How You and Your Family Can Stay Safe This Summer

Yes, the summer travel and recreation season is upon us, but as we know there have been many changes made over the past few months to the way we live our lives. I think we all know about social distancing, washing our hands often for at least 20 seconds with warm water and soap, wearing masks when in public, and staying home if you are sick. Here are some other items to keep you and your family safe this summer:

 1. Swimming pools- Everyday about 10 people die from drowning (20% of these are children 14 and younger) and drowning ranks as the 5th leading cause of accidental death in the US. Above ground pools and even children's pools have become very hard to find because thousands of Americans have purchased them so they have something else to do while they are at home. With more pools around, we need to be more cautious than ever. Here are some safety tips:

a. If someone cannot swim or is an inexperienced swimmer make sure they are wearing a US Coast Guard-approved life jacket around water.

b. Constantly supervise children around water and avoid distractions.

 c. If you have a pool, make sure it is secured with appropriate barriers. Also, you may want to check with your homeowner's insurance company as sometimes pool injuries and deaths can be excluded if they were not notified that you had a pool.

 d. If a child is missing, check the water first.

 e. Keep a life ring or throw the device in case someone is struggling. If you go into the water and are not trained you put yourself at risk of also drowning as the person struggles with you.

 2. Grilling- Many of us will be using our grills even more than usual in order to avoid crowds at restaurants. Each year grilling starts more than 10,000 home fires so here are some safety tips:

 a. Never grill indoors or an enclosed area.

 b. Make sure that children and pets do not have direct access to your grill.  This is especially true if you are using a small charcoal grill that could be knocked over by a running child or pet.

 c. Keep your grill away from the house or anything else that could catch fire.

We hope that you and your family have a wonderful and safe summer.