Confidential Study Warns Of 'Serious Injury Or Deaths' From Drain Covers Used In Millions of US Pools

Aug. 24, 2010 — -- A confidential industry study obtained by ABC News warns that popular drain covers found in millions of backyard and public US pools have been incorrectly tested and that their use could "result in serious injury or deaths." While the report has not yet been made public, one of the makers of the drain covers has quietly asked retailers to stop selling one of the covers to new customers.

The American National Standards Institute (ANSI), a national product standards certification group, found that earlier test results for four drain covers from three brands, Aquastar, Paramount, and AFRAS, were unreliable, and that the results of more stringent tests for swimmer entrapment were "cause for immediate action."

At least 11 people are known to have died from entrapment from heavy suction by pool drains since 1999, including 7-year-old Virginia Graeme Baker, whose death by drain entrapment in 2002 spurred the passage of a pool safety law named for her five years later. The Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act created stricter anti-suction standards for pool drain products.

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The ANSI-supervised re-test simulated the blocking of the drain cover by a body for three of the covers, and "hair entanglement" for the fourth cover. Results for three of the four drain covers deviated from previously published results.

An independent expert who reviewed the results said that the "flow rate" for one of the drains tested for body blocking, the Aquastar LP8AV, was especially notable. The original test results showed a flow rate of 100 gallons per minute, but ANSI's re-test showed a flow rate of 14 gallons per minute. The ANSI report also cited results from a third-party testing group, NSF, that suggested the flow rate might be less than 6 gallons per minute.

Aquastar sent a letter to retailers telling them that it had decided to discontinue the product, and asked retailers to send unsold units back. "As a distributor or dealer that has purchased this model in the past," said the letter, "this is to notify you that this model is NOT to be sold until further notice, we will no longer be manufacturing this model, and ... we must replace all existing inventory with a certified comparable model."

Aquastar cofounder Wade Arens told ABC News that the company decided to discontinue the product "within 24 hours" of learning of the ANSI test results.

"We said, 'Let's take this off the market and improve it and exceed the standard,' " he explained.He added, however, that he did not believe that the LP8AV drain cover in the ANSI retest was properly installed, and that his company makes 103 different drain covers, all of them compliant with the Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act.