The safety standards of domestic swimming pools

The rate of exposure to the hazards of domestic swimming pools was examined for 1143 three-year-old Christchurch children. Just over 11 percent of children lived in homes with a swimming pool. A further 20 percent did not have a pool but there was a pool on an immediately adjacent property. Examination of four safety features for swimming pools suggested there was considerable room for improvement in the safety standards of the pools surveyed: over half did not have a surrounding fence or wall at least a metre high; less than one in five had a surrounding fence with self-closing gate or padlocked gate; just under half had sides more than a metre above ground level; and one pool in five had none of the four safety features. The implications of these findings for the provision of adequate pool safety standards are discussed.