The SA Bureau of Standards (SABS) has been through a public participation process to agree the Standards around what constitutes Safety around Private Swimming Pools (SANS 10134). This Standard is also referred to in the National Building Act, SANS 10400D where it addresses public access to pools.

There is no real safety champion in the industry and this is a role which PowerPlastics Pool Covers finds itself increasingly adopting. Tragedies offer no benefit of hindsight as it is too late!! Pool Shops, Pool Maintenance businesses as well as Swim Schools, can be fantastic ambassadors for safety around pools if they embraced the idea sufficiently.

Modern safety covers are easy to use without hooks and eyelets – a fact which must be communicated to pool owners who have an impression that such covers use hooks and eyelets and are extremely difficult to operate.

In the current environment, the pool owner is safety proofing his own pool by directly contacting the few companies who produce the correct safety covers. This does not say much for the industry’s commitment to safety.

Pool safety does not mean unsightly fences, difficult to use covers and nets that require time and effort to use. Safety can be provided through an elegant cover which enhances the entertainment area and can be manufactured in the customers choice of colour. Safety covers offer other benefits too – reduced evaporation, cleaner pools, less chemical usage and do not accumulate rain water!

South Africa lags behind most of the world in pool safety. Let’s get involved, apply the Standard and make South Africa’s pools safe. Don’t wait until it is too late to save a little life. Don’t wait for legislation to force us to make a dangerous household item safe. Don’t wait for someone else to do something or for someone else’s tragedy to make you act.

By Carolyn Idas, PowerPlastics Pool Covers

The closest I have come to feeling that shock and fear was during the installation of two of our pools at client’s houses. It has happened twice in the 20 years I have been in the industry. Thankfully no lives were lost but it was close both times. Both kids, toddlers, were in a coma for 24 to 48 hours. The anguish of the parents and family is something you wouldn’t want to see. At that stage, the worry of brain damage is the major concern. Luckily both kids made full recoveries, but I often think about those times and how I felt. It goes to show that owning a swimming pool is a lifestyle change in more ways than just fun and games. People who have not owned swimming pools before do not realise that they are then also responsible for the lives of others. Toddlers once roamed relatively freely around a house without a pool, but it should not be allowed to happen when there is a pool around – pool fence or not.

As a pool builder we want to sell the pool. That’s our area of expertise. We are not really interested in any extras that will stick a spanner in the works for us. We pool builders only talk about pool safety when we are asked by the client, which is often with young families. It is not something that we bring to the client’s attention as part of our standard sales pitch or at the point of sale, from what I have seen in the market place.

Maybe the reason is that safety around a pool for most people is a semi ‘grudge’ buy while we are trying to sell this amazing lifestyle change. They want the pool and the lifestyle but pool safety means three things to them:

1. More money
2. A fence, net or cover does not look that great around the pool that you have been dreaming about in your back garden
3. Lastly a net or cover is seen to be hard work to put on and off.

No one is thinking that they would rather take a risk and have someone drown by not having a net, cover or fence, but the seriousness of safety during the sales pitch is overpowered by the excitement of getting a pool built – the pool builder/salesman is going with the flow,  his priority is the sale.

As pool builders, our priority regarding safety is the actual site where we are building the pool. Is it safe according to the municipal standards, as per the safety form all our clients sign (which states all fences around the property must be at least 1.2m high with no gaps wider than 100mm. Gates must have a spring and automatic gates must close automatically.)

Pool building companies do not make a big deal about safety at point of sale. How many include pool safety in their brochure or on their website?  When clients ask us about safety nets,covers or fences we refer them directly to the suppliers. We dread it when a client wants us to oversee that installation as it means the net or cover can only go on five days after the paving is finished. That means we get paid a week later, when we want to get paid ASAP.

So, my message is that pool builders could contribute more to pool safety among first-time pool owners and quite easily too at the point of sale. I think pool builders traditionally view the pool industry in separate segments with no crossover i.e. pool building, pool maintenance, pool shops, suppliers and pool safety. Pool builders don’t recognise they have a very important part to play in the pool safety cycle.

