground or above-ground pool shall meet the following requirements:

Before we go further, we should clarify that under Arizona pool laws, these two subsections provide a definition of swimming pools that require pool fences or surrounding enclosures.

What are the Pool Fence Regulations in Arizona?

Arizona’s pool laws and fencing regulations are listed under Subsection B, Title 36:

1. Pools must be entirely enclosed by walls at a minimum of five feet tall. These may be fences or other barriers.
2. Fences, barriers, and enclosures must have no openings through which a “spherical object four inches in diameter can pass.” Horizontal parts of the enclosure must be spaced no less than 45 inches apart vertically. Wire mesh or chain link fences must be sized, at a maximum, for chain links measuring 1.75 inches across.
3. All gates for pool fences and enclosures:
   • Must be self-closing and self-latching. The latch must be at least 54 inches above the ground. Or, the latch must be on the pool side of the fence gate with a release mechanism that is at least 5 inches below the gate’s top.
   • Pool gates must open outward from the pool area.
4. The pool wall, fence, or barrier must not contain openings or anything that enables accessibility over the enclosure.
5. Pool fences and enclosures must be at least 20 inches from the edge of the pool water.

If Your House Opens Directly Onto the Pool

Title 36, Subsection C of Arizona’s pool laws dictate the requirements for pool fences if your house forms at least one of the enclosure walls:

• You must use the protection of a pool safety cover. This cover must be one that is operated by a key switch.
• Exterior doors with access to your home’s pool area must have self-latching equipment. Locks or self-latching equipment must still abide by Title 26, Subsection B (e.g. latching equipment at least 54 inches above the ground.)
• Above-ground pools must not have any physical climbing aids other than ladders. Above-ground pools must not have exteriors that are climbable.

Pool Safety Equipment in Compliance With Arizona’s Pool Laws

For over 15 years, A Safe Pool has been a trusted resource with industry-leading pool safety equipment and maintenance products. We produce:

• Removable pool safety fences featuring self-closing, self-latching, and lockable gates in compliance with Arizona’s pool laws.
• Pool Safety Mesh Covers and Safety Nets
• Automatic Pool Covers
• Pool Alarms
• Leaf Pool Covers

We’re proud of our unmatched expertise and insight into a wide range of products, and we’re confident that our equipment will keep you and your family safe.

For more tips on installing pool safety equipment in compliance with the state’s pool safety regulations, read our blog and shop our line-up of pool safety products.

Pools and warm, summer weather are synonymous with parties. Whether you’re having the neighborhood over for a barbecue or you’re a fan of all-out blowouts on the 4th of July, Memorial Day, and Labor Day, swimming pools are great gathering places for friends and family. But it’s important to note that drinking and swimming don’t exactly go hand in hand. When it comes to summer parties, you should always establish some basic water safety rules.

The Dangers of Drinking and Swimming

Did you know that alcohol contributes to at least 20% of all adult deaths due to drowning each year? For young adults between 15 to 29 years old, that number climbs as high as 41%.

These are a few of the reasons that drinking and swimming is so dangerous:

• Impaired Judgment: Alcohol may loosen inhibitions, but that’s because it affects the part of the brain that gauges risk. This can be quite dangerous when it comes to pool safety.
• Impaired Reactions: Alcohol seriously impairs motor skills and reduces one’s ability to react quickly.
• Reduced Coordination: Along with lowered and loosened inhibitions and reduced motor skills, alcohol also decreases one’s ability to stay coordinated. This can contribute to potentially deadly slips and falls.
• Lowers the Effectiveness of CPR: Because alcohol causes blood to thin, it can lower how effective CPR is if resuscitation is necessary.

