Defibrillator in Swimming Pools and Aquatic Centers: Obligations and Best Practices

Swimming places heavy demands on the heart, with heart rate swings sometimes more pronounced than on dry land. Intense effort, cold water or a thermal shock when leaving the pool can trigger a rhythm disorder in a vulnerable person, without any warning signs beforehand.

A drowning itself can cause cardiac arrest from lack of oxygen, even after the person has left the water and received initial resuscitation. In both cases, every minute without defibrillation reduces the chances of survival by about 10 percent, which makes fast access to the device just as important as watching the pool itself.

This risk affects adult swimmers as much as older people attending aqua fitness or rehabilitation sessions, two groups increasingly present outside school holiday periods. The ambient heat of indoor pools, combined with sustained effort, places an extra strain on the heart that does not exist in an ordinary gym.

Indoor pools, aquatic centers with slides and outdoor pools open to the public are all classified as ERP (French public access buildings) and fall under the timetable set by law 2018-527 and decree 2018-1186, the French rules requiring AEDs in public buildings: categories 1 to 3 equipped since 1 January 2020, category 4 since 2021, and some category 5 facilities since 2022 depending on their activity and capacity.

The operator, whether a municipality, a public service delegate or a private company, remains responsible for registering the device in GeoDAE and for signage compliant with the order of 29 November 2018, the French rule on AED signposting, just as for any other public access building.

This responsibility does not stop at purchasing the equipment: it also covers keeping it in working order and informing the public of its exact location, two points regularly checked during safety commission visits specific to pools and supervised bathing areas.

A pool atmosphere constantly exposes the defibrillator to humidity, chlorine vapors and sometimes direct splashing. A cabinet with a high protection rating against water and dust limits corrosion of the electrical contacts and extends the device's useful life, generally between 8 and 10 years or more.

The electrode pads and battery remain the most sensitive parts in this particular climate: a visual check more frequent than usual, in addition to the automatic self test, helps spot a trace of condensation or a pad starting to peel before it becomes unusable.

The cabinet must stay out of reach of splashing water and dripping from bathers leaving the pool, while remaining accessible within three minutes' walk from any point in the swimming area. A wall recess sheltered from direct sun and splashes works better than a spot right at the poolside.

The lifeguard station, reception area and communal changing rooms are strategic spots depending on the site layout. In a large aquatic center with several pools, a second device may be necessary to meet this access time across the whole site.

Lifeguards holding a lifesaving qualification already receive first aid training that includes cardiopulmonary resuscitation, but a regular refresher on the precise use of the defibrillator remains useful, particularly when a model is replaced or an internal protocol is updated.

Reception, till, cleaning or catering staff on site, however, generally have no initial training of this kind. Training these teams in lifesaving gestures, including seasonal staff hired before summer, shortens the time between the alert and the first action.

A short awareness session, held just before the season opens, is enough to familiarize a team with the exact location of the defibrillator and the basic gestures, complementing the lifeguards' already solid resuscitation skills.

The daily self test signaled by the cabinet's indicator light must be checked with the same rigor as in any other facility, adding a check of the cabinet's water tightness and of any trace of corrosion on metal fittings exposed to chlorine.

These checks, along with the replacement dates for the pads and battery, must appear in the facility's safety register, a responsibility of the operator under article R. 5212-25 of the French Public Health Code.