Yes. There is definitely room for improvement for swimming pool safety among the pool builders. The Consumer Protection Act might force pool builders to be more aware of pool safety, but let’s step up and take the initiative ourselves. And let’s lessen the amount of tradegies occuring in the pools we build.

By John Jager, Horizon Pools

]]> https://www.topstep.co.za/pool-safety-and-the-role-of-pool-builders/feed/ 1 https://www.topstep.co.za/174/ https://www.topstep.co.za/174/#respond Tue, 14 Aug 2012 11:05:15 +0000 http://topstep.feedmydemo.co.za/?p=174 Pool safety is paramount wherever there is a swimming pool and in particular, pools used by many people at one time i.e. public municipal  pools and school pools.

At Paul Roos Gymnasium, a school of some 1200 boys, it is extremely important therefore for rules and regulations to be in place, and to ensure these are well understood by those using the pool.

Standard practical rules such as …No pushing of anyone into the pool….and….No running around the pool deck….. at a boys school are necessary, and must carry penalties in order to show just how serious an issue breaking the rules is. If the penalty is deemed ‘soft’, then problems will continue in that area.

Adequate adult supervision is probably the most important overall consideration as it tends to be when boys are not supervised, that injuries will most often occur. Why? Simple – people are ‘messing’ around. Here, a roster of pool usage, as well as who will be in charge during the time slots allocated to the various aquatics disciplines, is very important and these coaches/managers/supervisors need to people who can react to a problem in the water. For example, it is no good having a coach/manager/supervisor of an aquatics sport, or ‘on duty’ at the pool, who cannot swim nor having a basic 1^st Aid course behind them.

Where coaching time slots are set up, be they for water polo, swimming, synchronized swimming or diving, safety becomes part and parcel of the time spent practising those disciplines, as the coach/supervisor creates structures around which swimmers are set to work/play the game. It is when there are no structures in place, that safety becomes an issue. So at any pool, especially public pools and large pools such as are found at schools, clear guidelines as to how swimmers should act and good support structures – e.g. coaching – should be in place.

When I started this campaign the death toll for water related incidents within the city was around 60 for the period September to December of 2006.  The fact that children had access to unprotected swimming pools was my concern and the fact that home owners were apathetic when it came to children drowning in their pools (often the domestic worker’s child).

Pools that were neglected during the winter months and pools in a state of disrepair also pose a risk to the inquisitive / adventurous child, so the idea of using safety nets was put forward to Council with the consideration of pool SAFETY covers being a rational design, which is part of the ‘deem to satisfy’ rule of SABS 0400. Unfortunately this legislation has met with a lot of negative opposition from various sectors. However, the legislation will most certainly go ahead.

WE NEED TO PROTECT OUR CHILDREN AND KEEP THEM FROM HARM!

By Malcolm Midgley, Divisional Chief, Fire & Hazmat, Gauteng

23.6.1991 – 20.11.1993

My baby Reece drowned in our home swimming pool when he was just 2 years old.  I can still see his face so clearly.  Today he would have been 20 years old. I sit and ask myself so many questions – what would he have looked like? What would he have wanted to become in life?  There are just too many questions and no answers.  The drowning just took a few seconds, and then he was gone.  The pain of speaking about what happened is still too much for me to bear and still all these years later I struggle to put it in words.

I now have 3 sons and whenever I see a pool or small children walking or playing around a pool, it fills my body with fear.

If you are strong enough to talk about your loss too, please spread the word about the importance of protecting or covering your pool so that you too may help save a life.  My pain will never go away and no amount of sorrow will ever bring him back.  May he rest in peace.

Love always Reece, from your Mum.

Our heartfelt thanks to Reece’s mother for being brave enough to share her loss here on TopStep. R.I.P Reece.

If you would like to share a personal story or remember a lost child on this page, feel free to drop us a line on info@topstep.co.za. All contributions are most appreciated.

75% of pool drowning victims are between 1 to 3 years old and, at the time, the child is usually being supervised by one or both parents. 75% of the victims have been missing from sight for less than 5 minutes (for example, when answering a phone call).

CPR instructions – renew your confidence about helping in a drowning event.

