Female Focus
Page 43
House and Home
Danger in paradise
Throughout Northern Europe families are planning their next holidays when, for a few short weeks, they can enjoy what all of us fortunate enough to live here, experience: The wonderful outdoor life that the Mediterranean climate can give us. But while most of them, and us, will have a safe and care-free summer, every year in Spain, about a hundred families experience the unimaginable pain and loss of a child drowning in a swimming pool.
In countries with Mediterranean, or tropical climates, drowning is the second highest cause of accidental death among infants, the majority happening in swimming pools. If that wasn’t bad enough, for every recorded drowning in Spain there are 2,000 accidents requiring medical attention ranging from a quick check-up to severe brain injury. Two hundred thousand near-drowning incidents each year! The standard profile of a victim is a child being supervised by one-or-more adults who think the child is somewhere other than the pool. It very rarely happens to a child playing in the pool under supervision, however loose that supervision is. No parent can supervise their children effectively for 100% of the day, a pot can boil over, the telephone or the doorbell can ring, another child can demand your attention. A moment’s distraction can lead to a lifetime of regrets and recrimination. Young children can drown in silence in as little as two minutes, with the ability to swim often giving no protection as the shock of unexpected, and sudden, immersion causes them to panic. Apart from filling your pool with concrete, approved fences are recognised by all official bodies as the best protection for children. Studies in the USA have shown that for families renting holiday villas, the most dangerous times are the first, and last, half hour of the holiday. The toddlers are drawn to the pool, whilst the parents are occupied unpacking and exploring, or packing and cleaning up. France is the only European country, so far, to have passed any legislation. They follow the EU guidelines that all communal pools, or pools in rentable accommodation should have approved safety fences with many of them also required to have self-closing, self-latching gates. However, they do not police this, merely prosecute owners who do not comply and subsequently have a child drowning in their pool. In Spain there is no legal requirement, as yet, to have a fence around your pool. However, some authorities are starting to insist, as a condition of licence, that certain communal pools are fenced. It is felt by many that this condition will soon affect privately rented villas. Whether, or not, legislation is introduced, failure to have a pool fence may lead to a lifetime of regret for anyone unfortunate enough to have a renter’s child or a young relative drown, or be seriously injured, while on holiday in their villa. One day, our children may look back on swimming pools without safety fences with the same astonishment as we now look back on cars without seat belts.
This article has been submitted by Tony from Neater Pool Guardian. Tel 646 839 080,
tony@neaterpoolguardian.es. Member of the Costa Blanca Business Association,
www.cbba.es.
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