Injury Prevention articles from December 2003

Injury Prevention archives from December 2003

Is this journal really needed? The role of the journal and other matters.(Editorial)
December 1, 2003... During the second world war, propaganda posters carried a message that asked, "Is this trip really necessary?" Their purpose was to persuade people to conserve gasoline. Prompted by the decision to limit free online access to subscribers, some...

Childhood injuries: a call for global attention.(Childhood Injuries)
December 1, 2003... Injuries are currently a leading cause of death and disability in the world and account for more than five million deaths each year. (1) A large majority of these deaths occur in low and middle income countries, where 90% of the world's...

Speed cameras under attack in the United Kingdom; the health community must defend effective injury prevention interventions.(Speed Cameras)
December 1, 2003... This commentary examines the current campaign against speed cameras in the United Kingdom. It reveals how a health intervention, even when shown to be effective at reducing deaths and injuries, can be subject to sustained attacks from highly...

Patricia Fossum Waller, PhD (1932-2003): a pioneer in injury prevention and traffic safety.(A Tribute)(Obituary)
December 1, 2003... Patricia Mary Florence Theresa Fossum Waller, 70, died at her home on 15 August 2003, following a nine month battle with metastatic colon cancer. We had the good fortune of knowing and working with Pat to promote highway safety in the context...

People in the news.(News and Notes)
December 1, 2003... Mark Stevenson has taken up a position as Professor and Director of the Division of Injury Prevention and Trauma Care at the Institute for International Health, University of Sydney, heading a team of scientists working extensively in the areas...

Injury Prevention paper recognised.(News and Notes)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... A paper by Ruth Shults and colleagues, studying the association between State level drinking and driving countermeasures and self reported alcohol impaired driving, published in the June 2002 issue of Injury Prevention, was nominated for the...

New Cochrane Review.(News and Notes)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... A new systematic review Post-licence driver education for the prevention of road traffic crashes was published by the Cochrane Library in 2003. The reviewers conclude that there is no evidence that post-licence driver education is effective in...

AMA continues work on older driver safety.(News and Notes)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... The American Medical Association (AMA) recognizes that the safety of older drivers is a serious public health issue. A recent fatal automobile accident in California involving an 86 year old driver has generated a substantial amount of media...

New Zealand Injury Prevention Strategy.(News and Notes)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Injury is a leading cause of premature death and disability in New Zealand. Injuries currently result in about 1600 deaths and 42 000 hospitalisations per year, and 1.4 million claims for injury were accepted by the Accident Compensation...

Data on clothing burns.(News and Notes)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Safety experts have a new tool to get a more accurate count of burns related to children's clothing thanks to a new data collection system launched today by the US Consumer Product Safety Commission. Developed in cooperation with the American...

New evidence briefing.(News and Notes)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... England's Health Development Agency (HDA) is developing its evidence base as an information resource developed by the HDA to support one of its core functions: "to build and disseminate the evidence base for public health, focusing on reducing...

Keg register.(News and Notes)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... In July, New York State Governor George Pataki signed into law a bill that increases the requirements for the sale of beer kegs in an effort to prohibit underage drinking and purchasing and to trace kegs found at parties where beer was...

Crucial crews website.(News and Notes)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Crucial crews programmes are experiential learning schemes for children, popular in the UK. While there are a handful of permanent sites, most are run for a week or two during the schools' summer term. There is a new website, including a...

European Road Safety Action Programme.(News and Notes)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Over 40 000 people killed and 1 700 000 injured each year: this is the sad testimony to the lack of safety on the roads of the European Union. In the European Road Safety Action Programme 2003-10, which was presented at the beginning of June...

Colorado requires booster seats.(News and Notes)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... A bill requiring children 4-6 years old to be in a booster seat went into effect in July. Previously, child's car seats were required only for children up to age 4. Research shows that children between the ages of 4 and 8 were three times more...

Fighting for life in Argentina.(News and Notes)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Luchemos por la Vida ("Let's fight for life") is a non-profit organization working to help prevent traffic accidents in Argentina, where they cause of 20 deaths each day (more than 7000 a year). More than 130 000 people are injured annually and...

European seatbelt and child restraint law changes.(News and Notes)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... In April 2003, a directive on seatbelt and child restraint use was adopted by the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament. It requires the use of seatbelts where provided by almost all motor vehicles occupants. Children in cars and...

