Learn how to do anything: How to Prevent Drowning

Though it's not always well-publicized, drowning is one of the leading causes of death from unintentional injury, causing about 10 deaths per day in the US alone.^[1] Tragically, it often happens close to home — in 2012, 73% of the drowning deaths of children under 14 years occurred at a private residence.^[2] Fortunately, by observing basic water safety standards, many situations that can lead to drowning can be completely averted. Whether you're swimming on your own, supervising others, or making your pool safe for your family, this is knowledge you can't afford not to have.

Steps

Reducing Your Own Chance of Drowning

Pick swimming sites with lifeguards. Rule number one for keeping yourself safe from drowning is to always have good swimmers with you when you're swimming, especially when you're in a body of water you're not familiar with.^[3] Certified lifeguards are your greatest friends of all when you're swimming — the presence of lifeguards at swimming site has been shown to have a serious, proven effect on drowning prevention. Lifeguards are trained to spot swimmers on the verge of drowning and act quickly to safe lives. If you're ever unsure when you're choosing swimming sites, err towards ones that have life guards on-duty.
- Additionally, it's worth mentioning that certified lifeguards should know how to perform CPR, which means that they have the potential to save a swimmer's life even in the dangerous situation that they lose consciousness in the water.^[4]
Learn basic swimming skills. For obvious reasons, knowing how to swim can greatly reduce your risk of drowning. For absolute beginners, skills like the crawl stroke and treading water can allow you move and float with ease in the water, improving your confidence and security while you swim. Don't rely solely on the "doggie paddle" to prevent yourself from drowning — it's not as effective or energy-efficient as actual swimming strokes.
- If you're not a confident swimmer, consider enrolling in swimming lessons. Swimming lessons are estimated to reduce the risk of drowning by 88% in very young children, but can provide life-saving knowledge even to adults.^[5]
Use certified floatation devices. Life jackets and other floatation devices can keep their wearer afloat in the water even if they are unconscious or unable to swim, making them a valuable aid in and around the water.^[6] For some situations, floatation devices may even be a legal necessity — in the United States, for instance, many states require boaters to wear a properly-fitted life jacket (or at least have one for each person on board). Usually, these life jackets will need to be certified by the US Coast Guard to be considered valid.^[7]
- Don't rely on water wings, foam noodles, and other pool ties to keep you afloat — these are usually designed for entertainment, not for safety.
Avoid strong currents. If you've done most of your swimming in man-made pools, it's easy to forget that bodies of water away from civilization are often subject to the forces of natural currents. If these currents are strong enough, they can pose serious dangers, especially to weak or inexperienced swimmers.^[8] Particularly dangerous are "rip currents," strong, fast currents that occur near to shore and can pull swimmers out to sea. If you're at the beach, be ready to spot these common rip current warning signs:^[9]
- A narrow channel of particularly choppy water
- Water with a noticeably different color than the water around it
- Irregular wave patterns
- A line of debris or seaweed moving steadily out to sea
Don't panic if you find yourself in a strong current. In the unlikely event that you are caught in a strong current, knowing how to react intelligently can save your life. Though this can be a very scary experience, try your best not to panic — in this case, letting your natural instincts take over can be a bad idea. Rather than trying to fight the current, instead, turn 90 degrees and swim parallel to the shore as hard as you can.^[10] Since most rip currents are active only in relatively narrow channels, eventually, you'll get out of the rip current and into calmer waters.
If you feel yourself start to lose control, tread water or float. Most people's natural reaction to the sensation of beginning to drown is to fight as hard as they can to keep their head high above the water.^[11] Unfortunately, this is one of the worst things to do when you're drowning — it can quickly deplete your energy reserves, tire you out, and actually make it harder to signal for help. Usually, it's a much better idea to tread water or use a floating technique to conserve energy so that you can make a try for the shore or signal for help.
- To tread water, turn yourself upright in the water and make an in-and-out sweeping motion with your arms to stabilize your upper body. As you do this, make an easy, bicycle-like kicking motion to keep yourself afloat.
- If you're completely out of energy, using a survival float can allow you to rest in the water. Turn prone (face-down) and spread your limbs out wide, using only minimal movements to keep yourself afloat. Lift your head when you need to breathe.
- Keep in mind that you only need to keep your mouth a little out of the water to be able to breathe — fighting to stay high in the water is usually a waste of energy.
Don’t use drugs or alcohol. Being impaired in the water is a sure-fire recipe for danger. Alcohol, in particular, can be a very bad choice — not only does it impair your judgement and motor skills, but it also makes you more susceptible to hypothermia (injury or death from getting too cold).^[12] However, because many drugs' effects can be just as bad (or worse), it's a bad idea to get in the water when you're under the influence of any sort of psychoactive substance, so stay sober when you're swimming.

