Children's Safety Zone

We are dedicated to saving children this swim season with our Kristi’s Kids, News4 Lifesaver program. We are getting the word out about the A.B.C’s of swim safety.

We caught-up with one our News4 Lifesaver partner Rural/Metro Fire as they took the message to first graders at Ironwood Elementary.

“We’re here because we want to talk to you guys about being water safe.”

Anne Marie Braswell is with Rural/Metro Fire. She’s talking to first graders because, she says, this age group is so receptive.

“And they want to go home and share important information with their parents and their siblings.”

The information she wants them to share?

“The A.B.C.’s are adult supervision, barriers around any body of water, specifically pools. And classes. Specifically swim classes for our kids and CPR classes for adults.”

It’s important for Rural/Metro’s first responders to make an impact on these young kids.

“The worst call that any of our fire fighters can go on, is a pediatric drowning.”

So the kids are hearing about Stuey the duck. They’re filling out work sheets, to help them remember the A.B.C’S. They get to take a Stuey the duck visor home and they make a water safety pledge.

“We really want them to take ownership of their water safety,” says Braswell.

So are the first graders soaking it all up?

“That an adult should always be watching you and you should take classes and…and make sure there’s a fence around the pool,” says first-grader Lucas Martes.

And Isabella Ebert?

“A is for adult supervision. B is for a gate. And then C is for classes!”

First graders are receptive but all kids need to be taught and reminded. Remember, if you’re watching the kids, by the pool we have free water watcher whistles for you. Just swing by the station at 209 W. Elm St. to pick one up.

The traditional start of the summer swimming season – Memorial Day weekend – is quickly approaching. Thousands of children have already flocked to swimming pools to cool off and have fun.

Unfortunately, it has already been a tragic start to year for the many Arizonans. In the first 16 weeks of 2011, there have been nine drowning and near-drowning incidents across the state.

At the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, we believe one incident is one too many. Drowning is a leading cause of death for children, but it is preventable.

In one week’s time, there have been five drownings and one near-drowning in the Phoenix area. Two girls, ages 2 and 3, drowned in Mesa last month; and a 7-year-old girl drowned and two 1-year-old girls nearly drowned in Phoenix. All five incidents occurred in backyard pools. Unfortunately, this scenario is all too familiar.

As a warmer-weather state where children enjoy pools and spas year-round, Arizona is among the top states for drownings and near-drownings of children younger than 15. A look at last year’s pool and spa incidents indicates that the number of injuries and deaths remains too high. In 2010, the media reported more than 530 drowning and near-drowning incidents nationwide and 46 of these were in Arizona.

Each of these incidents represents a family tragedy.

As the chairman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, I have been traveling the country urging parents and children to follow simple water-safety steps to protect themselves in and around pools and spas. Our national public-education campaign, Pool Safely: Simple Steps Save Lives, aims to reduce childhood drownings, near-drownings and entrapments in and around swimming pools and spas. The campaign was created as part of the Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act, which mandated new safety requirements for swimming pools and spas, including a national education campaign.

We all remember – and applaud – the heroic actions of a young boy last month who used a Pool Safely water-safety step – CPR – to save his sister in Mesa.

To pool safely is to watch your children at all times, know lifesaving water skills like CPR or learning how to swim, and ensure you have the appropriate safety equipment installed in your pool or spa. Pool alarms and self-latching gates can help keep the little ones from getting into the pool area. Installing a 4-foot fence around residential swimming pools and spas is another simple water-safety step that can help to prevent an incident. The Pool Safely campaign recommends adopting as many water-safety steps as possible.

With springtime upon us, we need to remind all families about the simple water-safety steps they can take to ensure they are safe this summer and year-round. Adding just one extra safety step around the water can make all the difference. You can never know which safety step will save a life – until it does.

Inez M. Tenenbaum is the chairman of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. For more information, please visit www.PoolSafely.gov.

For a few terrifying moments Saturday afternoon, John Cardenas thought he had lost his “miracle baby.”

Cardenas went to the Colorado River near Avenue 3E to enjoy some time with family and friends, but at approximately 4:30 p.m., tragedy nearly struck.

“My son, Aiden, and my 13-year-old daughter were playing near the river. I turned for a second to grab (something) from my truck, and when I turned around, my daughter didn’t have him anymore.

“I ran around the truck, because he likes to play in the sand, and he wasn’t there. So I started yelling to everybody else.”

After hearing Cardenas’ shouts, family friend Lance Cpl. Cody Nichols, a local Marine, quickly located the unconscious 14-month-old in the water and pulled him out, Cardenas said.

When Aiden was laid on the riverbank, Cardenas’ cousin, T.J. Wright, began to administer CPR.

“By the time I got to him, T.J. was on his third chest compression and water started coming out,” Cardenas said. “So he kept going and more and more water was coming out and then (Aiden) gasped for air and started to breathe.”

