Water safety is important throughout the year. Children are always around water, whether in the home or outside. Please take time to read and practice these safety tips. The fire department can be contacted at (614) 837-4123 or on the web at www.violet.oh.us, click the Government button, and then select Fire & EMS located in the middle of the dropdown menu. As always, we are your “Friends for Life.”
Household Safety Tips
- Please know that babies/infants/children can drown in bathtubs, sinks, toilets and any other place where water can collect. Never leave a baby/infant/child alone when in an area where water is present. An adult should always be present.
- Keep the bathroom door shut and place a safety cover over the knob to prevent little ones from entering on their own.
- Baby bath seats do not prevent drowning from happening. If you are using a baby bath seat, never leave the child unattended. A child can drown in the time it takes to answer the phone.
- Keep toilet seats down and use toilet seat locks. Also, always remember to fully drain the bathtub when bathing is done.
Pool and Hot Tub Tips
- According to the Center for Injury Research and Policy, more than half of drownings could be prevented if a fence were in place around pools. If you have a pool, make sure to include a fence that is at least four feet high around your pool. Include a gate that latches and locks on its own for entry to the area.
- Never leave children unattended in the pool. The responsible adult(s) must pay attention to the pool activity. Rid yourself of other distractions, such as reading or talking on the phone.
- An adult should always be in the water, within arm's reach, with infants, toddlers or weak swimmers.
- Sign your children up for swimming lessons as soon as you feel they are ready. Consider Infant Swimming Resource lessons for your children. Kids as young as 6 months can participate and be taught skills to save themselves.
- Always use a hard cover on hot tubs and drain wading pools after each use.
- For diving:
- Provide visible depth indicators around the pool and never dive into cloudy or shallow water.
- Educate children on proper diving techniques, especially when attempting new dives.
- Educate children about diving board safety.
Lake, Pond and River Tips
- Open water is much different than a pool. Even the best of swimmers may struggle with the currents. Always wear a Personal Flotation Device (PFD) that is Coast Guard-approved. Also, make sure the PFD is properly sized for the child.
- Do not use swim aids like water wings or inner tubes as a substitute for an approved PFD.
- Never walk on frozen water. There is no accurate way to tell how thin the ice may be, and a child can fall through and drown quickly.
- For diving:
- Never dive into shallow or cloudy water.
- Remove obstacles from lakes/ponds/rivers before diving.
- Make sure a lifeguard or adult (strong swimmer) is present.
Exploring local creeks and streams can be a fun and refreshing way to spend a hot summer afternoon. There’s so much wildlife to see, from the crawfish hiding beneath the cobblestone to the warblers flitting about the trees above.
Sometimes it’s nice to just sit and listen to the sound of trickling water. You can feel yourself start to relax just thinking about it… that is, until you notice an ugly pile of trash stuck along the bank.
The impact of litter in our streams can be detrimental to water quality and wildlife habitat. As litter accumulates in a stream, it floats on the surface, blocking sunlight and wildlife from accessing the water.
Some trash may be able to break down over time, but it will use up valuable oxygen in the process. Plastics will slowly fragment into smaller and smaller pieces, but they never leave the environment completely. In either case, toxins and chemicals can leach into the water from these materials.
These leached chemicals and microplastics may then be ingested by wildlife and move from one animal to another as they travel up the food chain. Predators at the top who have consumed several contaminated meals over time may have health complications that follow.
Entanglement in stream litter is also an ever-present risk for our local wildlife. Think of a great blue heron wrapped up in old fishing lines, unable to fly away, or a turtle’s shell stuck in plastic rings from a six-pack, unable to grow properly.
How does so much litter end up in our streams? While some of it is dumped with intention or left behind from laziness, much of it is accidental. Wind and rain are strong forces that pick up loose trash and eventually carry it to our streams or wash it down a storm drain that leads to the stream. Here are a few proactive steps you can take to prevent litter from entering our environment.
- Bag it before you trash it. When throwing away your trash, make sure that it’s bagged up before being placed in the dumpster. When the bags of trash are dumped from the bin to the truck, a strong breeze could whisk away any loose items.
- Secure the lid. Double-check that the lids are securely shut on dumpsters and trash bins. Use a bungee cord or heavy weight if needed to prevent the wind from blowing the lid open or a hungry raccoon from making a mess.
- Dispose of trash in the trash can. Always throw trash away in the proper receptacle. If you’re on a hike, don’t leave behind your snack wrapper. If you’ve put out a cigarette, don’t leave it on the ground. Take it a step further and think about spaces such as your car. When you stuff a straw wrapper in the car door or toss a plastic bag in the back seat, it’s at risk of falling out or getting blown away the next time you open the door.
- Don’t release balloons. What goes up must come down. Balloons land in streams, get tangled in trees and even pose a risk to grazing livestock who may accidentally consume this deflated piece of rubber and ribbon after it has landed in the pasture.
- Reduce the creation of trash. Is there trash that we produce regularly that could be replaced with a reusable item? Reusable water bottles, food containers and straws are a great place to start.
While these are great preventative measures, we’ve got a lot of work to do to clean up the litter already in our environment. Grab a bag, a pair of gloves and a few friends, and make an afternoon of cleaning up your local stream, street or park. Be safe, and avoid touching particularly nasty or sharp items without the proper protection. Keep your eyes open for other community clean—up events to get involved with as well. Picking up a little litter can make a big difference.
