BILL ANALYSIS AB 1784 Page 1 Date of Hearing: January 17, 1996 ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON HOUSING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT Grace Napolitano, Chair AB 1784 (Speier) - As Introduced: February 24, 1995 SUBJECT Building Standards: Swimming Pool Safety DIGEST Existing law: 1) Makes certain safety and sanitation requirements applicable to public swimming pools, including, but not limited to, the requirement that every person operating or maintaining a public swimming pool must do so in a sanitary, healthful, and safe manner. 2) Designates the State Department of Health Services (DHS) as having supervision over the above requirements, and requires every health officer, within his or her jurisdiction, to enforce building standards relating to swimming pools. DHS has adopted regulations governing public swimming pools relating, inter alia, to cleanliness, lifesaving, first aid and safety and rescue procedures. 3) Requires a seller of residential property to make disclosures prior to the transfer of that property, and sets forth the content and form of these disclosures. 4) Establishes the California Child Day Care Act and defines the term "family day care home." Swimming pool regulations apply to such homes. This bill: 1) Enacts the Swimming Pool Safety Act to establish certain safety standards relating to swimming pools. 2) Requires swimming pools, commencing January 1, 1997, for which construction permits have been issued on or after January 1, 1997 to comply with at least one of the following: a) The pool shall be isolated from access to a home by a fence, wall, or other barrier, as specified. b) The pool shall be equipped with an approved powered safety pool cover. c) The residence shall be equipped with exit alarms. AB 1784 Page 2 3) Defines "swimming pool" to mean any manmade, watertight tank, cavity, or other contained body of water, which is wider than eight feet at any point and contains water more than 18 inches in depth, intended for the use of persons in bathing, wading, swimming, water sports, or other aquatic activity. "Swimming pool" means pools that are placed both below- and above-ground level. 4) Defines the terms "exit alarms" and "approved powered safety pool cover." 5) Defines the term "enclosure" and requires an enclosure to have all of the following characteristics: a) Isolates the swimming pool from the remainder of the property on which it is located, and from any children's play area. b) Has a minimum height of 60 inches. c) Has a maximum vertical clearance from the ground to the bottom of the enclosure of two inches. d) Has openings, if any, which do not allow passage of a sphere equal to or greater than four inches in diameter. e) Has an outside surface free of protrusions, cavities, or other physical characteristics that would serve as handholds or footholds which could enable a child below the age of five years to climb over the enclosure. f) Placed no less than 20 inches from the edge of the swimming pool. g) Except as provided in subdivision (h), has any access doors or gates which open away from the swimming pool and are self-closing with a self-latching device placed no lower to the ground than 60 inches. h) Where a disabled person resides on the property where the swimming pool is located, a key-locking latch may be substituted for the self-latching device. i) Can include a wall of a building which may serve as one portion of an enclosure only if the wall contains no doors or windows which open to provide access into the pool enclosure. 6) Requires any person entering into an agreement to build a swimming pool to give the consumer notice of the requirements of this bill and provides for criminal penalties for an owner of any property which is out of conformity with the provisions of the bill. 7) Excludes hot tubs with certain safety covers; public swimming pools, as defined; and any pool within the jurisdiction of a AB 1784 Page 3 political subdivision that adopts an ordinance with more stringent requirements, any apartment complex, or residential setting other than a single-family home. 8) Adds to the listing of required disclosures the presence or absence of a child-resistant safety fence for a pool, and a locking safety cover for a spa or hot tub. 9) Requires any family day care home, as defined, that provides day care services in a private home that has a swimming pool shall meet the swimming pool enclosure requirements as set forth above and shall meet all of the following additional requirements when engaged in providing day care services: a) Tricycles, wagons, bicycles, and other riding toys shall not be kept in or allowed to enter the area within the swimming pool enclosure, thereby precluding a child from accidentally riding the toy into the swimming pool. b) The following safety equipment shall be kept within the swimming pool enclosure area: 1) A ring buoy. 2) A shepherd's hook. 3) Nonskid decking. 