Recent Drownings Emphasize Need for Water Safety
Posted: 08-10-10Category:
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Drowning[/caption]
Last week, six teens drowned in Louisiana when they couldn't swim to shore and none of the adults around were proficient enough swimmers to help them. This morning, a 42 year old man drowned in Lake Conroe.
It's a sad reminder of the importance of water safety.
Slate reported that more than half of teens don't really know how to swim, and that rate is higher among diverse communities, according to researchers at the University of Memphis.
Their study found:
- Two key barriers preventing children from learning to swim are fear of injury or drowning, and lack of parental encouragement.
- In ethnically diverse communities, the youth drowning rate is 2-3 times higher than the national average.
- While about 1/3 of white children from non-swimming families go on to learn to swim, less than 1/10 of children in non-swimming African American families do.