Safety with a Pool Alarm

Children love to play in the water and having an above ground swimming pool can be a great way to have fun with the kids. But fun time can easily turn to tragedy if you're not careful. The reason? Swimming pools kill hundreds of kids yearly.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) said drowning is the leading cause of accidental death in the home of children under five years old. Every year, over 300 children under five drown in residential swimming pools, often in a pool owned by their own family.

"In addition, more than 2,000 children in that age group are treated in hospital emergency rooms for submersion injures. Medical costs for submersion victims during the initial hospitalization alone can be quite high. Costs can range from an estimated $2,000 for a victim who recovers fully to $80,000 for a victim with severe brain damage. Some severely brain damaged victims have initial hospital stays in excess of 120 days and expenses in excess of $150,000," the CPSC revealed.

Seventy-five percent of submersion victims were children between one and three years old and 65 percent were boys. This occurred in spite of the fact that the victims were 'supervised' by one or both parents. Most child drownings occur in familiar territory. About 65 percent of these incidents happen in a family pool while 33 percent occur in a pool owned by relatives or friends.

And drownings can happen very quickly. In the time it takes to answer the door or phone, a child can fall in and be underwater long enough to cause serious damage or death. About 77 percent of such drowning occur when supervision is away for five minutes or less. The child's survival depends dramatically on the response time and restoring breathing. Just a few seconds could make the difference in preventing death or long-lasting disabilities.

One way of preventing these tragic accidents is by installing a poolside alarm. This device can detect objects 15 pounds or more and comes with a stainless steel speaker that sounds an alarm whenever someone is in the pool. The remote alarm can receive signals up to a hundred feet away and provides an extra layer of protection for an unsupervised child. Moreover, it gives parents enough time to respond to a child who has jumped into the pool before something bad happens.