ATV safety.(News and Notes)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... The US CPSC has been conducting a series of regional public meetings to establish how all terrain vehicles (ATVs) are used and to get wide views on the safety issues. In announcing the July 2003 meeting in Alaska, CPSC Chair Hal Stratton said...

New Zealand injury information manager.(News and Notesr)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Statistics New Zealand has appointed an injury information manager. The post involves coordinating the production of official injury statistics across agencies that produce injury data and providing a programme of statistics and information...

US auto deaths hit 12 year high.(News and Notes)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... The number of people killed in sport utility rollover crashes rose 14% last year as total highway deaths hit a 12 year high at nearly 43 000, the US government reported in July. The Transportation Department's National Highway Traffic Safety...

Dog-free access.(News and Notes)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Among a package of dog control measures in New Zealand is a requirement for all dog owners to have a securely fenced area for their dog allowing unimpeded access by visitors to at least one door of the home by July 2006. The muzzling of certain...

New fact sheets on 4-8 year old motor vehicle occupants.(News and Notes)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Partners for Child Passenger Safety (PCPS) has released fact sheets containing trend and injury risk data on 4-8 year old children in car crashes, a research collaboration between The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and State Farm. Data...

Walking bus record attempt.(News and Notes)
December 1, 2003... An attempt to break the largest walking bus record is to take place on 7 April 2004. The attempt is expected to see children across the UK simultaneously participating in the world's biggest bus. To register your interest or for more details,...

Training Initiative.(News and Notes)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... The US National Injury and Violence Prevention Training Initiative has a new website that people from anywhere may be interested in visiting. Its organisers are seeking input about training resources and needs for injury control practitioners....

Transport Canada working to reduce driver distraction.(News and Notes)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... The Canadian Transport Minister has released a discussion document outlining possible strategies to reduce driver distraction from in-vehicle communication technologies, such as navigational systems and internet access. The discussion paper...

Canadian "wipe out walkers" campaign.(News and Notes)
December 1, 2003... At the launch of Safe Kids Week 2003 in June, a survey by Safe Kids Canada and Johnson & Johnson was published, showing that 32% of parents used or had recently used baby walkers with wheels (the type that a baby sits in) for their young...

How safe is your tractor?(News and Notes)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Australia's Monash University Accident Research Centre and the Kondinin Group (a national farmers' organization) have developed a tractor safety rating assessment system (STARS). STARS is a design based system which assigns a score for various...

Pregnancy and Injury.(News and Notes)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Injuries have become the leading cause of maternal death during pregnancy and estimates suggest that as many as 8% of all pregnancies incur an injury that results in a hospital visit. With this background, a special panel session on Injuries...

Fire safe cigarette update.(News and Notes)
December 1, 2003... Cigarette ignited fires are the leading cause of fire deaths in the USA. Approximately 1000 children, adults, and elders are killed annually due to cigarette ignited fires and an additional 3000 are burn injured. Because the Consumer Product...

CSA playground standard, 3rd edition.(News and Notes)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
December 1, 2003... The 3rd edition of the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) Standard on Children's Playspaces and Equipments was published this summer. As with the current playground standard, the new standard CSA-Z614-03 is intended to apply to playgrounds...

Costa Rican action.(News and Notes)
December 1, 2003... Something magical happened last month in Costa Rica, a country of four million people. One million, four hundred and two thousand and eighty eight men, women and children signed a petition organized by Casa Alianza, demanding that the National...

Canadian Building Code changes.(News and Notes)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... The process for changing the National Building Code (effective in 2005) to reflect safer home hot water temperatures at 49[degrees]C will be reviewed by a technical committee consisting of government and industry in fall 2003. The technical...

CIRCL online seminars.(News and Notes)
December 1, 2003... The University of Pittsburgh Center for Injury Research and Control Center (CIRCL) has procured new real time-web collaboration software called vClass (http://www.elluminate.com). This program enables multiway internet broadcasting of...

All Terrain Vehicle safety in Australia.(News and Notes)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Concerns over the safety of ATV are being raised in Victoria, Australia where, as in the USA, there has been a marked increase in the number of deaths associated with ATV use. It seems that despite the efforts of ATV manufacturers and farm...