Preventing Others from Drowning

Learn CPR. CPR, or Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation, is a very important lifesaving technique for anyone who plans to spend time around the water. CPR allows a rescuer to circulate a drowning victim's blood throughout their body and, sometimes, even restore their ability to breathe. While CPR alone can sometimes save drowning victims' lives, it can also help stave off death until emergency services arrive. CPR classes are usually brief and today can even be completed online, making it easier than ever to get the skills needed to save another person's life.^[13]
- If you don't know how to do CPR, most sources recommend only attempting chest compressions, not more advanced airway-clearing techniques or rescue breathing.^[14] To do chest compressions, kneel next to the unconscious victim on a hard surface and place both your hands on top each other on his or her chest. Use your upper body weight (not just your arms) to compress the person's chest about two inches. Perform compressions at a rate of about 100 per minute until paramedics arrive or the person regains consciousness.
Designate a lifeguard or water monitor. Perhaps the single most important thing you can do to ensure water safety is to make sure there is always someone watching the swimmers in the water who is ready to jump in at a moment's notice. Trained lifeguards, of course, make the best water monitors, but even an ordinary strong swimmer can make do in a pinch.
- If your water monitors are worried that they won't be able to join in the fun, try taking shifts! Just don't let anyone who's drunk or otherwise impaired be your monitor — saving someone from drowning can be a game of seconds, so you don't want anyone with a slowed reaction speed to be your lifeguard.
Know who’s most at risk. On the individual level, a person's swimming ability and the conditions they're swimming in usually determine whether or not a person is at risk for drowning. When dealing with very large numbers of people, however, it's possible to observe certain demographic trends with regards to drowning rates — essentially, certain types of people are more likely to drown than others. Below are just a few different types of people that, statistically, are more prone to drowning than the baseline average rate:^[15]
- Children: Very young children (ages 1-4) are especially susceptible to drowning. In fact, drowning is responsible for more deaths in 1-4 year olds than any other single cause except birth defects.
- Men: Men make up more than 80% of all drowning fatalities. It is unclear if this is due to a greater preference for risk-taking behavior, biological abilities, or simply a greater preference for swimming.
- Urban poor/minorities: In the United States, certain socioeconomic groups have disproportionately high rates of drowning deaths due to factors like lack of access to swimming pools and lack of water-based recreational activities. For instance, African American children 5-19 drown in swimming pools almost six times more often than whites.
Be aware of any swimmer’s medical disorders. If a person has a medical condition that may give them decreased motor function or otherwise impair them while they're in the water, this is information that should definitely be told to the water monitor before swimming begins. For instance, conditions like epilepsy can leave someone helpless in the water if they have a seizure, so the water monitor should keep an extra-close eye on these people. In addition, if there is any sort of equipment that's necessary for quick, lifesaving treatment of the condition (for instance, EpiPens for people with severe allergies), you'll want to have this equipment available in the event of a worst-case scenario.
Be aware that drowning is often a silent phenomenon. Drowning often doesn't occur the way it appears in movies — as a loud, violent, chaotic struggle to stay above water. In fact, someone who's in the process of drowning may be unable to get their head above the water long enough to even call for help. Because of this, there usually won't be any sort of warning sounds that a drowning is occurring.^[16] A person may even drown without the people next to them knowing that anything is wrong until it's too late. For this reason, it's extremely important for the water monitor not to let their visual attention wander from the swimmers they're supposed to be watching. Know the following warning signs of silent drowning:^[17]
- Stiff, upright body with arms pushing down against the water (not waving or signalling for help)
- The inability for the drowning person to speak (they are focusing on breathing)
- Periods of intense struggling on the surface followed by submerging underwater with breath held
- The inability for the drowning person to keep their mouth above the water consistently

Safety-Proofing Water for Children

Never let children swim unsupervised. While it's a bad idea for anyone to swim alone, for children, it should be a hard and fast rule. Never let children swim without adult supervision, no matter whether they're at the beach, in your household pool, in a public pool, or at a friend's house.^[18] Even young children who have received swimming lessons can be more vulnerable to drowning than older children who haven't, so supervision is key to keeping your children safe until they're mature, responsible swimmers on their own.
- If you’re leaving your child with a babysitter or a teenage supervisor, make sure they know your water safety rules. Be especially sure to remind them that drowning often has no audible warning noises, so visual supervision is necessary.
Make your pool inaccessible. Putting physical barriers between your children and your pool can often be enough to keep them out of it when you're not there to supervise them. Though these may not work on older children, for young children who don't understand the danger of unsupervised swimming, they can be life-saving. Below are just a few basic ideas for kid-proofing your pool:
- Keep ground-level pools fenced off. Use play pens, chain link fences, or other sturdy fencing material to form a protective barrier around your pool. Be sure to lock any gates or doors in the fencing after swimming.
- Remove ladders for above-ground pools. If your children are too small to climb into above-ground pools without a ladder, simply take the ladder away to keep them out.
- If possible, use a cover or lid for your pool. Many pools and hot tubs come with hard lids or plastic covers. Usually, these are used for weatherproofing the pool when not in use, but they can also be an effective deterrent against children if they're sturdy enough to keep them out.
Never leave pool toys out. Children are less likely to want to swim unsupervised if they aren't constantly reminded that they have fun, brightly-colored toys at their disposal. After finishing a trip to the beach or a swim in your backyard pool, remove all of your pool toys from the pool area and place them somewhere where your children can't access them. Without their toys, the prospect of swimming may become much less attractive to your children.
Consider draining your pool. One sure-fire way to keep children from drowning in your pool is to remove the water from the equation. If the pool is completely drained, children will have less of a reason to enter it unsupervised and, even if they do, they won't be able to drown. This can be a somewhat tricky process, so, if you're unsure of how to proceed, contact a plumber or an experienced pool professional.
- Keep in mind, however, that draining some types of pools and leaving them exposed to direct sunlight can damage the plaster material at the bottom of the pool.^[19]
Understand that young children can drown in very shallow water. Babies and toddlers can drown in as little as one inch of water.^[20] Tragically, not all parents and caretakers are aware of this. For this reason, it's extremely important to monitor these types of young children whenever they're around water of any depth, including when they're in the bathtub or around buckets of water. If you need to leave for any reason, take your baby with you — the amount of time it takes to you to answer the door, for instance, can be enough time for a baby to start drowning.
- Don't rely on bathtub seats to keep your child safe in the tub. There are multiple ways these can fail — for instance, their suction cups can come unstuck from the tub or the baby may crawl out of the seat.