What Alcohol and Swimming Does to the Human Body

Anyone drinking and swimming should also know how alcohol alters the human body:

• Inner Ear Imbalance: Fluid in the human ear determines balance. Alcohol reduces the ear’s ability to maintain this fluid balance.
• Vocal Cord Spasms: Water in the windpipe triggers a closing reflex, reducing the body’s ability to breathe.
• Hypothermia: Typically, cold water, even if it’s not freezing, will trigger the body’s natural reflex to draw blood away from the extremities and limbs and focus on vital organs. This prevents heat loss. However, alcohol prevents this natural response, increasing the likelihood of hypothermia as the body won’t register numbness.

Water Safety Rules for Parties and Events Around the Pool

Although the safest thing to do would be to refrain from drinking and swimming entirely, there are still ways you can have a good time without risking serious injury.

• Stay Out of the Deep End: If you’re drinking and swimming, stay towards the shallow end of the pool. This reduces your risk of drowning substantially.
• Wait a While After Drinking: Depending on how much you’re drinking, one single beverage takes about an hour to two hours to metabolize. If you’re at a party having multiple drinks in one sitting, it’s best to wait until the most disinhibiting effects of alcohol have subsided before you decide to take a dip.
• Watch What You’re Drinking: In terms of alcohol percentage, you’d be hard pressed to find a can of beer that’s even close in alcohol content to grain liquor or vodka.
• Watch Your Body Temperature: If you’re swimming and drinking, keep in mind our point about hypothermia. Under the influence of alcohol, your body won’t register heat the same way it does when you’re sober. Try to limit the amount of time you spend in cold water.

Say No to Swimming and Drinking

At A Safe Pool, our mission is to help pool owners, their friends and family enjoy swimming pools as safely as possible. We produce industry-leading removable pool fences, pool safety nets, and pool covers. For more water safety rules and tips, read our blog.

No municipality holds public pools and private/residential pools to the same compliance standards, which is a good thing. Holding pools in the public and residential domains to the same requirements would expose all pools to rules that lacked contextual validity. But one element of compliance that is ethically sensible for all pools is the provision of first aid at the pool site.

At public pools, first aid such as CPR and basic treatment of limb injuries are required skills for lifeguards, who certify in CPR and first aid to gain their official title. Residential pools lack the same requirements. But we contend that CPR skills and pool first aid are an ethical necessity for all pool owners.

As a pool owner, certifying can benefit more than pool occupants; it can be advantageous for homeowners, too. Let’s look at three compelling reasons to make it your “responsibility” to have CPR and first aid training under your belt if you own a residential pool.

1. Private Pools are not Inherently Less Injury-Related

Because public pools consistently host more guests than private pools, it’s not surprising to find that they experience a higher incidence of injuries that require CPR and other crucial types of aid. However, when the statistics are interpreted on a per capita basis, neither is it surprising to discover that, in any given location, a private pool is a stage for the same types of injuries, but on a scale that’s in keeping with the lower number of people who use the pool.

Misperception Due to Statistical Incidence

Overall, incidents that necessitate aid at public pools are largely the same as events that require it in private settings, including: limited swimming ability that leads to loss of consciousness due to submersion, slip and fall injuries due to running on slick surfaces near the pool, injuries due to improper use of pool implements (e.g., diving boards and ladders), and serious health events indirectly related to pool use, such as heart attacks and seizures.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), non-boat related drownings are the fifth-leading cause of unintentional death in the nation — a statistic that doesn’t delineate between unintentional drownings at public pools and private ones.

Misperception Due to Monitoring Capability

Owners of private pools can often monitor the small number of swimmers in their pools more easily than lifeguards can oversee the far greater number of swimmers who routinely crowd public pools. But it’s important to note that the actions of adult swimmers — not the degree to which a pool owner monitors the pool — is the main variable for injuries requiring pool first aid.

When proper monitoring fails to prevent injuries, responsive first aid may be all that prevents some injuries from becoming serious. As the homeowner, you could be held liable for a pool-related injury that occurs on your property. So it’s sensible to provide first aid and water safety measures to help deter injuries that require it, such as a residential pool safety barrier from A Safe Pool.