4) Posted safety rules. c) The staff shall receive training in pediatric cardiopulmonary resuscitation, as specified. d) If the swimming pool is used as part of a family day care program that is provided in that private home, it is recommended that the licensee have, at a minimum, water safety training equivalent, as specified. The licensee shall be present at the swimming pool when the swimming pool is in use during the family day care hours. e) Staff-to-child ratios within the swimming pool enclosure shall be as follows: 1) One to one for children under 13 months old. 2) One to two for children from 13 months to 35 months old, inclusive. 3) One to four for preschool children over 35 months old. 4) One to six for schoolaged children. FISCAL EFFECT Crimes or infractions disclaimer. COMMENTS 1) Purpose: This bill would require all newly constructed private AB 1784 Page 4 swimming pools, both above- and below-ground level, to be enclosed by a fence five feet in height or to have an approved power safety pool cover or exit alarms, as specified. The bill also sets forth extensive pool safety requirements for family day care homes. 2) Proponents: The bill, by its own terms, in its finding and declaration sets forth the necessity for its provisions, in pertinent part, as follows: Drowning kills over 100 young children, or toddlers, in California each year. For every child who dies, four suffer brain injury from near drowning incidents. Advances in medical technology are allowing more drowning victims to survive, but they are surviving with serious permanent neurological damage. Studies repeatedly show that most toddler drownings take place in backyard swimming pools. The victim's parents usually have taken precautions to protect the child from the pool, but the child gets into the pool during a brief lapse in supervision. One-third of the incidents take place in a relative's or friend's pool, and the rest take place at the child's home. Toddler drownings in public pools are rare. Drownings of children entering the pool from outside a fence or of children who are yard-trespassers are rarer yet. Near drownings result in costly emergency medical responses and stays in intensive care units. Costs range from two thousand dollars ($2,000) to eighty thousand dollars ($80,000) per patient. The lifetime cost for care and treatment of a young child who has suffered brain disability due to a near-drowning incident is estimated to be four million five hundred thousand dollars ($4,500,000). Some of these children suffer brain damage. The State Department of Developmental Services alone presently provides permanent in-patient care to over 70 child near-drowning victims, at an annual cost of one hundred twenty thousand dollars ($120,000) for each child, with a net public cost of over nine million dollars ($9,000,000) a year. Another 295 child near-drowning victims are cared for at home or in community facilities. Experts in the fields of health care and injury prevention agree that a fence barrier between the home and pool is the single most effective means of preventing accidental drownings. 3) Opponents: The California Spa and Pool Industry Education Council (SPEC) argues that "within-property" fences may actually contribute to toddler drownings by creating a false sense of security on the part of adults. Failure to provide total supervision for young children results in accidents. AB 1784 Page 5 In 1994, proponents of this measure sought permanent regulations from the Building Standards Commission mandating isolation barriers around swimming pools and spas. The group was successful in obtaining emergency regulations, but the regulations were effectively repealed and were not made permanent. SPEC also argues that the findings and declarations in the bill are gross misstatements and are internally conflicting. The proponents are unable to support their proposal with meaningful data. The California Building Standards Commission (BSC) opposes this bill because it believes that placing building standards in statute is not good policy. The BSC notes that building standards located in statute are not accessible to the general public who use them; the design and construction professionals who must use and enforce them. Secondly, building standards require amendment more frequently than other types of regulations. . .the legislative process for changing a statute is more time consuming than the regulatory process, and is not as simple as the petitioning procedure for regulatory change. Support American Academy of Pediatrics ARC California Children's Hospital Association California Collaboration for Youth California Congress of Parents, Teachers, and Students California Medical Association California Public Interest Research Group California Surf Lifesavings Association-Southwest Region Consumer Attorney's of California Oppose California Building Standards Commission California Spa and Pool Industry Education Council Analysis prepared by: Stephen Holloway / ahcd / 445-2320