Red Cross offers five
key water safety tips
May 20, 2015 – With swimming pools opening this weekend and summer
vacations on the horizon, people will be flocking to pools and beaches.
That can be a great way to beat the heat. But it can also be disastrous
without the proper precautions.
“Water is fun to be around and everybody loves it, but it also has a
dangerous side to it,” says Jill Toennis, the Red Cross’s aquatics
specialist for the Northern Miami Valley. “An average of 10 people die
from drowning every day, and half of them are under the age of 14.”
Additionally, different environments create different challenges, she
says, so just because someone is skilled at swimming in a pool doesn’t
mean he or she is skilled swimming in an ocean.
To help, Toennis offers five key safety tips for the water this summer:
1. Swim in a designated area supervised by
lifeguards.
2. Maintain constant supervision. Never leave a
child unattended near water—not even for a minute. It takes less time
than that to drown. And do not trust a child’s life to another child.
Also, teach children to always ask permission to go near water.
3. Make sure everyone in your family can swim well.
Enroll them in Red Cross swim lessons.
4. Have the appropriate equipment at your pool to be
able to reach or throw in case of an emergency. Have a cell phone,
first aid kit and lifejacket available. Also, learn CPR and
resuscitation breathing, and download the Red Cross emergency and first
aid apps.
5. Have young children or inexperienced swimmers
wear a U.S. Coast Guard approved lifejacket around water, but do not
rely on life jackets alone.
The Red Cross offers a free swimming app that includes more safety
tips, as well as interesting quizzes for swimming in different bodies
of water.
The Red Cross has been teaching people to swim for more than 100 years,
and through a Centennial Grant continues its mission to help children
learn to swim by working with swimming pools in areas of need to
provide free or discounted swim lessons.
|
|
|
|
