Safety
Pools present a significant risk of infant and toddler death due to drowning. In regions where residential pools are common, drowning is a major cause of childhood fatalities. As a precaution, many municipalities have by-laws that require that residential pools be enclosed with fencing to restrict unauthorized access. The Virginia Graeme Baker Pool And Spa Safety Act regulates pools to reduce the risk of entrapment. Diving in the shallow end can also lead to significant head and neck injuries; diving, especially head-first diving, should be done in the deepest point of the pool, minimally 8 feet (2.4 m), but desirably 12 feet (3.7 m), deeper if the distance between the water and the board is great.
Many products exist, such as removable baby fences, floating alarms and window/door alarms. Some pools are equipped with computer-aided drowning prevention or other forms of electronic safety and security systems.
Suspended ceilings in indoor swimming pools are safety-relevant components. The selection of materials under tension should be done with care. Especially the selection of unsuitable stainless steels can cause problems with stress corrosion cracking.
Read more about this topic: Swimming Pool
Famous quotes containing the word safety:
“Once women begin to question the inevitability of their subordination and to reject the conventions formerly associated with it, they can no longer retreat to the safety of those conventions. The woman who rejects the stereotype of feminine weakness and dependence can no longer find much comfort in the cliché that all men are beasts. She has no choice except to believe, on the contrary, that men are human beings, and she finds it hard to forgive them when they act like animals.”
—Christopher Lasch (b. 1932)
“There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one’s own safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind.... Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn’t, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn’t have to; but if he didn’t want to he was sane and had to.”
—Joseph Heller (b. 1923)
“There is always safety in valor.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)