Summer Safety Guidelines
Massachusetts Department of Public Health Offers Summer Safety Guidance
BOSTON (June 12, 2023) – With summer approaching, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) reminds residents to take recommended common-sense precautions to keep everyone, especially young children, safe this summer. Prevent Tick Bites Certain kinds of ticks can bite and make you sick with diseases such as Lyme disease and Powassan virus. Ticks are most commonly found in damp, grassy, brushy, or wooded areas, including your own backyard. Ticks only attach when you come into direct contact with them — they cannot jump or fly. Follow these steps to help protect yourself from tick bites:
Prevent Mosquito Bites Eastern Equine Encephalitis (EEE) and West Nile virus (WNV) are two mosquito-borne diseases that occur in Massachusetts. While there were no cases of EEE in Massachusetts last year, there were eight people with WNV. Mosquito surveillance is essential to monitor activity as the summer unfolds. DPH posts updates about activity throughout the season on the Massachusetts Arbovirus Update page.
While the risk for human infection of EEE or WNV won’t occur until mid to late summer, people have an important role to play in protecting themselves from these illnesses which can be very serious. To prepare for mosquito season:
For more information about preventing mosquito and tickborne illness, visit DPH’s Mosquitoes and Ticks page.
Water and Pool Safety
Drowning is a leading cause of death among young children, nationally and in Massachusetts, with backyard pools posing the highest risk for children under age 5. To help prevent water-related injury and drowning:
In public swimming areas:
Consider becoming a lifeguard: the Commonwealth is recruiting lifeguards at its inland and coastal beaches, as well as swimming pools. This year, the Healey-Driscoll Administration raised the hourly pay for pool and waterfront staff to between $22 to $27. Qualified applicants can receive up to $1,000 in signing bonuses. For more information, visit the Department of Conservation and Recreation’s lifeguarding website. Window Safety
Falls are the leading cause of injury to children. Falls from windows involving young children are especially serious – and preventable. Screens are not strong enough to protect children from falling out of windows. To prevent window falls, parents and caregivers should:
To learn more about childhood injury prevention, visit the DPH injury prevention and control program website.
Additional tips on preventing falls among children can be found on the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention fall prevention website.
Car Safety
Leaving children and animals inside of a vehicle can be very dangerous. In the summer months in New England, the temperature in a closed car can rise quickly, and the vehicle can become a deadly place for a child or animal left, even for just a moment. To keep young children and animals safe in and around cars:
If you see a child or animal alone in a hot vehicle, call the police. If they are in distress due to heat, get them out as quickly as possible and call 911 immediately.
Remember, all children ages 12 and under should ride in the back seat, properly restrained, even during quick errand trips. Infants and toddlers should remain in rear-facing car seats until they reach the highest weight or height allowed by their car safety seat manufacturer. At a minimum, children should ride rear facing until they are at least 1 year old and weigh at least 20 pounds. You can find more information on child passenger safety on the DPH website.
All mammals (animals with fur) can get rabies and there are usually more than 100 rabid animals found every year in Massachusetts. Most of these cases occur in wild animals like raccoons, skunks, bats, woodchucks, and foxes, but some pets (especially cats) and farm animals also get rabies.
People can be exposed to the rabies virus when an infected animal bites them, or when the animal’s saliva gets into a scratch or the person’s eyes, nose, or mouth. People who are bitten or scratched by an animal, or who find a bat in a room where someone was sleeping, or with a young child or pet, should call their local board of health or the DPH Division of Epidemiology at 617-983-6800 for advice. Other rabies prevention steps include:
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