|
Summer. It can give you the shivers. While it's fun to be out in the great outdoors, it can be a dangerous place for children and parents, alike. During the summer months, hospital emergency departments throughout the country fill up with children and grownups who require treatment for traumatic and often preventable injuries. Here's how you can help be stay safe this summer.
Shark attacks are on the rise. But before you go chasing the kids out of the water this summer, you might want to know that the odds of drowning in a backyard pool are a lot higher than meeting up with Jaws.
The International Shark Attack File, which is at the University of Florida in Gainesville, reported 39 shark attacks in the United States in 2006, most of those were in Florida.
In comparison, about 300 children younger than 5 drown in pools each year nationwide - with more than half of these incidents occurring in the summer. Also, more than 2,000 children in that age group are treated in hospital emergency rooms for near-drowning incidents, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).
Most shark attacks occur in near-shore waters. While the relative risk of getting attacked by a shark is very small, you can help play it safe by observing certain rules when you wade in:
- Swim, dive or surf with others - never alone. Sharks are more likely to attack a solitary individual.
- Avoid swimming between sandbars, near steep drop-offs, near channels or at river mouths where sharks are found.
- Avoid waters with known effluents or sewage and those being used by sport or commercial fisherman, especially if there are signs of bait fishes or feeding activity. Diving seabirds are good indicators of such action.
- Sightings of porpoises do not indicate the absence of sharks - both often eat the same food items.
- Exercise caution in murky water. Avoid wearing shiny jewelry that might simulate the scales of a fish, and avoid uneven tanning and contrasting, bright-colored clothing.
- Do not swim at dusk or at night when sharks are most active.
- Refrain from excessive splashing. Do not allow pets in the water because of their erratic movements.
- Do not swim near people who are fishing or spear-fishing.
- Do not enter the water if you have an open cut or you are bleeding.
- If a shark is sighted in the area, try to leave the water as calmly and quickly as possible.
Exercise pool caution
In some of the nation's sunbelt states where swimming pools are commonplace, drowning has become the leading cause of accidental death in the home, according to the CPSC. Swallowing too much water or slipping under the water can happen in the blink of an eye, so even when a lifeguard is present, keep your eyes on the little ones.
Water fun and alcohol is a dangerous summertime mixture. Drinking is a major contributing factor in as many as 50 percent of drownings among teens and adults, according to the National Center for Injury Control and Prevention. So leave the alcohol and beer for home parties far away from any water activities.
Tips to help prevent drowning:
- Whenever young children are swimming, playing or bathing in water, make sure an adult is constantly watching them. Someone supervising should not read, play cards, talk on the phone, mow the lawn or engage in any other distracting activity while watching children. Never leave a child alone with any amount of water, even if only for a few minutes.
- Keep small children away from buckets containing liquid (5-gallon industrial containers are a particular danger and can cause drowning). Be sure to empty buckets when household chores are done.
- Never swim alone or in unsupervised places. Teach children to always swim with a buddy.
- Learn CPR. This is particularly important for pool owners and individuals who regularly participate in water recreation.
- People who can't swim should wear personal flotation devices at all times. Do not use air-filled swimming aids (such as "water wings") in place of life jackets or life preservers with children. These can give parents and children a false sense of security and increase the risk of drowning.
If you have a swimming pool at your home:
- Install a four-sided, isolation pool-fence with self-closing and self-latching gates around the pool. The fence should be at least four feet high and completely separate the pool from the house and play area of the yard. If the house is part of the barrier, the doors leading from the house to the pool should be protected with an alarm or the pool should have a power safety cover.
- Steps and ladders leading from the ground to the pool should be secured and locked, or removed when not in use.
- Prevent children from having direct access to a swimming pool.
- Install rescue equipment and a telephone near the pool. Know how to contact local emergency medical services. Post the emergency number - 911 - in an easy-to-see place.
Diving rules: feet first, first time
There are about 1,600 diving-related spinal cord injuries each year in the United States. Shallow lakes and rivers create a dangerous setup for these diving-related injuries. Diving in water that is shallow, murky or of an unknown depth puts you at high risk for head trauma and spinal cord injuries, which can cause brain damage or paralysis. Two-thirds of all sports-related spinal cord injuries are caused by diving accidents. Most diving-related spinal cord injuries occur in the neck and result in complete paralysis from the head down.
