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Fewer children drowning at Danish beaches
Lucie Rychla
July 14th, 2016
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This article is more than 8 years old.
Parents have become better at taking care of their kids, claims TrygFonden
Fewer children are drowning at Danish beaches, according to figures from TrygFonden, a non-profit organisation that focuses on improving safety in Denmark.
“We can see that drownings in young children have declined dramatically after 2009,” René Hojer, a program manager at TrygFonden, told Jyllands-Posten.
“We hope this trend will continue.”
Hojer suggested that parents have become better at taking care of their children and manage to avoid dangerous situations when they are near the sea.
READ MORE: More lifeguards for beaches in west Jutland
Let them play
Overprotection of children can, however, curb their natural curiosity to experience new things and test their own limits, claims John Halse, the chairman of the national organisation Børns Vilkår.
“If the protection of children means that they cannot approach the water on their own or sit on the beach and play with sand because a wave could come, then you are limiting them,” Halse told Jyllands-Posten.
According to the statistics, most drownings in young children occur in bathtubs, buckets and swimming pools.
In general, an average of 51 people die annually as a result of drowning in Denmark.
Some 26 percent of all drownings occur when water temperature is below 10 degrees, and in these cases victims are usually men aged 45 to 65.
In 2014, alcohol played a role in 30 percent of all drownings.
In more than half of all drowning accidents, no one else was there to help the victim when the accident occurred.
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