FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                   

Contact:   Diane Holm, Lee County Health Department,
                (941) 332-9590

LEARNING TO SWIM/DROWNING PREVENTION KEY SKILLS AS SPRING AND SUMMER APPROACH

FORT MYERS, Fla. (March 26, 2002) – The Lee County Health Department and Lee County Government are urging parents with youngsters near water to get drowning prevention and swimming training as the spring and summer approach. 

Tragically, the months of April and May have been the time, historically, when the first drowning of the year is recorded in Lee County. 

Drowning is the leading cause of unintentional injury-related death among children age four and under.  Each year nationally, about 300 children under age five drown in swimming pools, usually a pool owned by their family.  In addition, more than 2,000 children in that age group are treated in hospital emergency rooms for submersion injuries.  Children can drown in as little as one inch of water and are therefore at risk of drowning in wading pools, bathtubs, buckets, diaper pails, toilets, spas and hot tubs. 

Lee County Emergency Dispatch records show that EMS responded to 85 near drownings and nine drownings during 1999 and 2000, with 57 of those being children between the ages of one and 10.  Of the calls, 51 took place in residential pools with six confirmed drownings.  There are a number of Learn to Swim programs locally, including:

•       Lee County Health Department and Parks & Recreation – Learn to Swim program for youngsters enrolled in participating day cares; contact Diane Holm at 332-9590.

•       Lee County Parks & Recreation summer swimming programs at county pools.  For more information, go to Parks & Recreation web site at leeparks.org or call 461-7400.

•       Swim lessons at City of Fort Myers Parks & Recreation (Sam Fleishman Pool), 931-7020, and City of Cape Coral Parks & Recreation (SunSplash and Yacht Club), 574-0806.

•       YMCA swim lessons at Cape Coral and Cypress Lake high schools and S.T.A.R.S. Complex, 275-9622.

To learn more about drowning prevention, visit these web sites:

1.      National Center for Injury Prevention at http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/factsheets/drown.htm.

2.      SafeUSA at http://www.cdc.gov/safeusa/water/water.htm.

3.      U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission at http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/pubs/chdrown.html.

4.      The United State Lifesaving Association at http://www.usla.org/index.shtml.

5.      National SafeKids Campaign at http://www.safekids.org/tier2_rl.cfm?folder_id=181.