Keeping swimmers and property safe during aquatic season is an ongoing challenge, especially as pool season draws to a close. While patrons are looking to eke out the last minutes of sun and fun, lifeguards often start heading back to school in mid-August. “Dwindling staff can mean closing or modifying access to some of your aquatic features,” says Mary Pedersen, PDRMA Risk Management Consultant, “but maintaining proper zone coverage is still important — perhaps even more important — when staff numbers decrease.”

Opening and closing weeks of aquatic season are always the most dangerous. Be sure to review PDRMA’s LRN Alert 11-16 — Finishing the Summer Aquatic Season Safely for best practices to manage these end-of-season risks. If you need to close select areas of your aquatic facility, look to LRN #352 — Late Season Aquatic Operations and Zone Closings for recommended best practices.

Whether you’re working with full or reduced staff, proper coverage and scanning of zones is essential. Gina Radun, Aquatic and Recreation Manager, West Chicago Park District, (and a former lifeguard herself) developed a simple and smart monitoring system called ScanWatch. “We have 65 lifeguards with 10 to 15 on chair at any one time...

“Hot Fun in the Summertime” is a great oldies tune, but working outdoors in the summer means being aware of old and new dangers to work — and play — safely.

Deer ticks:  Tiny eight-legged creatures, as small as a poppy or sesame seed, pack a big wallop: the Borrelia burgdorferi bacterium that causes Lyme disease. Most common in the Northeast and upper Midwest, tick bites cause some 30,000 cases of Lyme disease each year, with many more unreported. The CDC estimates about 300,000 Americans suffer from Lyme disease.

Symptoms of Lyme disease can include fever, headache, muscle or joint pain and extreme fatigue. Some folks barely notice the tell-tale expanding bulls-eye-like red rash, since it’s not painful or itchy. Untreated, the Lyme disease infection can spread and cause rashes, nerve problems, arthritis or other disorders. Although most people recover with antibiotics, the best solution is prevention.

Summer is a prime time for ticks, so be sure to wear long sleeves, long pants and long socks when working or playing outdoors. You don’t need to be in deep woods areas for there to be ticks; they are present even in short, regularly mowed areas. To protect against them with insect spray, you need to use one with at least 20-percent DEET on your skin or permethrin on your clothes...

While fall job tasks might not be new to you, chances are you can still learn something from a refresher course. And if you’re new to seasonal tasks, the best way to do them safely is to learn how to do them properly. Be a kid again and put some learning into your fall...

One of the biggest threats to worker safety can be found in nearly every basement or garage in the country as well as many businesses — a traditional A-frame ladder. Ladders are so commonplace and low tech...