According to the DHH Office of Public Health , Louisiana has a consistently higher rate of drowning deaths than the rest of the nation. Statistics indicate there were 160 drowning deaths in Louisiana in 1998. Between 1994 and 1997, the drowning death rate was around 3.0 per 100,000 people per year. That rate was twice the U.S. rate of drowning deaths and 50 percent higher than the national Healthy People 2000 goal. In 1997, Louisiana had the fourth highest rate of drowning deaths in the nation after Alaska, Hawaii and Idaho.
Summer is here and people are out enjoying our beautiful Louisiana waters.
One way to reduce the drowning deaths in this state is for people to be safe when they go out on the water. Drowning is the second leading cause of injury-related deaths for children aged one through nine in Louisiana. Nationally, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission reports that most childhood drownings occur in swimming pools. Between 60 and 90 percent of the drownings nationally among children less than four years of age occur in residential pools. More than half of these drownings occur at the child's own home.