Hidden Dangers In Swimming Pools

For many people the question of safety and swimming pools will be the number one concern when considering installing a pool or buying a house with a pool. On average over 3500 people per year drown in the USA and approximately half of those happen in swimming pools. That is the equivalent of almost five people per day, every day of the year, who drown in swimming pools. A swimming pool is a huge responsibility and one that you must strive to make safe, or as safe as possible, to reduce the potential for an accident in your pool. Supposing that you want to make your pool area as safe as possible…how exactly do you do that? What are the major areas of concern and what can you do to lessen the likelihood of an accident or drowning in your pool? Quite a bit.

First, this article on essential pool safety equipment would be a good place to start. Every pool should have minimum life saving equipment on hand, readily accessible, at all times. Review that article to make sure that you have everything that you should have in terms of safety equipment.

Restrict Access To Your Pool – Every pool owner needs to accept that their pool is potentially dangerous and treat it as such. Swimming pools must be able to have access to them restricted, usually with a fence that includes a self closing and self latching gate. Almost all areas in Canada and the USA have local bylaw codes for fences that limit access to the pool area. These fences need to be of a minimum height as well as consist of a non-climbable construction. Check with your local code office to find out what the minimum requirements are in your area. In addition to fencing and gating your property you may also want to consider adding a pool safety fence around the pool deck itself which provides another barrier to prevent unwanted access to the pool.

Wires Over Swimming Pools

Who would put a swimming pool underneath live wires of any kind? Unfortunately, lots of people. In modern day construction you would not be approved to install a pool under service wiring of any kind…if you get a permit. There are a lot of pools that get installed every year where permits are not taken and proper site inspections not made. This is a concern but much less so than older pools which were built during a time when rules were more relaxed. There are many pools in operation today where wires run over top or adjacent to the pool area. The problem is that in many of these cases there is no other option for running the wires…the pool should never have been installed to begin with. Who wants to give up their swimming pool, at great expense, due to a “problem” that has been there since the pool was installed? Not many people I would imagine, but as a pool and spa expert, and someone with formal and practical training with electricity, you would NEVER find myself or someone I know swimming in a pool that has overhead wires of any kind. Zero chance.

The picture above is one I took while traveling. This is a hotel pool and as you can see from the reflection in the water there are electrical transmission lines installed directly next to, and alongside, the pool. Despite the staggering heat I did not go into this pool due to the proximity of these wires (not to mention the turbidity in the water).

Continued at:  http://www.swimmingpoolsteve.com/pages/hidden-dangers.html