Are mobile speed cameras effective? A controlled before and after study.(Original Article)
December 1, 2003... Objective: To identify the most appropriate metric to determine the effectiveness of mobile speed cameras in reducing road traffic related injuries. Design: Controlled before and after study which compares two methods for examining the...

Unintentional and undetermined firearm related deaths: a preventable death analysis for three safety devices.(Original Article)
December 1, 2003... Objective: To determine the proportion of unintentional and undetermined firearm related deaths preventable by three safety devices: personalization devices, loaded chamber indicators (LCIs), and magazine safeties. A personalized gun will...

Lighter balls for younger children.(Echo)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... The incidence of hand and wrist injuries from balls used by children in sporting activities may be reduced by increasing awareness of parents and coaches, using lighter balls, and introducing weight categories for players. The case notes...

Effect of urban closed circuit television on assault injury and violence detection.(Original Article)
December 1, 2003... Objective: To evaluate the effect of closed circuit television (CCTV) surveillance on levels of assault injury and violence detection. Design: Intervention versus control study design. Setting: Five town/cities with CCTV surveillance...

Call for tough ATV laws.(Lacunae)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Doctors and public health officials in New Mexico have warned about the dangers of allterrain vehicles (ATVs) and called for laws ranging from mandatory ATV training to an outright ban on kids driving the machines. In New Mexico, ATVs are...

Flying underpants cause crash.(Lacunae)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Reuters report that a pair of flying underpants caused a crash on a German highway when they landed on a driver's face and blocked his view, police said Tuesday. A police spokesman in the central town of Gotha said one of a group of naked men...

Helmet rental practices at United States ski areas: a national survey.(Original Article)
December 1, 2003... Objectives: Studies have shown that head injuries are the leading cause of death on ski slopes. Statistics on helmet rental practices at ski areas across the United States have never been reported. This study sought to determine the prevalence...

Increases in booster seat use among children of low income families and variation with age.(Original Article)
December 1, 2003... Objectives: To increase booster seat use among low income parents. Design/methods: A pre-test/post-test design conducted in nine daycare centers with post-test observations four to eight weeks after the intervention. Intervention:...

Examining child restraint use and barriers to their use: lessons from a pilot study.(Original Article)
December 1, 2003... Objective: To determine the suitability of four research methods to measure the rate of child restraint device (CRD) use and incorrect use in New Zealand and obtain data on barriers to CRD use. Design and setting: To assess the rates of CRD...

Comparison of urban and rural non-fatal injury: the results of a statewide survey.(Original Article)
December 1, 2003... Objectives: This study compared the epidemiology of non-fatal injury among urban and rural residents of Colorado. Design: A stratified probability sample with random digit dial methods was used to survey Colorado residents by telephone...

Childhood and adolescence poisoning in NSW, Australia: an analysis of age, sex, geographic, and poison types.(Original Article)
December 1, 2003... Objective: This study aims to investigate whether there is any association between the types of poison substances and geographic locations for different age groups and sex. Design: This is a population based epidemiological study utilising...

Being "at fault" in traffic crashes: does alcohol, cannabis, cocaine, or polydrug abuse make a difference?(Original Article)
December 1, 2003... Objective: To compare associations of alcohol, cannabis, and cocaine abuse and traffic crash risk for "at fault" crashes and all crashes. Design: A historical cohort study. Setting: Toronto, Ontario. Patients or subjects: Subjects...

Childhood injuries due to falls from apartment balconies and windows.(Original Article)
December 1, 2003... Background: Falls from balconies and windows are an important cause of childhood injury. This study investigated the circumstances around such falls and attempted to identify possible measures for their prevention. Population: Children ...

Vehicle year and the risk of car crash injury.(Original Article)
December 1, 2003... Objective: To quantify the association between vehicle age and risk of car crash injury. Design and setting: Data from a population based case-control study conducted in the Auckland region in 1998/99 was used to examine the adjusted risk...

Acrobats walk a fine line on new helmet laws.(Lacunae)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Trapeze artists, acrobats, and jugglers with one of the world's most famous circuses have been told to start wearing hard hats to comply with new European Union safety rules. The Moscow State Circus's insurers have warned the performers that...

