When the weather warms up, the back yard can either become a haven where you spend time with your family enjoying the outdoors, or it can become a health hazard, lying in wait to injure your children and pets. You are the deciding factor. Take steps to keep your back yard safe this summer.

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Six-year old Abigail Taylor died last week from injuries she sustained in June 2007 when she sat on a wading pool drain at the Minneapolis Golf Club. The powerful suction caused a tear in her rectum and she was disemboweled. They later found Abigail’s intestine in the pool’s filter. Abigail’s family and attorney maintain she was seriously wounded because the cover of the drain had been removed.

From 1985 to 2004, at least 33 children ages 14 and under died as a result of pool and spa entrapment, and nearly 100 children were seriously injured. But according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and Safe Kids Worldwide, the number of entrapment deaths could be much higher than reported. Because entrapment is generally a little-known risk for drowning, it is possible that many drowning deaths have not been classified as entrapment.

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