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375th MDG reminds Team Scott to have safe fun in the sun

  • Published
  • By 375th Medical Group
SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. --  With Labor Day right around the corner, many people will take to local lakes, rivers and streams for some fun. As great as a day spent boating can be, there is always the potential for bad outcomes, especially if one neglects to take all of the important safety aspects into consideration.

Boating safety is paramount to preventing serious injury and even death. Follow the "rules of the road" on the water, be a considerate boater and never drink and drive. Analysis of all fatal boating incidents reveal that 79 percent of the operators had no boating training, and 22 percent of the incidents involved alcohol.

In 2008, the U.S. Coast Guard attributed 75 percent of boating deaths of individuals 19 years and younger to drowning. Nearly 13 percent of injuries in this same age ground occurred while riding in an open motorboat or personal watercraft.

About 90 percent of boating drowning deaths occur in individuals not wearing a personal flotation device. Nearly 45 percent of children under 14 who died in a boating-related incident were not wearing a life jacket. Federal law requires life-jacket use for children younger than 13 years on recreational boats in the United States.

Never swim alone regardless of your age or swimming experience. Swimming with a partner or in a group ensures you have someone available to help in an emergency situation.

Children should always be supervised around water. It takes only a few seconds in a relatively shallow depth for a child to drown. In a national study of drowning deaths in individuals younger than 20 years, 47 percent occurred in fresh bodies of water, 32 percent occurred in artificial pools, 9 percent occurred in the home, and 4 percent occurred in salt water.

Additionally, keep infants under six months old away from direct sun exposure and dress them appropriately. Infants this age have a decreased capacity to sweat and disperse heat, so they are at a higher risk of heat injuries.

Finally, using waterproof sunscreen of at least 25 SPF is an easy, inexpensive way to prevent injury. Be sure to use in accordance with manufacturers recommendations and re-apply every two hours. The higher the SPF, the greater the protection; a person who would normally experience an effect in 10 minutes can be protected up to about 150 minutes with an SPF-15 sunscreen. A sunscreen-containing lip protection product can be helpful as well.