{"id":5378,"date":"2022-01-17T17:17:11","date_gmt":"2022-01-17T06:17:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adolescentsourfuture.com\/?p=5378"},"modified":"2022-07-28T15:15:09","modified_gmt":"2022-07-28T05:15:09","slug":"elementor-5378","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adolescentsourfuture.com\/elementor-5378\/","title":{"rendered":"How to stay safe from drowning"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"5378\" class=\"elementor elementor-5378\" data-elementor-post-type=\"post\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-391fc642 elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"391fc642\" data-element_type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-4e99b5d8\" data-id=\"4e99b5d8\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-60a4314 elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"60a4314\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t<h2 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-large\">The 8 deadly days of Christmas: how to stay safe from drowning in Australia this summer<\/h2>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-7f6bfe5b elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"7f6bfe5b\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h3><strong style=\"font-size: 14px; font-style: inherit; color: var( --e-global-color-text ); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\"><a style=\"font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-size: 15px; font-family: var( --e-global-typography-primary-font-family ), Sans-serif; letter-spacing: var( --e-global-typography-primary-letter-spacing ); background-color: #ffffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/profiles\/amy-peden-1136424\">Amy Peden, <\/a>UNSW<\/strong><br><\/h3>\n<figure style=\"width: 408px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/images.theconversation.com\/files\/426334\/original\/file-20211014-13-uztxcg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;rect=0%2C0%2C5615%2C3732&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip\" alt=\"\" width=\"408\" height=\"271\"><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Shutterstock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Christmas is coming \u2013 meaning Australians are about to enter our most dangerous time of year for fatal drownings.<\/p>\n<p>The eight days from Christmas Day to New Year\u2019s Day are the deadliest period for drowning, with 201 lives lost over the past 15 years, according to my new analysis.<\/p>\n<p>Using coronial <a href=\"https:\/\/www.royallifesaving.com.au\/research-and-policy\/drowning-research\/national-fatal-drowning-database#:%7E:text=The%20Royal%20Life%20Saving%20National%20Fatal%20Drowning%20Database%20features%20detailed,waterways%20since%201%20July%202002.\">data<\/a> from the Royal Life Saving Society \u2013 Australia, my analysis shows a further 28 people drowned on Australia Day during the same 15 year period. My findings back up previous research, which found people are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2313-576X\/4\/4\/42\/htm\">twice as likely<\/a> to drown in Australia on a public holiday than any other day.<\/p>\n<p>But the danger isn\u2019t limited to major holidays. January 10 inexplicably emerged from my analysis as a key date, with 32 people drowning over the past 15 years \u2013 more than on any other single day of the year.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p><iframe style=\"width: 100%; height: 600px;\" title=\"Interactive or visual content\" src=\"https:\/\/flo.uri.sh\/visualisation\/7791928\/embed\" width=\"100%\" height=\"400\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" sandbox=\"allow-same-origin allow-forms allow-scripts allow-downloads allow-popups allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/public.flourish.studio\/visualisation\/7791928\/?utm_source=embed&amp;utm_campaign=visualisation\/7791928\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/public.flourish.studio\/resources\/made_with_flourish.svg\" alt=\"Made with Flourish\"> <\/a><\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>The sadly predictable spikes in preventable drownings mean many river rescue divers and surf life savers have come to dread summer.<\/p>\n<h3>The personal toll of preventable drownings<\/h3>\n<p>The Murray River is Australia\u2019s leading river drowning black spot.<\/p>\n<p>For more than 40 years, Peter Wright OAM, a volunteer rescue diver with the Corowa Rescue Squad, has performed the harrowing task of retrieving bodies \u2013 including children \u2013 from the river:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>I have this feeling of dread as summer approaches. I find myself avoiding going near the river, as seeing people behaving badly or irresponsibly really gets to me [\u2026] I know it\u2019s not if, but when we will be called to search the river for the next drowning victim [\u2026] The look of abject grief and disbelief on the faces of relatives and the noise of wailing families haunts me to this day.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<figure><iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/aUvj-h1Q68Q?wmode=transparent&amp;start=0\" width=\"440\" height=\"260\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><p><\/p>\n<figcaption>\u2018Don\u2019t panic, keep your head up\u2019: Volunteer divers Stuart Dye and Peter Wright\u2019s stories of avoidable drownings in the Murray River. Royal Life Saving Society \u2013 Australia.<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/issuu.com\/surflifesavingaustralia\/docs\/ncsr_2021\">Data from Surf Life Saving Australia<\/a> paint a similar story.<\/p>\n<p>The number of people who get into trouble at the beach spikes on public holidays. With an average of 20 rescues per day across the year in 2020\/21, the period from Christmas Day to New Year\u2019s Day sees this figure increase almost six-fold, with an average of 116 rescues per day.<\/p>\n<p>According to Chris Jacobson, National Surf Life Saving Australia\u2019s chair of lifesaving and a volunteer surf lifesaver of 20 years:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Surf lifesavers are constantly on the go attending to numerous rescues during this period, in particular on Australia Day. We see people not swimming between the flags, ignoring lifesavers, drinking and overestimating their abilities, which therefore requires our members to go to their aid.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<figure><iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/WOOK_jJl7Wg?wmode=transparent&amp;start=0\" width=\"440\" height=\"260\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><p><\/p>\n<figcaption>Do you know how to spot a rip at the beach? Surf Life Saving Australia.<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n<h2>5 factors driving more summer drownings<\/h2>\n<p>So why are Australians more likely to drown in summer, particularly on public holidays? And how can you be safer this summer?<\/p>\n<figure><\/figure>\n<h4>Alcohol<\/h4>\n<p>Alcohol is a <a href=\"https:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/abs\/10.1111\/dar.12817\">leading risk factor for drowning<\/a>. It impairs reaction time, impacts the effectiveness of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and can result in risk-taking behaviour.