The Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act of 2007, which would help prevent entrapment injuries and deaths and drownings in swimming pools and spas - a leading killer of children under the age of 14 - was approved by the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives. The President is expected to sign the bill into law on December 19.

"Safe Kids is actively supporting the Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety bill. Enactment would provide an incentive to states to require life saving measures as well as much needed public education on drowning, including the hidden hazard of drain entrapment," said Susan A. Helms, R.N., M.A.L.S., Director of Injury Prevention and Safe Kids at Le Bonheur Children's. "Enactment will go a long way toward reducing the number of children affected by drowning."

Specifically, the bill will:

• Prohibit the manufacture, sale or distribution of drain covers that do not meet anti-entrapment safety standards established by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. 
• Create an incentive grant program for states to adopt comprehensive pool safety laws requiring certain safety devices in swimming pools to protect children.
• Establish a national drowning prevention education program within the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.
• Require public pools to incorporate anti-entrapment drain covers and other layers of protection.

"This monumental vote moves us a step closer to a new law to protect American families from the devastation of losing a child to drowning," said Alan Korn, public policy director of Safe Kids USA of the bill named for the former Secretary of State James A. Baker's granddaughter, who died after being entrapped underwater in a spa by the powerful suction of a faulty drain. "Saving other children would give meaning to the otherwise senseless and preventable deaths that have occurred because the safety measures called for in this bill are not in place."

The bill is the culmination of three years' worth of efforts by Safe Kids USA, the Baker family, Congressional leaders and dozens of other stakeholders, to provide the necessary protection children need and deserve. 

Visit the Virginia Graeme Baker Pool & Spa Bill site (http://sk.convio.net/site/PageNavigator/Campaigns/PoolSpaSafetyAct%20/CampaignPoolHome) to learn more.