Vote Tomorrow Could Mean More Pool Safety Requirements
Posted by Elizabeth Morcom on Tue, Sep 27, 2011 @ 01:26 PM
(image courtesy Stephen Jones, flickr.com)
Even more changes could be on the way for pools and spas across the country.
Tomorrow, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) will meet to decide whether more safety measures need to be required under the Virginia Graeme Baker Act, which was instituted a few years ago to help prevent injuries and deaths from drain entrapment. Specifically, tomorrow’s meeting will be to discuss whether to alter the definition of an “unblockable drain.”
Currently, the act defines an “unblockable drain” as one of “any size and shape that a human body cannot sufficiently block to create a suction entrapment hazard.”
However, according to Stephen Getzhoff in Aqua Magazine, some pool operators have “slapp[ed] on a new drain cover” to comply with the specifics of the act rather than the intentions – ensuring the safety of all swimmers. Getzhoff is senior litigation partner at the New York City law firm of Lester, Schwab, Katz & Dwyer, and for the last nine years, has served as outside national counsel for Association of Pool and Spa Professionals.
Still others, like the National Swimming Pool Foundation, say there have been no serious injuries or deaths caused by entrapment since the VGB Act was instituted, so there's no reason to require more from pool operators at a time when money is tight.
If the changes are passed tomorrow, public pools who have installed larger drain covers over smaller openings will likely need to install secondary entrapment protection – like a vent pipe or a safety vacuum release system – to ensure compliance.
While the VGB Act is aimed at all pools, its only direct effect is on public pools. Compliance in private pools is mostly up to the owner.