Drowning is the No. 1 cause of death among young children, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently reported. In 2022, the most recent data available, 461 children ages 1 to 4 drowned, a 28 percent increase from 2019.
The disturbing report also documented significant racial disparities. This is consistent with a 2023 analysis by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, which found that 21 percent of all drowning deaths occurred among African-American children. Among 5- to 14-year-olds, African-Americans accounted for 45 percent of deaths.
These numbers tell a grim story of tragedy and inequality. Here are three policy changes that could help save lives:
1. Increase the number of supervised communal swimming areas.
The CPSC report found that 80 percent of child drownings occurred in residential settings. That means most children died in their own home or that of a neighbor, family member or friend. Of those drownings, 91 percent were children under the age of 5.
There are several reasons why residential environments can be particularly dangerous. In many cases, children were playing without adequate supervision, or were being supervised by older children or adults who could not swim.
To follow this authorLeana S. Wen‘s opinions
Increasing access to community swimming areas, such as lifeguarded pools and beaches, can improve safety. It can also help reduce disparities. The CDC study included survey data showing that 67 percent of black adults had not spent time in a pool in the past six months, compared with 44 percent of white adults. Communities should invest in recreation centers with year-round pools, as well as efforts to make more natural bodies of water swimmable.
2. Make sure there are enough lifeguards.
Last year, a third of the nation’s 309,000 public pools were closed or only open sporadically because of a growing shortage of lifeguards, the American Lifeguard Association reported. This is a parody — and a solvable problem.
Solutions include making lifeguard training free, including it in the curriculum of high schools and universities, and increasing wages and offering more flexible working hours to attract more workers.
There should also be more opportunities for people to make a career out of lifeguarding. Traditionally, many lifeguards are teenagers who see the job as a one-time rite of passage. To ensure an adequate year-round workforce, there should be a career path for those who choose to become full-time lifeguards. Such a career could be integrated with other public safety roles. For example, EMTs could work shifts on ambulances and in the pool.
3. Teach children – and adults – to swim.
It should come as no surprise that teaching children water safety reduces their risk of drowning. A study in JAMA Pediatrics found that participation in formal swimming lessons reduced the risk of drowning by 88 percent.
In Australia, most states and territories have compulsory swimming programmes for school children. In England, all state schools are required to provide swimming lessons and water safety education. By the time British children finish primary school, they should be able to swim the length of a swimming pool unaided.
Compare this to the United States, where more than half of American adults say they have never taken a swimming lesson. The numbers are even more stark among minority groups: nearly 2 out of 3 black adults and 3 out of 4 Hispanic adults have never taken a swimming lesson.
Implementing mandates may not be feasible for many schools in the United States that do not have access to a pool, but much more can be done to encourage swimming lessons. That includes offering free lessons and offering school credits for learning to swim.
There should also be options for adults who want to learn the basics of water safety. Growing up, I was terrified of water. And so were my parents, who couldn’t swim themselves. I never took lessons and didn’t plan to, but one day my then 1-year-old daughter fell into a pool and I realized I couldn’t save her. I was motivated to finally learn, but I couldn’t find a beginner’s course for adults. It took a lot of perseverance to find an instructor willing to start from scratch.
Adults who can’t swim are much more likely to have children who can’t either. As I can attest, it’s very hard to overcome your fears later in life. Making swimming lessons more accessible to adults would help them stay safe in the water — and, by extension, it would help their children and grandchildren, too.
None of these policy solutions will work in isolation. A core principle of water safety is to stack multiple interventions, because they can work together to reduce risk. The core message underlying all of these interventions is that drownings are preventable and much more needs to be done to help everyone enjoy water activities safely.
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