POOLCENTER.com to go before the CPSC hearing on VGB Pool and Spa Safety Act

Nov. 3, 2009 - PRLog -- Myles McMorrow  of POOLCENTER.com  is set to  speak at the Consumer Product Safety Commission Public hearing on the wording of the Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act to define the term “unblockable drain” in the law. The hearing is set for November 4th at 9am est and can be viewed here www.cpsc.gov/webcast/index.html  and will be archived here for later viewing http://www.cpsc.gov/mpeg.html.

    POOLCENTER.com is a firm believer in the law set forth to prevent injuries and deaths associated with main drains in swimming pools. Main drains are the suction fitting at the bottom of swimming pools used to circulate the pool water to the filter system. In some cases the suction is so great it can hold someone under water causing injury and sometimes death. The hearing is to define the term “unblockable drain” in the federal Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act that went into effect December 19 2008.

   Myles and POOLCENTER.com feels the wording in place now leaves too big of a gap for interpretation of the law. This can cause people to run unsafe pools nationwide leaving swimmers open to the dangers these drains can produce. Rob Cox  CEO  of POOLCENTER.com has made the company involved in strong safety campaigns over the years on all aspects of swimming pools safety through many outlets from blogs to article writing.POOLCENTER.com has even supplied the CPSC with pool alarms for testing in 1999 to determine the most reliable ones on the market.    

    Myles McMorrow has been in the pool industry for 17 years and has worked on all aspects of pools from pool management to pool building. He has worked for POOLCENTER.com for the past 5 years in the technical support department. Through his technical writings and talking on the phone he has helped many people to repair and understand the inner workings of pools and spas. Through the Poolnewsfeed he runs on Twitter he tracks worldwide news about swimming pools for people in the industry. From the Poolnewsfeed he has deep understanding of the Pool and Spa Safety Act and how it has affected the industry and has seen injuries pool drains can produce. Myles himself was sucked to a main drain in Cajun Mexico after diving into a 20,000 gallon  hot tub.  He feels his life was saved due to his knowledge of how to break the suction seal from his working in the swimming pool industry.

       The act, signed by President George W. Bush on Dec. 19, 2007  is called the Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act, named after the granddaughter of former Secretary of State James Baker. She died after becoming stuck on the drain of a spa in 2002..  This is a federal law for all commercial pools and swim clubs to have new drain covers or SVRS * installed in all pools to meet the new code to prevent bodily injury and/or death. All covers and SVRS * must meet or exceed the  ASME/ANSI A112.19.8-2007 National Standards and ASTM G154 for UV Testing. This is stamped on all compliant covers and the law is regulated by the Consumer Product Safety Commission as well as state and local pool inspectors. All pools must have the new type of drain covers, which don't easily create suction. Pools with just one drain must also install a second drain system or an external shut-off (SVRS).

       The bill states that the maximum fine is $1.8 million and for pool closer until compliant with the law. Thirty-three children died from pool or spa suction between 1985 and 2004, according to Safe Kids Worldwide, a Washington-
. POOLCENTER.com began as a local pool service company in 1988 as Cox Pool & Spa Services serving the greater Washington, DC metropolitan area (including Northern Virginia and Maryland).

      POOLCENTER.com went on-line in January 1996, essentially establishing one of the very first websites for pool owners and users providing clear and accurate information on pool topics, competent technical support, exceptional customer support/service, and quality swimming pool products at a fair and competitive price to customers worldwide. POOLCENTER.com's award winning pool technical support is provided by Blue Thumb, LLC.

       POOLCENTER.com began as "Pool Info" pages filling the need of some pool service customers from Cox Pool & Spa Services that were requesting specific information regarding the care and maintenance of their swimming pools. POOLCENTER.com became the first online portal for swimming pool information, social interaction for people with similar interests (swimming pools!) as well as a place to find all those needed pool supplies that a swimming pool is going to need at some point.

       Building on the success of the information portal for local pool service customers, Cox Pool & Spa Services decided to begin selling pool supplies to customers across the country. This action was based solely on demand through inquiries received from the Pool Info pages that were becoming increasingly popular among residential pool owners across the country. People were reading POOLCENTER.com's online Pool Info pages and learning a lot about how to care for and maintain their own pool; hence saving them a lot of money by not having to have a pool service technician come out every time their chlorinator Chemical Feeder got clogged or stains showed up on the plaster of their in-ground pool. One product page led to another and after years of juggling both the pool service end with Cox Pool & Spa Services, and the online informational portal/e-commerce end with POOLCENTER.com, the service arm of the company was sold.

         POOLCENTER.com began to thrive online and grow as a "dot com" due to the steady increase of electronic "e-sales." Another arena for pool owners to participate in the pool discussion was launched in the late 1990's bringing Pool Talk online for pool owners worldwide to share their experience and information. It provided an open online discussion/forum focusing on providing past, present, and future pool owners a place to join in the topics of discussion in order to give them a chance to learn and be heard; to talk about their pools. Pool owners post pictures of their pool and swap stories ranging from a really cool pool party to how they fixed their Hayward Superpump. The success of launching Pool Talk, which now boasted over 5,000 user generated posts, led to the most recent incorporation of it and "Pool Info" into a combined Pool Community or The Community Pool.

        With the recent popularity of Blogs and Wikis, POOLCENTER.com launched a Pool Community which includes the original Pool Info pages, a link to the Pool Talk discussion/forum, a new Pool Tube for users to view/post/edit content on streaming video (instructional, technical, safety, and just for fun videos), Pool Wiki (all " Pool Info" pages...but now they are up for editing and/or adding content, or posting a new article altogether), and Pool Groups where pool owners can get together and discus topics that are specific to their area of interest.

          POOLCENTER.com is now a fast growing online pool store taking pride in its more than 100 years of combined pool technical experience, hundreds of pool related online articles on all pool related topics, an online Pool Community "Community Pool" (first of its kind), and still able to find all those hard to locate parts that, if not found, could eventually turn your pool water green from lack of filtration/circulation. No worries, there is a solution for that problem. POOLCENTER.com products ship from various locations around the United States to various locations around the world.

Click here for the swimming pool safety pages http://www.poolcenter.com/swimming_pool_safety_products.htm

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POOLCENTER.com on-line in January 1996, establishing one of the very first websites for pool owners and users providing clear and accurate information on pool topics, technical support, exceptional customer support/, and quality swimming pool products