The part of a pool that looks like a seat to a child

What the box is, and why it is different from every other fitting

The skimmer box sits at the waterline and is the point where the pool's water leaves on its way to the pump. The boxes the ban names operate at water level as a suction point for circulating the water and trapping leaves and other debris, and they are connected to the swimming pool pump, which means the suction at the box is strong. To a child, an uncovered skimmer box looks like a potty or a seat.

That combination is the whole of the hazard: a shape that reads as furniture to a four-year-old, and a pump pulling through it. The national product regulator's ban page states the result in the plainest words it has: a child who gets trapped in a potty-style skimmer box is at risk of serious internal injuries or drowning, and children have been disembowelled by the strong suction action after sitting on open skimmer boxes.

From Product Safety Australia: the ban on pools and spas with unsafe design features, Product Safety Australia: swimming pool skimmer boxes.

The ban, and what it covers

There is a permanent ban in Australia on pools and spas with unsafe design features, and the regulator names potty-style skimmer boxes and outlets that do not prevent the entrapment of hair and body parts among them. The ban covers the boxes themselves, the outlets, and the pools that have them built in:

• potty-style skimmers designed for installation in domestic swimming pools and spas
• pool or spa outlets that are not designed to reduce or minimise the likelihood of trapping a person's body or hair when in use
• portable swimming pools or spas that contain integrally moulded potty-style skimmers or outlets

A banned product must not be supplied in Australia, and significant penalties may apply to a supplier who fails to comply with a product ban. Where the regulator becomes aware of a banned product still being supplied, the seller must stop supplying it immediately, conduct a product recall and let consumers know, and notify the ACCC within two days of taking the recall action. Anyone who sees a banned or unsafe pool product on sale in Australia can report it to the ACCC.

The warning, and the incident it followed

A warning to pool owners, issued by South Australia's Deputy Commissioner for Consumer Affairs and published on Product Safety Australia's site in December 2009, followed an incident in Western Australia: a four-year-old boy sat on a skimmer box and was gravely injured, with vital internal organs sucked from his body; the warning said he was expected to recover and that other children who have sat on skimmer boxes over the years have not survived. That incident happened in a pool nearly 30 years old with a seat-style skimmer box.

Two dates explain how an old pool comes to have one. Many in-ground fibreglass pools built in the 1980s had skimmer boxes moulded into the pool shell, designed to resemble a seat and fitted with an easily removable cover. Such pools have been banned from supply in South Australia since 1989, and the Australian standard current when the warning was written in 2009, introduced in 2003, set out requirements for the design and placement of skimmer boxes. The warning that followed the Western Australian incident ended with the sentence that matters most to an owner of an older pool: older pools may not comply with the current safety standard, so check that the skimmer box covers are securely fastened.

From Product Safety Australia: warning to pool owners to avoid horrific injuries.

What the regulator asks an owner to check

The advice is written for someone moving to a home with an existing pool, and it works for anyone whose pool has been there longer than they have.

• Check that the pool does not have an open, potty-shaped skimmer box that children or adults can sit on.
• Check whether there are outlets or filters that are open and may trap hair or body parts.
• Check whether covers come off easily and give access to filters or outlets that can trap hair or body parts or cause serious internal injuries.
• Make sure the pool does not have a single bottom drainage outlet. If it does, avoid using the pool: blocked or damaged, such an outlet can create pressure that traps and pins a person under water and causes drowning.
• Check the pool or spa against the Australian and American voluntary standards. If it does not meet them, stop using it and replace the skimmer box, outlets, filters or covers with models that comply.
• Avoid spas or swimming pools with moulded skimmer boxes that have no lid, or a lid a child can easily remove.

The standards the regulator names as the safe ones are AS1926.3, AS2610, AS281 and ANSI A112, and it says to ask pool and spa suppliers for proof that a product will minimise the possibility of entrapment. It also asks owners to conduct an annual safety check with a spa and pool supplier, to ensure filters and outlets are safe and working as intended.

While the cover is off

The cover is the part an owner touches, so it is the part the warning is built around. Pool owners are urged to make sure skimmer box covers are adequately secured at all times, and pool owners need to check that the covers are firmly fastened, the warning says, to prevent life-threatening injuries to children in the warm weather. If a cover cannot be adequately secured, consumers are advised to have it modified. And the moment of danger is the moment of cleaning: the warning says that any time an old or new skimmer box cover is removed for cleaning or maintenance, children should be kept well away from the box until the cover has been re-secured using the locking devices.

Cleaning a pool is when the box is open

This is the guide where the name of the site and the hazard meet. Cleaning a pool includes cleaning the filter and emptying the hair strainer, Queensland Health's spa page says, and the 2009 warning speaks of the skimmer box cover being removed for cleaning or maintenance.

The health pages put that work in a list of its own. Under its heading for the regular cleaning every domestic pool needs, SA Health names removing litter and vacuuming the bottom, scrubbing the walls and the surrounding areas, cleaning the pump lint-pot and the filter system (daily when dosing is done by hand), repairing damaged pool surfaces, keeping pipes, filters and motors in good working order, servicing equipment as its manufacturer directs, and ensuring all electrical equipment is maintained in good condition. Queensland Health puts the same task in one line: clean the filter and empty the hair strainer regularly.

Two more sentences from SA Health's page belong beside that list, because they are about people rather than equipment. All swimming pools must have a continuous safety barrier maintained by the pool owner that restricts access by young children to the pool, and children should always be supervised and pools securely fenced. Its page also says domestic pool owners should be trained to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Queensland Health's rural-properties page adds the rural version: "Care should be taken to supervise all children and poor swimmers around recreational water sources on rural properties to ensure they do not get into difficulty", it says, and "Owners of properties that are home to children or are visited by children should fence the area around the homestead to prevent children accessing water sources unsupervised."

None of that replaces the cover. The box is checked before the water is used, and children are kept well away until the cover is secured again, and where a pool does not meet the standards, Product Safety Australia's ban page says to stop using it and replace the skimmer box, outlets, filters or covers with models that comply, and the 2009 warning says a cover that cannot be adequately secured should be modified.