2. You Could be Held Liable for Injuries at Your Pool

Residential pool owners should implement a pool safety barrier for two reasons: to protect children and other individuals at high risk of drowning; and to protect themselves from legal liability for injuries to others who may use the pool without permission or use it carelessly. For the same reasons, it is advisable to take responsibility for offering pool first aid to injury victims.

With that said, you may be wondering: if a stranger trespasses into my pool and gets injured, should I really to rush to his aid, when his motives are uncertain, and he entered illegally to begin with?

Based on information freely offered on websites for law firms that defend homeowners against pool liability claims, the answer is no. When an injured trespasser is an adult, it is usually he — and not the pool owner — who faces an uphill legal battle, when he files a liability lawsuit.

But the same law firms often claim that, if the injured trespasser happens to be a child, the pool owner is almost certain to be held liable for the injury. Consequently, treating a child with pool first aid that saves his life could mean the difference between facing a wrongful death suit and facing a personal injury suit. Of the two, the latter generally requires a homeowner’s pool liability insurance to pay an appreciably lower settlement amount to the plaintiff.

Sometimes, first aid and the water safety it helps increase — a post-factum safety that mitigates the effects of an injury instead of preventing it — benefits both the homeowner and the injured. If you hold yourself responsible for personal finances, it’s sensible to assume responsibility for providing pool first aid to a child, whose injury results from trespassing.

However, as you would do if an adult trespassed, promptly notify police by calling 911. This won’t get the child into big trouble, but it will help invalidate any claim that you mistreated a minor. Because this accusation could be used to add an “egregious” legality to the child’s injury, which enriches the settlement, plaintiffs of poor character have been known to use it.

3. Injuries Can Become Fatal Before Paramedics Arrive

When a pool injury requires CPR, someone usually dials 911. While this should always be done, pool first aid that a homeowner provides, while paramedics are en route, could mean the difference between the injured recovering in the hospital and perishing at the pool site.

When a person has a life-threatening injury, “seconds count”, says the CDC. The Response Institute and CPR Consultants — an organization offering CPR training and consultation — elaborates on how those “seconds” are best spent: “Immediate, hands-on CPR performed by bystanders, until EMTs or other emergency personnel arrive to the scene, can make all the difference when it comes to preventing an unintentional death by drowning.”

The Simplicity of CPR as a Success Factor

When someone is pulled from a pool, just short of drowning, they are unconscious due to oxygen deprivation. This creates two critical deficits: a lack of conscious will to survive, and a lack of autonomic function to survive while unconscious. Being a property owner and defacto host of pool activities, the pool owner is responsible for providing aid, in the form of CPR.

If the situation has a silver lining, besides the lifesaving result CPR can provide, it lies within the CPR process itself. A highly finite process of repetition, which humans can perform with machine-like accuracy and efficiency, it’s simplicity is ideally suited to the main challenges posed by the urgency of the situation in which it’s performed: a narrow timeframe for success, no tolerance for error, and a potential deficit in focus that stress from these challenges can create.

Yet, despite the challenges, the success rate of CPR for “drowning survival” victims appears to be high. Some water safety consultancies report success rates of over 90% for victims, who received CPR from bystanders shortly after removal from the water.

Conclusion

First aid and water safety should be priorities for every pool owner, and to consider them your “responsibility” is the best way to provide them as responsively and thoroughly as possible. Because the ultimate goal of pool first aid is preventing fatalities, it’s also important to take proactive measures that deter injuries, in addition to taking reactive measures that help prevent injuries from becoming fatal.

One of the most effective proactive measures against unintentional drowning — especially for small children — is implementing a pool safety barrier from A Safe Pool. Take a look at our gallery of safety barriers, and consider which product would look and work the best at your pool site. Then, contact us to schedule a free estimate.

A Safe Pool knows that pool safety is a weighty responsibility for any homeowner to bear. That’s why we’re here to share it with you by providing solutions that reduce drowning risk.