County building board votes for tighter pool safety regulations

Vote comes after several children injured, killed in pools

MIAMI – There's a new push to make swimming pools more safe by requiring property owners to have their pools re-inspected for corrosion and wear and tear.

It comes in the wake of two incidents where children were shocked while swimming.

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Calder Sloan, 7, was electrocuted last month when a disconnected ground wire to the pool light sent 120 volts of electricity into the water of his family's pool in North Miami.

READ FATHER'S OPEN LETTER ABOUT POOL TRAGEDY

Two weeks ago, three children were shocked in a Hialeah pool by a bad ground wire to the pool pump.

"Our industry doesn't need to have the stigma of being baby killers," said Irv Chazen, president of the Associated Swimming Pools Industries of Florida and a swimming pool consultant to Miami-Dade County's Construction Trades Board.

Last week that group voted to push for a sweeping change to state's swimming pool regulations by requiring all pools to be periodically re-inspected.

"I would guess there are a million pools in the ground, at least a million, in the state. And a lot of them are older that the 10-15 years and every one of those should be re-certified," Chazen told Local 10. "Just the passage to time could cause the bonding, or the grounding, as it's called, to corrode."

There are still lots of details to be worked out, like which pools should be inspected, how long should a pool go between inspections and who should administer the new requirement. 

Chazen plans to make his proposal to the Florida Building Commission at their annual meeting later this year.

Pool equipment inspections should only be performed by a certified electrician. 

Click here for a safety check list that you can ask your electrician to follow if you're having your pool inspected.