Promoting swimming: a positive approach to public health

There are around 236 000 drowning deaths worldwide each year, most of them young children.1 The family, social, and economic toll of these losses is intolerably high and entirely preventable,12 which is why we are grateful to McNally for highlighting swimming as an important but neglected area of public health.3The World Health Organization recommends interventions to prevent drowning, including developing a national water safety plan, improving drowning data, and teaching school age children basic swimming and water safety skills.12In the UK the National Water Forum has developed a strategy and made some important achievements,4 including developing a water incident interactive database and raising public and professional awareness. Its work is, however, being undermined by swimming pool closures. England has lost almost 400 swimming pools since 2010.5 The government should conduct an audit of swimming pools and develop a clear costed plan for increasing facilities.6McNally’s article reminds us that swimming is…
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