Drain Entrapments

No matter how safe you think you are, every family benefits from adding new safety steps to their routine at the pool or spa. These additional safety steps could prove especially useful when it comes to entrapment hazards.

A drain entrapment occurs when a body is held against a pool or spa drain by the force of the pool’s suction or when an article of clothing, jewelry, hair or a limb is caught in a faulty drain.

Children’s public wading pools, other pools designed specifically for young children, and in-ground spas that have flat drain grates and single main drain systems pose the greatest risk of entrapment.

The best way to prevent these hazards is to recognize them ahead of time, and to use caution when in a pool or spa. The key entanglement and entrapment hazards include:

• Body: A body part, often the torso or bottom, covers a drain and is held down by the intensity of the suction
• Hair: Long hair is caught in a faulty drain cover
• Limbs: Arms, legs, feet or fingers are lodged in a suction opening
• Mechanical: Jewelry, bathing suits or other materials are entangled in a drain cover
• Evisceration/disembowelment: When suction draws out the intestines and organs

Beginning in the 1970s, CPSC staff began investigating reported incidents of pool and spa suction entrapment. A recent CPSC report shows that between 1999 and 2009 that there were 94 reported entrapments. Of the 94, there were 12 fatalities, 79 injuries and three incidents without injuries.