With popularity on the rise for different outdoor activities involving lakes and rivers in Northeast Tennessee, Dr. Seth Brown is hoping to encourage the public to take the right steps when it comes to drowning prevention.

Brown, the medical director at Niswonger Children’s Hospital’s emergency department, spoke to media Thursday morning to offer tips to the public to steer clear from accidents near water, especially for children.

It’s an extremely important topic for this year, according to hospital staff. During this summer, at least three within the Tri-Cities have passed away due to drowning, with an additional four others having to be treated at the hospital due to injuries sustained within the water.

Information provided by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicates that drowning is the leading cause of accidental death from children between the ages of 1 to 4 years old, and a leading cause for accidental death for children between 1-14 years old.

“Developmentally speaking, children, especially between that 1-4 year age range, are very inquisitive and they need a lot of supervision to keep them safe,” Brown said. “Unfortunately, the inquisitive nature of children and the love of water can sometimes end in an accidental drowning.”

Areas in the Tri-Cities are unfortunately more inclined to see these issues, according to the director. While not directly associated with children, Carter County and Elizabethton were recently the sites of unfortunate situations this year involving deaths or injuries in Watauga River or Watauga Lake.

“The most common place for pediatric drowning is actually in open water,” Brown said. “Lakes, rivers, those types of bodies of waters. We always have to respect pools, but even things like buckets of water and even smaller pools. An inch of water can cause drowning in children.”

Releasing the information is also important, according to the director, due to the rapid increase in drowning within children since 2013. Brown stated that over 1,000 pediatric drowning deaths were reported in 2016 across the United States.

“Some of the old terminology, and quite frankly inappropriate terminology, is near drowning, dry drowning or secondary drowning,” he said. “Drowning is either classified as fatal drowning, non-fatal drowning with injury or non-fatal drowning without injury. That’s where we focus our prevention.”

And it all comes back to preventative measures, Brown added. While near a body of water, the doctor added it’s important for guardians to not be distracted while near children. Brown also added that it’s important to keep children between 1-4 years old within an arm’s reach when near water, and to make sure all safety precautions are taken while near pools or other types of activities involving water.

Visit safekids.org to learn more about the ways to keep children safe when near the water.