In response to a call to action on drowning prevention put forth by the World Health Organization, Water Safety USA has developed a U.S. National Water Safety Action Plan.
The plan, which was released this summer, is the country’s first attempt to construct a national roadmap for collective action to reduce drowning that results in an estimated 4,000-plus fatal unintentional drownings every year.
The plan lays out 99 action recommendations for drowning prevention guided by six areas of focus that include:
• Barriers, Entrapment, and Electrical Safety.
• Data and Public Health Surveillance.
• Life Jackets, Personal Flotation Devices, and Other Flotation.
• Rescue and CPR.
• Lifeguards and Supervision.
•Water Safety, Water Competency, and Swimming Lessons.
The water safety plan is a comprehensive document that seeks to influence policy and legislation to change national and state laws that could change outcomes.
William Ramos, an associate professor at Indiana University School of Public Health-Bloomington and the director of the school’s Aquatics Institute, believes that implementing change at the legislative level may be among the most impactful actions drowning prevention advocates take.
“The message to Congress is: We need to fix this, and we can.” Ramos said. “But look at seatbelts, fire safety, smoking cessation. Legislation is what’s going to move the needle.” To that end, the plan recommends specific national requirements concerning residential as well as public pools.
For example, within the area of “Barriers, Entrapment, and Electrical Safety,” the plan recommends, requiring the use of four-sided isolation fencing with self-closing and self-latching gates around residential pools and spas; requiring government mandated inspections upon change of ownership or substantial remodel or renovation of residential pools and spas; requiring antientrapment mechanisms for residential pools in alignment with the federally mandated rules for public pools and spas; requiring adoption of the most recent National Electrical Code; and more.
Within the area of “Data and Public Health Surveillance,” the plan recommends developing a National Drowning Reporting System. Within the area of “Water Safety,” the plan recommends developing national standards for assessing swimming competency.
There are a total of 99 such recommendations, and the plan-drafting committee was focused on developing evidence-based actions informed by research or, in the absence of research, expert opinion.
Concurrent with the development of the plan, The National Institutes of Health recently published a call for research proposals to examine drowning prevention, writing that “little is known about what intervention strategies have the greatest efficacy to prevent drowning and/or improve outcomes after a drowning event.”
This call for research followed the April 28, 2021, worldwide adoption of the first-ever United Nations General Assembly Resolution focused on global drowning prevention and is funded by the National Institutes of Health and Prevention, the Health Resources and Services Administration, and the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities.
Research goals are specifically aimed to improve outcomes in three primary domains and include studies on drowning disparities among socioeconomic groups and interventions to address them; studying the effects of swim instruction; and studying drowning survival techniques.
It is worth pointing out that these drowning prevention measures come at a time when 30 years of decreased drowning incidents seems to have plateaued in the U.S. Since 1990, overall drowning deaths have decreased by one third, but in 2020 alone, they rose by nearly 17 percent, according to the most recent data from the CDC. Analysis of that data shows that glaring disparities exist in outcomes between black and non-white children compared to white children.
Water Safety USA is an association of non-profit and governmental organizations with a strong record of providing drowning prevention and water safety programs, including public education.
