Photo Credit: Tom Griffiths
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nine people on average drown each day in the United States; additionally, 19 percent of children who drown in public pools do so with certified lifeguards on duty. For the past quarter-century, the most repeated water-safety mantra has been “constant, vigilant supervision.” However this is a contradiction, for, simply stated, human beings cannot remain vigilant for more than a very brief time. Ultimately, it’s not the lack of supervision that contributes to drowning, but rather naturally occurring lapses in supervision. While many other endeavors use technology to supplement attention and concentration, water safety primarily relies upon human senses.
But water-safety personnel do have a simple, practical and affordable technology available to them that has gone underutilized for many years. The lifejacket--primarily reserved for use on boats and other small craft--needs to be utilized universally by non-swimmers in swimming pools and water parks. An appropriately fitting lifejacket can probably “drown proof” every person who wears one. But there needs to be a significant change in the water-safety culture to extend and normalize the use of lifejackets from boats to swimming activities at pools and beaches.
In the summer of 2008, the National Note and Float program was piloted at the outdoor swimming pool at Penn State University with great success. Since then, many aquatic facilities and organizations, such as Winston-Salem, N.C., Upper St. Clair, Penn., and Tucson, Ariz., have adopted the program with positive results.
