WASHINGTON, Jan. 16 (UPI) -- A child safety advocate claims the U.S. government is struggling nationwide to implement a new federal law aimed at improving pool safety.
Safe Kids USA public policy director Alan Korn said municipalities nationwide are having difficulties implementing the law that mandates all pool filtration systems be covered with drain covers as a precaution, CNN reported Thursday.
Those struggles in regards to the law implemented on Dec. 19 is putting children's lives at risk at pools throughout the nation, the advocate said.
"I know I wouldn't let my child swim in a pool without these new covers, and I'd give that advice to any stranger," Korn said. "Nobody should be in these pools."
The federal law is named after 7-year-old Virginia Graeme Baker, who drowned in a hot tub in 2002 after the pool's suction trapped her underwater.
Safe Kids USA told CNN entrapment at the hands of powerful pool drain systems was blamed for 33 deaths between 1985 and 2004. The non-profit group said that fatality total is likely a gross underestimation of the actual losses from the potentially dangerous systems.
