The first step in decreasing the number of childhood drownings is to learn more about them:
- Drowning is the second leading cause of unintentional injury-related death for children between the age of one and 14. (Centers for Disease Control, 2003)
- Nine people drown in the United States every day. (CDC)
- Two-thirds of all drownings occur between May and August. (Orange County California Fire Authority)
- Approximately 75% of child drownings occur because of a lapse of adult supervision of less than five minutes.
- African-American children between the ages of five and 19 are 2.6 times more likely to drown than Caucasian children in the same age group. (Centers for Disease Control, 2003)
- In the swimming pool, African-American boys, between the ages of 5-19 are 12-15 times more likely to drown than their Caucasian peers. (National Institute of Health, 2001)
- Less than 1% of USA Swimming’s nearly 300,000 members are African-American, and less than 3% are Hispanic.
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