Raising Awareness of Entrapment Dangers

With the school summer holidays in full swing, a campaign to raise awareness of the dangers of some swimming pools is being supported by the distributors of a leading pool safety release system.
Every year incidents of so-called ‘entrapment’ – where limbs and other body parts are caught via strong suction from drains at the bottom of either private or public pools – are reported in the media, tragically because the event often results in drowning.
Shocking statistics from the UK National Drowning Prevention Strategy show that drowning is the second highest cause of accidental deaths of children under five years in England.
Prompted by the findings, MSI, distributor of the Vac-Alert pool safety system, has become a supporter of Swimming Pool Entrapment Hazard Prevention Group (SPEHP), a not-for-profit organisation set up and run by volunteers in three European countries, to educate consumers.
Bob Kent, MSI’s MD, said: “One of the challenges is the low level of consumer awareness that the problem even exists.
“We greatly admire SPEHP’s passion and initiative to bring this issue, once and for all, to the wider public and industry.” SPEHP was started by Aileen Byrne at Brio Group UK, a health and safety training company for the pool sector, Joost Avezaat of Blue Cap Foundation in the Netherlands and Alex Gob, of Parents4Safety in Germany.