Often if some basic CPR can be initiated within 5 minutes of a drowning, the outcome for the victim is significantly better as far as brain function and survival goes. Below is a combination of my CPR guidelines which is drawn from ATLS courses and CPR courses. Hopefully these can help spark the correct action in those horrifying first few minutes. I will always advocate the best is to attend a basic Life Support Class for CPR.

CPR Steps Procedure

Always remember H,H,H,1,2,3,a,b,c

H= shout “hello”, is the victim actually drowning or just face down in the water floating?

H= shout for help, always better to have more hands helping during the incident. If two people are present, one person phones Emergency Services.

H= hazards, make sure there are no hazards before pulling victim from water e.g. electrical cables.

STEP 1: Pull the victim out of the water.

STEP 2: Rescue breaths in 5 second intervals. While you are pulling the victim to land, provide a rescue breath every 5 seconds to the victim.

STEP 3: Lay victim on their back and begin CPR.

If at all possible, get two CPR savvy people involved. This is called “Two-Rescuer CPR”. Rescuer #1 will do the 2 rescue breaths and Rescuer #2 will do compressions… after 2 rounds of CPR, the rescuers switch. It makes CPR less interrupted, the rescuers less fatigued and higher success rates of CPR.

A (Airway)=FIRST! Look for gross blockage (marbles etc…) that can be pulled out or cleared from the victim mouth and/or throat.

B (Breaths)=Give two rescue breaths that last about a second each. (Watch to see the chest rise. If it does not, it means there is airway restriction or blockage. Do a finger sweep if you see blockage. Re-adjust the head so that the chin is pointing upward (for an adult), slightly upward for a child and parallel to the chest for a baby. Try rescue breaths again to see if the chest rises. If not, start chest compressions to try to force the blockage out. Keep checking to see if you can clear the blockage.)

C (Circulation/Compressions) With one hand flat, grasp your dominant hand over the top (palm down). And lace fingers.

Place grasped hands between victim’s nipples. * Begin compressions. 1 ½ – 2 inches deep for an adult, 1- 1 1/2 inches deep for a child and 1/2 – 1 inch deep for an infant.

At a rate of 100 compressions per minute. (So you want them to be less than a second apart.) After 30 compressions, stop and give 2 rescue breaths. Give rescue breaths by pinching the nose and sealing the victim’s entire mouth with yours. (For a baby, cover the baby’s nose AND mouth with your mouth).

* Resume compressions. 30 compressions, 2 rescue breaths. Continue CPR until one of the following happens:

1) A qualified person takes over CPR,

2) The scene becomes unsafe

3) You are too exhausted to continue, or

4) The victim shows obvious signs of life.

IMPORTANT:. I suggest attending a CPR course and getting certified. I have only given basic instruction on CPR so that even if you have been MEANING to go get certified in CPR, here is how to save a life in those horrifying few minutes.

Don’t forget your H,H,H,1,2,3, ABC’s ! Hello, Help, Hazard, 1,2,3, Airway (blockage?/ head tilt), Breathing (Rescue breaths), Circulation (Compressions)–in that order!

By Dr Dion O’Cuinneagain, General Practitioner and former athlete (Irish and Western Province Rugby)

Why is it then, when operating within a home environment, similar stringent safety precautions are not expected? The pool industry needs to seriously consider safety around a pool. Pool builders need to lead first-time pool owners in terms of the hazards of owning a pool.

Parents need to understand and also have the dangers of having a pool pointed out to them.

All players need to take the necessary precautions.

As South Africans, we are conscious of children not strapped in safely when in cars, we are aware of the dangers around crime and violence in our streets with respect to children but still we leave our pools uncovered?

We at PowerPlastics Pool Covers would like to make pool owners and the industry aware of the dangers of drowning and encourage all to take up the opportunity to make our swimming pools safe to those who cannot swim.

It is for this reason that we wish to educate and inform people on their options, garner support, and prevent further tragedies.

It is indeed a historical time in the local pool industry. We welcome all commentators from the industry, local government, industry watchdogs and the public at large to get involved, discuss, debate (sensibly!) and elaborate on the various aspects around the issue of pool-related safety. If you have any hard facts and statistics, feel free to comment and share.

Is pool safety top of your list?

Caryn Formby, PowerPlastics Pool Covers