Swimmers always should walk or jump feet-first into rivers and pools to reduce the risk of injury and check the water depth. The American Red Cross recommends nine feet as a minimum depth for diving or jumping.
Here are more tips on safe diving:
- Never dive into above-ground pools. They are too shallow.
- Don't dive from the side of an in-ground pool. Enter the water feet first.
- Dive only from the end of the diving board and not from the sides.
- Dive with your hands in front of you and always steer up immediately upon entering the water to avoid hitting the bottom or sides of the pool.
- Don't dive if you have been using alcohol or drugs because your reaction time may be too slow.
Lyme disease lookout
Lyme disease is an infection caused by corkscrew-shaped bacteria that are transmitted by the bite of deer ticks on the east coast and western blacklegged ticks on the west coast. Most reported cases of Lyme disease occur from May through September.
People spend more time outdoors in tick-infested areas in warm weather camping, hiking and cleaning up grass, brush and leaf-litter. Follow these few simple steps recommended by The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to reduce your risk of Lyme disease:
- Reduce the risk of exposure. Tuck pants inside of socks, and wear long sleeves to help keep ticks from reaching the skin.
- Wear light-colored clothing. Ticks can more easily be spotted and removed before becoming attached. It is unlikely that a tick will transmit Lyme disease if it has been attached to your body for less than 24 to 36 hours.
- Check your entire body including your scalp for ticks each night after being in an exposed situation. A good time to do this is during a bath or shower.
- Apply insect repellent that contains DEET (diethyl-m-toluamide) to clothes and exposed skin. However, do not use on children under 2 months of age.
- Parents should apply this product to their children, avoiding the hands, eyes and mouth. An alternative to DEET, picaridin, has recently become available in the United States. Picaridin has limited data published for tick repellency, but it may provide suitable protection, according to the CDC.
- If you do find a tick on your body, remove it with a pair of tweezers and contact your physician if a bulls-eye rash or flu-like symptoms develop. For additional information about Lyme disease, please see the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Web site at www.cdc.gov.
How to remove a tick
- Use fine-tipped tweezers and protect bare hands with a tissue or gloves to avoid contact with tick fluids.
- Grab the tick close to the skin. Do not twist or jerk the tick, as this may cause the mouthparts to break off and remain in the skin. Gently pull straight up until all parts of the tick are removed.
- To lessen the chance of contact with the bacterium, try not to crush the tick's body or handle the tick with bare fingers. After removing the tick, wash your hands with soap and water (or waterless alcohol-based hand rubs when soap is not available).
- Swab the bite area thoroughly with an antiseptic such as iodine scrub, rubbing alcohol, or water containing detertents to prevent bacterial infection.
- Save the tick for identification in case you become ill. This may help your doctor make an accurate diagnosis. Place the tick in a sealable plastic bag and put it in your freezer. Write the date of the bite on a piece of paper with a pencil and place it in the bag.
Summer poison alerts
Summertime brings an increase of both indoor and outdoor poisonings. Children younger than 6 most often are the victims of poisoning. The following is a list of common summer poisoning hazards and tips to reduce accidental poisoning:
- Pesticide poisoning increases during the summer because more people are out gardening. Store harmful products out of sight and out of reach of children, preferably in a locked cabinet.
- Unknown plant exposure increases during the summer because more people are outside. Small mushrooms, plants and wild berries are particularly attractive to young children. Teach children never to put leaves, stems, bark, seeds, nuts or berries from any plant into their mouth. Learn which plants in and around your home are poisonous, and remove them.
- Chemical poisoning increases during the summer because popular outdoor activities such as camping, hiking, fishing and picnics require toxins such as gasoline for mowing the lawn, lighter fluid for barbequing and kerosene for camping. Store harmful products in a locked container out of sight and out of reach of children.
Keep the number of your local poison control center near your phone (1-800-222-1222). Eighty percent of calls to a poison control center can be handled at home. The American Association of Poison Control Centers provides a list of poison control centers throughout the United States. For more information, go to http://www.aapcc.org/director2.htm and whatever you do outdoors, don't forget your sunscreen.
|
Related Articles
|
|
External Sources
|
This article was reviewed and updated June 2007.
Return to the previous page
|