Speed and human ingenuity.(Lacunae)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... A driver reports approaching a speed camera on a Sydney motorway and being passed by a motorcyclist doing at least 30 km/h over the limit. "I smugly waited for the expected flash, comfortable in the thought that when this rapid rat receives the...

Stitched up.(Lacunae)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Sitting in a bus going down Fulham Palace Road in London, Fiona Hewish saw a board sign outside an Italian restaurant "that made the usual evening traffic more bearable". It said: Discounts for senior citizens, students, and any patients with...

Washing machine related injuries in children: a continuing threat.(Original Article)
December 1, 2003... Objective: To describe washing machine related injuries in children in the United States. Methods: Injury data for 496 washing machine related injuries documented by the Consumer Product Safety Commission's National Electronic Injury...

Evaluation of the ThinkFirst Canada, Smart Hockey, brain and spinal cord injury prevention video.(Program Evaluation)
December 1, 2003... Objective: The ThinkFirst Canada Smart Hockey program is an educational injury prevention video that teaches the mechanisms, consequences, and prevention of brain and spinal cord injury in ice hockey. This study evaluates knowledge transfer and...

Commentary.(on Cook et al's Cook et al's development, evaluation of injury education video)
December 1, 2003... CRITIQUE AND RECOMMENDATION (EVALUATION OF EVALUATIONS) Cook et al describe the development and evaluation of an educational video to prevent concussion and spinal cord injury among 11 year old competitive ice hockey players. Five Atom "A"...

Shall-issue policy and criminal activity among applicants for permits to carry concealed firearms.(Brief Report)
December 1, 2003... Permits to carry concealed firearms in public (CCW permits) remain controversial. A small scale natural experiment with shall-issue CCW permit policy in California, a may-issue state, is reported. During the mid-1990s, the chief of police of...

Reporting of the incidence of hospitalised injuries: numerator issues.(Methodologic Issues)
December 1, 2003... Objectives: To examine and discuss the implications on the incidence of hospitalised injuries of selecting cases from principal diagnosis field only compared with considering all diagnosis fields, the inclusion compared with the exclusion of...

Missing cyclists.(Methodologic Issues)(cyclist crashes)
December 1, 2003... Objectives: (1) For crashes on a public road, to compare serious cyclist crashes involving a motor vehicle with cyclist crashes not involving a motor vehicle, in terms of threat to life and length of stay in hospital. (2) To determine the...

Helmet laws and cycle use.(Research Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
December 1, 2003... Except for one study reporting decreased cycling by children aged 12-17 in Victoria, Australia, Macpherson et al stated: "no other study about the relationship between legislation and exposure to cycling has been published" (1) Macpherson's...

Bias when using dead controls to study handgun purchase as a risk factor for violent death.(Research Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
December 1, 2003... In a recent, excellent study that found handgun purchase to be a risk factor for violent death, Grassel and colleagues gave explanations for why their findings may have inaccurately characterized the impact of handgun purchase on violent death,...

The new traffic law and reduction of alcohol related fatal crashes in Japan.(Letter)
December 1, 2003... The National Police Agency reported in June 2003 that the number of fatal crashes caused by drunken drivers had decreased by 30% in the 12 month period after the change of the traffic law. (1) The number of alcohol related fatal crashes in the...

Guide to Evaluating the Effectiveness of Strategies for Preventing Work Injuries: How to show whether an intervention really works.(Book Review)
December 1, 2003... Guide to Evaluating the Effectiveness of Strategies for Preventing Work Injuries: How to show whether an intervention really works. Lynda S Robson, Harry S Shannon, Linda M Goldenhar, Andrew R Hale. United States Department of Health and...

A Schema for Evaluating Evidence on Public Health Interventions.(Book Review)
December 1, 2003... A Schema for Evaluating Evidence on Public Health Interventions. Version 4. Lucie Rychetnik, Michael Frommer. National Public Health Partnership *, Melbourne, June 2002 (free as pdf file from www.nphp.gov.au). The work leading to this...

Calendar.(Brief Article)(Calendar)
December 1, 2003... Lifesavers Conference: National Conference on Highway Safety Priorities 28-30 March 2004, San Diego, California.Details: www.lifesaversconference.org. 7th World Conference on Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion 6-9 June 2004,...