Hot weather prompts pool warnings

Lynn Doan

Friday, June 4, 2004 | 11:25 a.m.

In seven of the past nine years, young children have drowned in Clark County at more than twice the average rate of the nation as a whole.

Clark County's high number of pools and weather that gives people plenty of opportunity to use them push the rate. And now as the valley's daily high temperatures have begun to stay in the triple digits, health district officials and parents are worried that this year will add the eighth year to that grim record.

This year to date, there have been three children, ages 4, 5 and 6, who have drowned in Clark County.

"It's scary," said Las Vegas resident Stacey Harr, 33, who regularly brings her 1-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son to the Las Vegas Municipal Pool just northwest of downtown.

"That's why I'm always there with them when they're even around the pool, and I am trying to train my husband because he tends to wander off," Harr said.

She said she also makes sure to equip her children with "water wings," the around-the-arm flotation devices, which help them learn to swim while keeping them above water and life vests.

But Mike Bernstein, a Clark County Health District educator, said the relatively high rate of child drownings in Southern Nevada is not because parents are being less responsible, but rather that the region has a hotter climate, thus, a larger number of pools than most of the nation.

In Clark County, there are more than 65,000 private pools and more than 5,000 public pools. "People from California and Arizona, who also have warmer climates and lots of pools, have similar problems," he said.

Dr. Ruth Brenner, a medical officer for the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, agreed that the hotter regions of the country are the most vulnerable to youth drownings.

"Certainly areas where there is more exposure to warmer temperatures have higher drowning rates because there are more swimming pools," she said.

In addition to the higher number of pools, there are more warm, sunny days to be spent outside in Las Vegas. According to the U.S.A. Today Weather Almanac, Yuma, Ariz.; Las Vegas; Phoenix; and Tucson, Ariz. enjoy the most sunny days out of the year, in that order. Estoria, Ore.; Quillayute, Wash.; and Olympia, Wash. endure the cloudiest.

In 2001, the latest year available from the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, the rate -- or the number of drownings per 100,000 residents younger than 4 -- in Arizona was 7.13 percent. Nevada had a lower rate at 2.56 percent.

In comparison, Oregon's rate of youth drownings was 1.77 percent in 2001, and Washington was at 2.03 percent.

But last year, the rate for Clark County was 7.17, when 10 children in that age range drowned. The county's rate has climbed as high as 12.53 when 14 young children died in 1998.

The national average has remained much lower for the past decade, at about 3 drownings per capita for that age range.

In the summer of 2001, the Clark County Health District decided to try to stem the tide of child drownings by partnering with the American Red Cross to launch a campaign for pool safety. That year's rate dropped down to the national average. Even though the campaign was revived in the following two years, the county's child drowning rate climbed back up, starting with a rate of 5.59 in 2002.

Bernstein said the rebound may indicate that the warnings of the campaign have receded into the background noise of valley residents' hectic lives. Plus, funding for the campaign has remained the same as the valley's population has steadily risen.

Scott Irvine, the center coordinator of the municipal pool, has participated in the campaign, which runs from April through May, and said not much has changed since the campaign was first launched. He said the American Red Cross has always been the host, and the same basic information is emphasized.

This year, though, the health district has launched a more aggressive media campaign aimed at parents of young children, with spots on television and radio. Bernstein said the message has remained the same as in the past: "Constant adult supervision is the answer."

The campaign stresses the "ABCs" of drowning prevention: adult supervision, barriers and classes.

Adult supervision requires that at least one adult can clearly see the children near or in the pool.

As for barriers, Bernstein recommends a four-sided isolation fence, alarmed doors and windows, and power-operated pool covers that can support the weight of a person.

The district also recommends age-appropriate swimming lessons taught by qualified instructors. The municipal pool offers parent-child swimming lessons year-round for parents and young children.

Nicole Wells, who lives near Lake Mead and has a 3-year-old daughter who loves going to the pool, said responsible adults should know to keep an eye on their children -- at all times.

She said her daughter, Melanie, "is never alone; there's always someone in the pool with her. There are people who live on my street that just let their children free outside, and they can easily get into pools and drown."

Bernstein said the campaign is also reaching out to the valley's growing population of Spanish-only speakers through ads in Hispanic weekly publications, which will appear in the next few weeks.

However, he said district questionnaires have shown that the majority of bilingual residents surveyed were familiar with the campaign through English language television ads."