Too many children are drowning. These changes can help.

 Washington Post

Opinion

Too many children are drowning. These changes can help.

Drowning is the No. 1 cause of death among young kids. This is a travesty — and a fixable problem.

By Leana S. Wen

July 30, 2024 at 7:15 a.m. EDT

Drowning is the No. 1 cause of death among young kids, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently reported. In 2022, the latest data available, 461 children ages 1 to 4 drowned, an increase of 28 percent from 2019.

The disturbing report also documented significant racial disparities. This is consistent with a 2023 analysis from the Consumer Product Safety Commission, which found that 21 percent of all drowning deaths were among African American children. Among 5- to 14-year-olds, African Americans made up 45 percent of deaths.

These numbers tell a grim story of tragedy and inequity. Here are three policy changes that can help save lives:

1. Increase supervised community swimming spaces.

The CPSC report shows that 80 percent of child drownings occurred in residential settings. That means most kids died in their own home or that of a neighbor, family member or friend. Of these drownings, 91 percent were kids younger than 5.

There are several reasons residential settings can be especially hazardous. In many instances, the kids were playing without adequate supervision, or they were supervised by older children or adults who don’t know how to swim.

Increased access to community swimming spaces, such as lifeguarded pools and beaches, can improve safety. It can also help reduce inequities. The CDC study included survey data that showed 67 percent of Black adults spent no time at a swimming 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. Ensure there are enough lifeguards.

Last year, a third of the country’s 309,000 public swimming pools were closed or opened only sporadically because of a growing lifeguard shortage, the American Lifeguard Association reported. This is a travesty — and a fixable problem.

Solutions include making lifeguard training free, incorporating that education into high school and university curriculums, and increasing pay and offering more flexible hours to attract more employees.

There should also be more opportunities for people to make lifeguarding their profession. Traditionally, many lifeguards are teenagers who see the work as a one-time rite of passage. To ensure an adequate workforce year-round, there should be a career path for those who choose to lifeguard full-time. Such a career could be integrated with other public safety roles. For instance, emergency medical technicians could work shifts on ambulances as well as at the pool.

3. Teach kids — and adults — how to swim.

It should come as no surprise that teaching kids water safety reduces their risk of drowning. A study in JAMA Pediatrics concluded that participation in formal swim lessons reduced the risk of drowning by 88 percent.

In Australia, most states and territories have compulsory swimming programs for school-age children. In England, all public schools are required to provide swimming lessons and water safety education. By the time British kids finish primary school, they have to swim the length of a pool unaided.

Contrast this to the United States, where more than half of American adults say they have never taken a swim 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 swim class.

Implementing mandates may not be feasible for many schools in the United States that lack access to a pool, but much more can be done to encourage swim instruction. That includes providing free classes and offering school credit for learning to swim.

There should also be options for adults who want to learn basic water safety. Growing up, I was terrified of the water. So were my parents, who didn’t swim themselves. I never took classes or intended 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 class for adults. It took a lot of persistence to find an instructor who was willing to start from zero.

Adults who don’t know how to swim are much more likely to have children who don’t either. As I can attest, it’s really hard to overcome your fears at a later age. Making swim lessons more accessible to adults would help them with water safety — and, by extension, would help their children and grandchildren, too.

None of these policy solutions will work in isolation. A core tenet of water safety is to layer multiple interventions, since they can work together to reduce risk. The key message underlying all of them is that drownings are preventable, and far more must be done to help everyone safely enjoy water activities.