How to keep the joy in summer, stay safe around water

Water’s one of the great joys of summer, alongside leisure time and barbecues, camping and outdoor family gatherings.

It’s also one of summer’s sources of sorrow.

And with the Pioneer Day weekend coming up, officials are emphasizing the need to put personal safety on the same footing as fun.

Monday, Utah Department of Natural Resources Division of Law Enforcement Chief Todd Royce talked to media about recent drownings. There have been six drownings so far in Utah this year, including four that involved paddle boards.

“If you think you’ve got a paddle board and you’re safe and that’s the only flotation that you need, you’re wrong,” Royce told reporters, as quoted by KSL-TV. “Over the Fourth of July weekend, we had quite a few incidents, and we don’t want those same incidents to happen over the 24th of July weekend.”

Each year, roughly 4,000 people in the U.S. die from drowning, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — about 11 a day. And twice that many suffer nonfatal drowning injuries that cause brain damage or other long-term disabilities.

Utah averages about 31 drownings a year and, as is true nationally, most of them occur during warm weather months from May through August. What adds to the immense toll is the fact that drowning is preventable, CDC reports.

Who’s most at risk?

Some populations are more vulnerable to drowning than others. Drowning is the leading cause of death for children 1 to 4 years old; most drowning at that age happen in swimming pools. Drowning is the second-leading cause of unintentional injury death for those ages 5-14, behind vehicle crashes.

Those 65 and older have the second-highest rate of drowning, per the public health giant. Nathan Malan, an injury and violence prevention epidemiologist with the Utah Department of Health and Human Services, said many of those are due to falls in the tub or shower at home by adults who are older or have disabilities. They sometimes hit their heads and drown.

Per CDC, among those younger than 30, American Indian and Alaska Native people are twice as likely to drown as white people. Blacks are 1.5 times more likely to drown. And “deaths among those with autism spectrum disorder were nearly 40 times as likely to be caused by drowning as deaths in the general population,” per a study in the AJPH journal, which is published by the American Public Health Association.

One of the big differences in who drowns and who doesn’t is whether a child (or adult) has had swimming lessons, Malan said. Some families can’t afford them or didn’t have access. “We’ve seen some deaths that are specifically lower-income populations that maybe did not have access to swim lessons.”

Studies suggest nearly 4 in 5 of the people who drown are male, possibly due to more risk taking, increased water exposure and alcohol use.

As the Deseret News previously reported, based on CDC data, among the “factors that lead to drownings are inability to swim, lack of barriers, lack of close supervision, failure to wear life jackets when appropriate, alcohol use and seizure disorders. Location also matters, but the likelihood of drowning varies with age.”

The share of drownings in natural water, including rivers, oceans and lakes, goes up with age. More than half of both fatal and nonfatal drownings for those over age 15 take place in natural water settings.

Drownings in Utah

Just over half of the Utah children who died of drowning were toddlers younger than 4, according to the Utah Department of Health and Human Services. And nearly 6 in 10 of those deaths were in summer.

According to the department’s statistics, of those very young deaths, 37% occurred in a swimming pool or hot tub, 23% took place in open water and 20% were in a bathtub.

Drowning in Utah is less common than in neighboring states like Arizona and Nevada, Malan said, noting that the difference is probably that Utahns are less likely to have swimming pools in their yards.

Among adults in Utah, he said, a third of drownings were in bathtubs.

Utah also has a lot of natural water drownings, such as in reservoirs. “The current is unknowable in natural water,” Malan said. “Especially in a reservoir, you get really weird currents sometimes and if people aren’t wearing life jackets, even if they’re good swimmers,” they can drown. He added that cold water’s shock, combined with current, can pull people under, and they don’t survive. “It is the recommendation that everybody wear a life jacket when they’re out on our natural waters, even if they’re good swimmers.”

The elements also pose water danger, including the flash floods that occur in spring and summer, particularly in southern Utah, he said.

Gatherings that take a fatal turn

Utahns often have large family gatherings and may even rent places with pools or hang out near a natural water source, Malan said. “Everybody’s there with all their kids and all their different families together and everybody thinks that somebody else is watching the kids. If nobody’s designated as the water watcher and is actually paying attention, then you sometimes have toddlers and young kids that get in trouble and nobody notices until later, when everybody’s getting out of the pool. Just ensuring that somebody is watching in big family gatherings and there are life jackets in open water, is really important.”

