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.
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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
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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
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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.
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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