Community Corner

Cypress Cove Pool Drain Covers Deemed Safe

Grates at aquatic park are not part of a recent recall.

Parents can breathe easy when they take their children swimming at Cypress Cove Family Aquatic Park.

The pool drain grates that are currently installed at Cypress Cove are not part of a recent recall by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and are in accordance with the Illinois Public Health Department.

“The ones we purchased and installed comply with the standards,” said Woodridge Park District Executive Director Mike Adams. “So we’re good to go.”

After 7-year-old Virginia Graeme Baker, the granddaughter of former Secretary of State James Baker, became trapped underwater by the strong suction of a hot tub drain at a spa and drowned in 2002, the federal Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act was passed in 2007.

The law requires pool operators, such as park districts, to install types of pool drain covers that prevent people from drowning if they become entrapped. The new covers came on the market around 2008.

Last week, the CPSC issued a recall for 1 million of the 2008 and later pool and spa drain covers, saying they were faulty and dangerous in representing a similar drowning risk as the earlier models.

Adams said there has never been any incidents of entrapment at Cypress Cove.

According to the CPSC, an annual average of 383 pool and spa-related drownings for children younger than 15 occurred from 2006 to 2008. About 76 percent of the reported fatalities involved children younger than five.

To learn more about the recall, visit the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission’s website at www.cpsc.gov.

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