The August 2017 issue of Yachting has a special feature on Mustang Survival, a company that has been saving lives for 50 years. More specifically, Mustang Survival specializes in saving the lives of people at sea from people in the military to mariners. With their well thought out Mustang Survival suits, they give their customers the tools they need to stay afloat and dry—and alive.
This feature recalls an important topic: the risk of drowning. Many people may not realize just how prevalent of a problem drowning is, but when you consider the facts and numbers, you will be able to see just how serious and common drowning is.
The CDC reports that from 2005-2014, there were an average of 3,536 unintentional, fatal drownings each year, which amounts to around ten per day. However, an additional 332 people died each year in drownings related to boating accidents, making this number even greater.
The U.S. isn’t the only country struggling with the problem of drowning-related deaths; drowning is a problem across the globe. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), drowning is the third leading cause of unintentional deaths from an injury. To put a number on it, there are an estimated 360,000 deaths from drowning each year, worldwide.
However, there are multiple actions that can be taken to decrease the risk of drowning. Both the CDC and WHO recommend installing a fence that is at least four feet tall and self-locks around home and community pools. This can drastically reduce the risk of children gaining access to the pool without their caregiver knowing and, in turn, potentially drowning.
Both organizations also recommend attending formal swim lessons that emphasize water safety. Wearing a life jacket and learning how to swim are great ways to help decrease chances of drowning. Similarly, learning how to administer CPR can also increase the chances of someone else surviving a drowning incident. The CDC writes that you could save someone’s life with CPR solely in the time it takes emergency responders to arrive.
With these tools, and multiple others, drowning could become a much smaller problem and many lives could be saved. To learn more about the life-saving work that Mustang Survival is doing to help prevent drowning-related deaths, sign up for your free subscription to Yachting from ValueMags today!