Cardenas called 911, but after some confusion communicating where they were on the river, Cardenas told the dispatcher he would meet the emergency responders at Sam’s Club.

“On the ride over there, he was still just taking small breaths of air because, as the doctor told me later, his stomach was so full of water, it was pressing against his lungs and he couldn’t take a deep breath.”

Although the ride to Sam’s Club took only about five minutes, Cardenas said it felt like an eternity.

Paramedics then transported Aiden to Yuma Regional Medical Center, where doctors kept him overnight for observation.

“The doctors say Aiden was a miracle because there was no fluid in his lungs whatsoever when they did the chest X-ray. And after about three hours at the hospital, he was back to his normal self, pulling on things and getting into everything,” the father said.

But Cardenas had already considered Aiden to be his “miracle baby.”

“Doctors told me that I had a one in a million chance of having another child. And then Aiden was born. It was one of the happiest days of my life.”

Doctors told Cardenas to monitor his son over the next week since bacteria from the river water could create pneumonia or other respiratory problems. But Aiden is showing no effects from the incident, thanks to the quick response of his cousin and friend.

“I would just like to thank Cody and T.J. I know (they) don’t like the attention, but they deserve every bit of it. If I didn’t have (them) there … I might not have my son today. I am really grateful for what they did.”

Shaquelle Massey learned CPR and first aid while working at a YMCA camp in Anchorage, Alaska, and it came in handy when he noticed a boy floating at the bottom of his apartment complex pool.

According to The East Valley Tribune, Massey, 19, was walking by the pool at the Fiesta Park Apartments and noticed a boy on the bottom.

“I was just walking by the pool,” Massey said. “When I first saw him, I thought he was playing a joke, but after not seeing him move at all for about three seconds, I knew he was in trouble. I jumped in the pool, pulled him out and called 911. He started coughing and spitting up water.”

Paramedics revived the boy at the scene and took him to Banner Cardon Children’s Medical Center.

Massey is a sociology major at Mesa Community College and plays for the school’s football team.

Ed Swift is the founder of Children’s Safety Zone, a Phoenix-based organization which reports water-related incidents in Arizona and promotes water safety.

He said supervision and barriers are essential to children’s safety around water, and that just because summer is over incidents of drowning continue due to Arizona’s hot weather late into the year.

“Drownings never stop,” Swift said. “They are more prevalent in the summer, but in the fall, pools aren’t too cool to get into yet. You always need to have barriers up and make sure the kids are being watched.”

On September 28, 2011, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) voted 3-2 to interpret an unblockable pool or spa drain based on the size of the drain opening and not the size of the drain cover used over the sump. This is an important decision for the pool safety community to be aware of, as CPSC continues to implement the Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act.

The Commissioners heard from some members of Congress and families who have lost their children in drain entrapment incidents, and both groups informed our agency that the law was intended to require a back-up system or device, if a public pool or spa has a single main drain that is of a blockable size (smaller than 18″ x 23″). Since the law went into effect in December 2008, many public pool and spa operators with blockable sized single main drain systems installed a VGB compliant drain cover and an automatic pump shut-off device or SVRS device (or already had a gravity drainage system or suction-limiting vent system, which are two of the other back-up options). CPSC commends all of those public pool and spa operators who took steps to come into compliance with this important child safety law.

On April 6, 2010, the Commission approved an interpretation of the VGB Act’s definition of “unblockable drain” to include the installation of an unblockable drain cover over a small, blockable, drain suction outlet; thus eliminating the requirement of a secondary backup system. The vote of the Commission this week revoked the 2010 interpretation and re-establishes the interpretation described above, where a back-up system or device is required on single main drains that are blockable.

It is very important for the pool and spa industry to be aware that CPSC is not saying that unblockable sized drain covers should be removed from facilities that installed them on small single main drains. Rather, the Commission is directing pool and spa operators to add a back-up system or device. The Commissioners and the staff, in fact, recognize that unblockable sized drain covers are an advance in pool safety. Yet, layers of protection are an important principal that the VGB Act promotes.

Again, this message only affects public pools and spas that used CPSC’s 2010 interpretation to install an unblockable sized drain cover over a blockable sized single main drain, without adding a back-up system or device.

The Commission has set a compliance date of May 28, 2012, to allow time for firms that require modifications as a result of this revocation to bring their pools into compliance with the statute as written. During the public hearing this week, the Commissioners voted to open up a public comment period, so that all of you can inform the Commission whether May 28, 2012 is a reasonable compliance date for installation of the required back-up system. The comment period will start when the Commission’s decision is published in the Federal Register and we will let you know when that happens.

We hope the explanation above helps you understand what occurred at CPSC this week. Please write to poolsafely@cpsc.gov if you have any questions.