Drowning of British children abroad.
OBJECTIVE
To quantify the risks of British children drowning abroad.


METHODS
The numbers of British children drowning abroad were estimated for 1996-2003 using the RoSPA/RLSS press cutting database. We compared these figures with the numbers of British children going abroad from the International Passenger Survey from the Office of National Statistics.


RESULTS
Sixty-eight children (45 boys-23 Girls) drowned in the eight-year period: 48 (71%) in swimming pools (mostly in hotels). Allowing for exposure, the rate was higher in North America [5.2 (CI 2.9-9.4)/million tourists] than the European Union [1.9 (CI 1.4-2.5)/million tourists] p = 0.002.


CONCLUSIONS
On average eight British children drown each year abroad. This is therefore a rare but tragic event. Most of these episodes happen in swimming pools and this needs to be compared to the one child that dies each year in municipal swimming pools in the United Kingdom where there is adequate lifeguarding. It may be that parents have a false sense of security for their children in pools abroad. We believe that there needs to be action from the European Union on this important event.
Cornall
P
P
Royal Society for Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA), RoSPA House, Edgbaston Park, Birmingham, UK.
Howie
S
S
Mughal
A
A
Sumner
V
V
Dunstan
F
F
Kemp
A
A
Sibert
J
J
D000059:Accidents; D002648:Child; D004332:Drowning / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D005062:European Union; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009656:North America / Q000453:epidemiology; D012307:Risk Factors; D013551:Swimming Pools / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014195:Travel; D006113:United Kingdom / Q000208:ethnology