Pool safety hazards

Your swimming pool can offer up a cool, refreshing oasis away from the summer heat, but it can also harbor dangerous safety hazards beneath its shimmering surface. Educate yourself on some of the most common pool safety issues encountered by families and homeowners so you can take the necessary precautions to keep your family safe.

Drowning is one of the top causes of death for American children. Every year, 260 children under the age of five die in swimming pools. Never leave children unattended in a pool. If you must step away from the pool, ask a designated person to watch your children while you're gone.

Young children and babies can sometimes crawl or walk near a pool's edge where all it takes is a trip or a fall for them to end up in the water. This can also occur with your neighbor's children who may take a shortcut through your yard one day and fall unwittingly into the water. To keep such accidents at bay, put a fence around your pool. It should measure at least 48 inches in height and include a locking mechanism.

When your pool deck gets wet it can quickly become slippery. People walking or running on it can therefore slip and experience a painful fall. Minimize this risk by using nonslip coatings on your decks or sidewalks, which can include chemical treatments that texturize your concrete or simply rubber mats that you can lay across the deck.

If someone dives into your pool and it's too shallow he can experience broken arms or even a spinal injury. Ninety percent of swimming-related spinal injuries happen in water that's less than 6 feet in depth. Do not allow your family or friends to dive into your pool unless your pool's depth measures in at 8.2 feet or deeper.

The drains that keep your swimming pools water circulating can create a powerful force of energy. If you get sucked against the drain it can be so powerful that even adult swimmers can't break free. This creates both physical injury risks as well as risks of drowning. Always inspect your swimming pool before allowing people into it and don't let swimmers enter if your pool's drain covers are broken or missing.