SOURCE: Council for the Model Aquatic Health Code (CMAHC)
Funding will support work related to updating and maintaining the Model Aquatic Health Code
Decatur, Ga., September 3, 2019 – The Council for the Model Aquatic Health Code (CMAHC) today announced the award of funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to update and maintain the Model Aquatic Health Code. The funding will cover up to five years of the CMAHC’s core duties of collecting, reviewing, and optimizing proposed updates to the code for CDC’s consideration and delivering a draft of the next edition for CDC review and posting.
Up to this point, the CMAHC relied solely on individual and organizational sponsorships and donations to carry out its core work. The CDC funding will ensure the Model Aquatic Health Code continues to be updated with the latest science and best practices. The award will also allow the CMAHC to focus on finding organizations to partner with in other priority areas, including advocacy and research.
“The award of CDC funding is a great first step toward financial sustainability,” said CMAHC Executive Director Kristie Riester. “Now we can worry less about funding our core activities and put more effort into funding work in other exciting areas, like addressing emerging aquatic public health issues through research, working with states on code advocacy and adoption, and developing new products to meet the needs of our members and others who use the code. There is still so much we would like to accomplish that will improve aquatic health and safety.”
The update process for the fourth edition of the Model Aquatic Health Code is already underway. Public health and aquatics experts who are interested in submitting change requests for the next edition can do so on the CMAHC website at www.cmahc.org/enter-change-request.php. CMAHC members will vote on the change requests during the next Vote on the Code conference in October 2020. The CMAHC is encouraging partners and colleagues to learn more about the code update process at this year’s World Aquatic Health Conference in October. There will be a full day session to discuss CMAHC process changes, cutting edge research, and planning for the next Vote on the Code conference.
About the CMAHC
The CMAHC was created to manage updates to, and promote voluntary adoption of, CDC’s MAHC, the only all-inclusive national model pool code. The MAHC is kept sustainable, current, and complete because the people who use it also research, develop, discuss, and vote on proposed changes through membership in the CMAHC. The CMAHC submits these proposed changes to CDC as advice on how the MAHC needs to change to keep up with the latest science and best practices. Throughout the year, CMAHC staff educate local and state authorities, aquatic facility owners and operators, designers and builders, manufacturers, and suppliers about the MAHC and its potential to ensure a healthy and safe swimming experience for everyone. Learn more at www.cmahc.org.