So is knowing CPR. He said parents sometimes buy kiddie pools or get water bounce houses and toddlers can get out of the house and fall in. Young children can drown in just a couple of inches of water. So buckets and kiddie pools and other items containing water should be drained when they’re not being used and supervised, Malan said. Pools and hot tubs should always be enclosed, with walls too tall for little folks to scale.

Utah is part of a national CDC project working to collect better data on child drownings, Malan said. The goal is to understand risk factors and create interventions in order to understand why drownings happen and prevent them.

A Utah drowning fact sheet reported that children in Beaver, Garfield, Iron, Kane and Washington counties are twice as likely to drown as children in other parts of Utah.

Drowning’s not like in the movies

Drowning doesn’t look like Hollywood depicts it. It is most often a quiet, barely noticeable crisis. No flailing. Most likely no cry for help. Just a gentle bobbing and slipping away. Folks look like they’re treading water — until they’re not.

A decade ago, a former Coast Guard rescue swimmer, Mario Vittone, raised national awareness of the disparity between what people expect and what they’re apt to see. Drowning doesn’t look like drowning, he pointed out.

Per Vittone, “There is very little splashing, no waving, and no yelling or calls for help of any kind. To get an idea of just how quiet and undramatic from the surface drowning can be, consider this: It is the No. 2 cause of accidental death in children, age 15 and under (just behind vehicle accidents). Of the approximately 750 children who will drown next year, about 375 of them will do so within 25 yards of a parent or other adult. In 10% of those drownings, the adult will actually watch them do it, having no idea it is happening.”

He went into great detail about what people should watch for, noting that the need to breathe supersedes everything else, so there is no thrashing or yelling for help.

Instead, he described what’s more apt to be seen. The drowning individual’s head may be low enough in the water that the mouth is at water level or is tilted back with mouth open. If you look closely, eyes are closed or glassy and unfocused. Hair may cover the forehead or eyes. The person is upright but not using their legs. He or she may be hyperventilating or gasping. That person may look like he or she is swimming, but not making headway, or trying to roll onto his or her back. Often, someone who’s drowning appears to be climbing a ladder that doesn’t exist.

As Deseret News earlier reported, “A drowning individual can’t wave for help. Instinct drives him to extend his arms laterally and press on the water’s surface, an effort to rise out of the water to breathe. As he does that, part of a process that Francesco A. Pia named the ‘Instinctive Drowning Response,’ he has no voluntary control of his arm movements.”

Vittone concluded that “sometimes the most common indication that someone is drowning is that they don’t look like they’re drowning.”

If you see someone who looks like any of that, ask if they’re OK. If they don’t answer, he said to get to them fast. You may only have seconds.

Someone who is thrashing and yelling for help is probably in trouble. Help them. But don’t let that be your expectation of what drowning looks like.

Staying safe in and near water

CDC, the Utah Department of Health and Human Services and other experts offer tips to prevent drowning:

• Never leave a young child alone in a bathtub.
• Learn basic swimming and water safety skills. That doesn’t mean you don’t need others to keep track of you in the water, though. But 55% of U.S. adults have never taken a swimming lesson.
• Make sure pools are enclosed by a fence at least 4-feet high on all sides.
• An adult should keep a close eye on kids. Make sure there’s a watcher and ensure the person knows it’s his or her responsibility.
• Others in the water for recreation should buddy up and keep track of each other.
• When you’re in natural water — an ocean, lake, river or other water source — wear a life jacket. That’s advice for all ages and swimming abilities. Among those who drown every year are people who swim well.
• Learn CPR. Per CDC, “Your CPR skills could save someone’s life in the time it takes for paramedics to arrive. Many organizations such as American Red Cross and American Heart Association offer CPR training courses, both online and in-person.”
• Check weather forecasts before you head out to play near, in or on water. Weather can change fast, bring flash floods, strong winds and storms, including lightning.
• Avoid alcohol if you’re swimming, boating, doing other water activities or supervising children doing those things. The CDC estimates as many as 70% of deaths associated with boating or swimming include alcohol use. About 20% of boating deaths also include alcohol use as at least a factor.
• If you have a medical condition that raises risk, take extra precautions. Heart conditions, epilepsy and autism are examples of conditions that increase the risk of drowning.
• Stay out of the water if your medications can impair balance, coordination or judgment.
• Don’t hyperventilate or hold your breath a long time. Both can cause you to pass out and drown.
• Children playing in water are noisy and boisterous. If a child is quiet, investigate immediately.
• Know the signs of drowning. Drowning people don’t wave. They don’t yell. Instead, their mouths bob below and above water.