Time keeping cool in the crystal-blue waters of the family pool should deservedly place among any summer’s highlights. The cleaning pros of your area Chandler pool service want to remind you summer fun splashing in the sun goes hand-in-hand with a healthy dose of safety.
There’s no room beside a residential pool for a “part-time” lifeguard. The Arizona Department of Health Services cites drowning as the leading tragic cause of death among children ages 1-4. Over 200 children every year die in tragic, preventable backyard drowning incidents. A child can drown in the time it takes to read a page of a paperback novel. The younger the kids near the pool, the more tightly a responsible adult caretaker’s eyes must remain to the water.
With that in mind, we want to offer you a few tips for ensuring that your family never becomes an addition to those unfortunate statistics:
- RESPECT THE WATER
Remember, it takes a shockingly short time for a weak or inexperienced swimmer to be overwhelmed in the water. When they aren’t in use, lock down spas and pools with appropriately foolproof barriers – preferably, a fence at least four feet high with a self-closing and latching gate.
On the inside, just in case someone should slip through, keep pools and spas covered with any removable ladders or steps pulled up. Alarms are also handy security additions.
Most importantly, every member of the family should treat the water with a healthy respect. Every member of the family should be versed both in age-appropriate swim lessons and Red Cross-approved CPR. Even children who have learned to swim must remain under constant supervision by a strong older swim that always remains within arm’s reach of the youngest kids. Especially inexperienced swimmers should always swim with U.S. Coast Guard-approved life jackets
- CLEAN AND SAFE
Your pool or spa’s water should always be clean and clear as long as they’ll be in regular use. Test the water regularly for a safe pH balance, and then make adjustments to circulation, filtration and chemical levels as needed. This will keep swimmers from coming down with nagging earaches, rashes, burning eyes or other more serious conditions due to exposure.
Incidentally, this is also why it’s a bad idea to let family or guests swim with uncovered, open cuts or abrasions.
- NO ROUGH STUFF
Impose strict bans on unnecessary roughness around the water. Any number of things could go wrong.
It would only take one errant shove for someone to not only possibly be seriously injured in a nasty fall on a wet spot but to possibly be seriously injured and fall, disabled and helpless, into the water. For similar reasons, keep an eye on diving behavior to ensure that swimmers jump in head-first only where the water is deep enough to avoid a potential head-and-neck injury; to be honest, a “no diving” rule may not be fun, but it would arguably be the safest approach.
By all means, have the best summer by the pool ever. Please, just do it safely.