ADVANCEMENT OF THE SCIENCE
These changes would involve training current safety inspectors and using an incremental approach to allow regulatory and industry partners to adapt to changing MAHC guidelines . CDC ( 2023b ) provides resources for public health officials and aquatic staff to implement MAHC recommendations or strengthen their aquatic health and safety programs . The advantages of incorporating MAHC guidelines would be use of the most effective water safety inspection criteria , which could translate into reduced RWIs . Furthermore , inspection results could be compared with other jurisdictions that use similar inspection criteria .
A promising aspect of our study is the ability to illustrate the distribution of swimming pools in Houston based on their safety grade . This mapping has potential use in injury prevention . This approach has been used in playground safety , where the safety scores of playgrounds in need of maintenance were spatially mapped in Chicago to effect improvements in fall surfacing and equipment maintenance ( Allen et al ., 2013 ).
The same approach could be applied to swimming pool safety in Houston . Currently , Houston maintains an up-to-date listing of all pool violations by property that is accessible to the public ( Houston Health Department , 2023b ). The City of Plano , Texas , employs a similar scoring system that allows the public to look up swimming pools with color-coded scores that show the results of the swimming pool inspection ( Plano Health Department , n . d .).
Data from our study demonstrate that the swimming pools that failed safety inspections were predominantly concentrated in Southwest Houston , which has a larger percentage of residents belonging to a lower socioeconomic status ( City of Houston Planning & Development Department , 2016a ) and racial and ethnic minority groups ( City of Houston Planning & Development Department , 2016b ). The rate of unintentional drownings is higher in children belonging to racial and ethnic minorities ( Felton et al ., 2015 ; Gilchrist & Parker , 2014 ), which could serve as a focus for injury prevention efforts to reduce drowning .
Limitations There are several limitations to our study . First , our findings are not generalizable to other jurisdictions that have other types of
TABLE 4 continued from page 13 Frequency of Observed Swimming Pool Violations
Item From the Model Aquatic Health Code ( MAHC ) Inspection Form Observed by the City of Houston
Observed Violations # (%)
Water chemicals |
Approved NSF / ANSI Standard 50 DPD test kit |
2 ( 0.05 ) |
Proper disinfectant level |
516 ( 12.7 ) |
pH between 7.2 and 7.8 |
449 ( 11.1 ) |
Equipment and chemical room |
Automated feeder operable |
99 ( 2.4 ) |
Piping and valves identified and marked |
238 ( 5.9 ) |
Flow meter present and operating |
126 ( 3.1 ) |
Recirculation pump : approved , in good repair , operating |
38 ( 0.9 ) |
Filter : approved , in good repair , operating |
8 ( 0.2 ) |
Pump strainer : baskets in good condition , not clogged |
1 ( 0.02 ) |
Filter gauges operable : filter inlet and outlet , strainer ; sight glass |
74 ( 1.8 ) |
Chemicals : labeled , stored safely , secured |
1 ( 0.02 ) |
Records room |
Lifeguard training certification available on-site |
2 ( 0.05 ) |
Note . Bolded items represent critical code items in the MAHC .
FIGURE 1
Location of Swimming Pools in the City of Houston That Received A Grades
Note . Shaded area indicates the City of Houston .
14 Volume 86 • Number 1