Pool Safety

This weekend not only marks the official start of barbeque season it also marks the beginning of pool season.

One of the sites I check regularly notes 10 rules to prevent drownings. June, July and August, as you'd imagine, see the highest number of children lose their lives in water. In fact, drowning is the leading cause of accidental death among toddlers ages 1 - 2.

So a group of UCLA emergency doctors remind parents, or any adults supervising water activities and pools:

1- never leave kids unattended - even for a moment
2-fence pools with self locking gates
3-always secure the safety cover on your spa or hot tub
4-don't leave containers around that kids can fill with water - little ones have been known to drown in a bucket of water
5-and with that in mind, always supervise little ones in the bathroom - another drowning potential
6- if you're supervising pool activity be sure to know CPR
7- kids should have swimming lessons but not be considered water safe until they're 14
8-never swim alone in the ocean or fast moving rivers
9-put brightly colored floatation devices on kids when boating
10-never mix alcohol, kids and water

Saving Face

If you're stymied by myriad offerings in the face cream aisle, here's a hint: look for retin A on the label.

A new study finds topical Vitamin A - Retinol - may improve those fine wrinkles, collagen deficiency and shrinkage of fragile skin in elderly patients. So I figure, if it works for those with many years on their face and perhaps many more hours under the sun, it ought to do just fine for the junior set.

Even without being in the sun, which we know ages skin, our skin thins out, gets saggy and wrinkles as we log years.

In this study with real senior citizens, folks 80-96, topical retinol lotion of 0.4% was applied to one arm but not the other.
After 4 weeks a wrinkle difference appeared - but it didn't last unless the folks continued using the lotion.

As always, read warning labels before using any new product.

Be careful up there

Do it yourselfers take note:

A new study finds the number of ladder-related injuries in the U.S. increased by more than 50 percent from 1990 to 2005. - about 136,000 people a year. The study appears in the May issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

The CDC says ladder accidents are usually caused by improper selection, care and use.

The new study finds, about 77 percent of those injured - and fractures were the most common injury - were men. Almost 10 percent of those injured needed to be hospitalized; about twice the overall admission rate for consumer-product related injuries.

That figure prompted the study's co author to say "Ladders should be treated with the same respect and caution as any potentially dangerous tool, such as a power saw."

Good advice.

http://www.cdc.gov/nasd/docs/d000801-d000900/d000877/d000877.html