<\/p>\n<p>Our <a href=\"https:\/\/bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com\/articles\/10.1186\/s12889-018-6256-1\">breathalysing research at rivers<\/a> \u2013 which are the leading location for drowning in Australia \u2013 found the average blood alcohol concentration (BAC) for adult river users was significantly higher on the Australia Day public holiday, with an average BAC of 0.175%. That\u2019s more than three times the legal limit for driving a car.<\/p>\n<p>Several river users also registered BACs in excess of 0.350%, seven times the legal limit.<\/p>\n<figure><iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/rXEeN7a1ZxA?wmode=transparent&amp;start=0\" width=\"440\" height=\"260\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><p><\/p>\n<figcaption>Drinking beside inland waterways is a key reason why so many people drown in them. Royal Life Saving Society.<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n<h4>Participation and exposure<\/h4>\n<p>More people in and around the water means more people at risk of drowning.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Our research shows higher numbers of people visit aquatic locations on holiday periods during summer, including the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2313-576X\/5\/4\/66\">Australia Day public holiday<\/a>. This is also sadly evidenced in the <a href=\"https:\/\/issuu.com\/surflifesavingaustralia\/docs\/ncsr_2021\">rescue<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.royallifesaving.com.au\/research-and-policy\/drowning-research\/summer-drowning-toll#:%7E:text=Summer%20Drowning%20Report%202020%2D21,Report%202020%2D21%20click%20here.\">fatal drowning<\/a> data.<\/p>\n<h4>Warmer temperatures<\/h4>\n<p>This deadly period for drowning often coincides with hot temperatures. Warmer weather drives people to seek out water to cool off, but are also linked to <a href=\"https:\/\/bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com\/articles\/10.1186\/s12889-018-6256-1\">higher blood alcohol concentrations<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Higher air temperature also lead people to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2313-576X\/5\/4\/66\">spend longer in the water<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h4>School holidays<\/h4>\n<p>School attendance has been shown to be protective against drowning, with school-aged children 5-17 years old <a href=\"https:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/10.1111\/jpc.14235\">2.4 times more likely to drown during school holidays<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The Christmas school holidays also coincide with this high-risk period and a number of public holidays.<\/p>\n<h4>Visitors who don\u2019t know local conditions<\/h4>\n<p>In a normal, non-COVID summer, many Australians travel on their summer break, including to unfamiliar aquatic locations.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2313-576X\/4\/4\/42\/htm\">Our research<\/a> shows visitors have increased drowning risk on public holidays compared to other days: 2.5 times the risk for people travelling within their own state, and 2.3 times the risk for those visiting other states or territories.<\/p>\n<h3>How to stay safer by the water this summer<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Check conditions of the river before you get in, observe how fast the current is going<\/li>\n<li>Ask locals about the safest place to swim in a river<\/li>\n<li>Swim between the red and yellow flags at the beach<\/li>\n<li>Avoid alcohol around water<\/li>\n<li>Always supervise young children in, on, or around the water<\/li>\n<li>Always wear a life jacket when boating or using watercraft<\/li>\n<li>Don\u2019t drive, ride or walk through floodwaters, and don\u2019t let children play in floodwaters<\/li>\n<li>Learn CPR so you have the skills to act in an emergency.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Those simple steps can save lives \u2013 and avoid so much needless pain, as volunteer rescue diver Peter Wright says:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>A drowning affects so many people. Not just the family but all those involved in the recovery, the police, ambulance and divers. It is often more difficult to cope with the pain-filled reactions of a family when you recover their loved one, than the task of diving in totally black, fast-running, snag-filled water, feeling for that lost individual. I just wish that people took water safety more seriously.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><em>For more water safety information, visit <a href=\"https:\/\/www.royallifesaving.com.au\/\">Royal Life Saving Society \u2013 Australia<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/sls.com.au\/\">Surf Life Saving Australia<\/a>.<\/em><!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important;\" src=\"https:\/\/counter.theconversation.com\/content\/167440\/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic\" alt=\"The Conversation\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\"><!-- End of code. If you don't see any code above, please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More info: https:\/\/theconversation.com\/republishing-guidelines --><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/profiles\/amy-peden-1136424\">Amy Peden<\/a>, Lecturer &#8211; Injury Prevention, <em><a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/institutions\/unsw-1414\">UNSW<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p>This article is republished from <a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\">The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/the-8-deadly-days-of-christmas-how-to-stay-safe-from-drowning-in-australia-this-summer-167440\">original article<\/a>.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The 8 deadly days of Christmas: how to stay safe from drowning in Australia this summer. By Amy Peden.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":5383,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adolescentsourfuture.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adolescentsourfuture.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adolescentsourfuture.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adolescentsourfuture.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adolescentsourfuture.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5378"}],"version-history":[{"count":28,"href":"https:\/\/adolescentsourfuture.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5378\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6171,"href":"https:\/\/adolescentsourfuture.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5378\/revisions\/6171"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adolescentsourfuture.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adolescentsourfuture.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adolescentsourfuture.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adolescentsourfuture.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}