Drowning and the Online Summer Silly Season
July 21, 2025
Every year as the hot weather of summer returns so do the reams of online advice around drowning and water safety. All manner of advice is published online, especially on social media platforms. But what advice and information can you trust?
I titled this article "Drowning & the Online Summer Silly Season" because while there is a great deal of good information available online, there is unfortunately also a host of misleading and even outright false and dangerous information out there as well.
Some of the misleading information is partially correct, or we could even say situationally correct, but has been separated from the full background of the case in hand. This means that readers or viewers are left with false conclusions after consuming the media. This can result in a spread of responses, ranging from making a few extra safety precautions that are not necessary, all the way to taking actions that are downright dangerous. Information of this type is often spread by well-meaning individuals who just don't know any better, or who do not take the time to fact-check their sources.
False and dangerous information about drowning and water safety circulating online can provoke worry where none is warranted, or complacency where concern should be the order of the day. No case exemplifies this more than the abuse and misuse of terms about drowning. Drowning is medically defined and measurable. It cannot spontaneously manifest, and unlike what social media would have you believe, it is impossible to drown three or four days after swimming UNLESS (and this is the part always left out) the person had immediate symptoms upon leaving the water. In that case, the individual should be presenting to medical attention ASAP.
So, what are you trusted sources then? How can you learn more? The following sites provide medically valid and vetted information about what drowning is, and what you should be concerned about:
World Health Organization - Drowning Fact Sheet (International)
www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/drowning
Drowning Prevention Research Centre Canada (Canada)
Centers for Disease Control & Prevention - Drowning Facts (United States)
www.cdc.gov/drowning/data-research/facts/index.html
Drowning prevention and water safety is central to what we do as a company. Expect to hear more on this topic in future articles.
Christopher Love
President
Wavecrest Aquatics Inc.
