Injury Prevention articles from June 2002

Injury Prevention archives from June 2002

Regulations, legislation, and classification. (Editorial).
June 1, 2002... Barell matrix, Towner report, and Canada's shame REGULATIONS, LEGISLATION, AND CLASSIFICATION This issue includes two special features whose importance may be overlooked by some readers. Each is a work in progress, but that there is...

What is America's most dangerous mammal? (LUCANAE).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... This is the question Ronald Bailey of the online journal Reason asked. Grizzly bears? Certainly Lewis and Clark on their way to the Pacific Ocean in 1804 thought so. In the early 1800s, some 50 000 grizzlies roamed the western United States,...

An introduction to the Barell body region by nature of injury diagnosis matrix. (Special Feature).
June 1, 2002... Introduction: The Barell body region by nature of injury diagnosis matrix standardizes data selection and reports, using a two dimensional array (matrix) that includes all International Classification of Diseases (ICD)-9-CM codes describing...

UNICEF's child injury league table. An analysis of legislation: more mixed messages. (Special Feature).
June 1, 2002... This paper presents a summary table and discussion of legislation related to child injury prevention in member countries of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. The table is an expanded version of the one which appeared in...

Australian injury prevention plan: priorities for 2001-03. (News and Notes).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... The national injury prevention plan for Australia and an implementation plan have been developed as a collaborative endeavour by all Australian governments with advice from non-government agencies, professional bodies and industry...

Lifeguard effectiveness report. (News and Notes).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... This report, published in October 2001 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Injury Center, assesses lifeguards as a strategy for preventing drowning and water related injuries. The product of an expert meeting and a review of...

Sponsorship of sports safety equipment. (News and Notes).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... VieHealth, the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation funded by a specific tax on tobacco, actively promotes participation in sport as a means to maintain regular exercise. On the understanding that an estimated one million Australians suffer...

Vietnam approves national injury prevention strategy. (News and Notes).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... Vietnam's Prime Minister Phan Van Khai has approved the national policy on preventing accidents and injury from 2002-10. Under the policy, accidents are expected to be reduced in all aspects of life including on the road, in the workplace, at...

Links between head injuries and depression. (News and Notes).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... Concussions and other head injuries in early adulthood may significantly raise the risk of depression decades later, a study of World War II veterans has found. The study has implications for football and hockey players, motorcyclists, and...

Lifejackets for all recreational craft in New Zealand. (News and Notes).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... Lifejackets are likely to be required to be carried on all recreational craft from mid 2002. "Seventy five percent of all those who drown while boating could have avoided death by wearing a lifejacket. This rule proposes that every skipper will...

Cutting injuries from bike handlebars. (News and Notes).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... Bicycle accidents that seem minor can cause serious abdominal injuries in children, say researchers in Philadelphia who have designed a handlebar that they hope will make biking safer. In a typical low speed bike crash, the bicycle hits an...

Australian big brother bullying bullies. (News and Notes).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... In one Victorian public junior school, 32 surveillance cameras have for the past year been watching out for vandalism and harassment in the corridors, computer rooms, and schoolyard. Australian Secondary Principals Association president Ted...

Who guidance on monitoring injuries. (News and Notes).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... Experts from more than 50 countries have combined forces to produce guidelines that will help healthcare staff in developing countries to set up systems to monitor the toll of death and disability from injuries. The manual, which is published...

Value of swim lessons questioned. (News and Notes).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... Parents who introduce toddlers to swimming programs before the age of 4 may be given a false sense of security about their child's safety. The American Academy of Pediatrics has published a policy paper on "Swimming Programs for Infants and...

Drop in New Zealand drowning deaths. (News and Notes).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... New Zealand figures show a record low number of drownings last year, with the provisional death toll standing at 110, the lowest number of drownings in a year since records began in 1980. The previous low was 121 in 1999, while there were 134...

Don't forget your child. (News and Notes).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... Each year, infants and small children die from being left in vehicles. NASA has developed a safety device to alert parents who inadvertently leave their children strapped in car seats. Inspired by flight test technology, the device uses...

WHO discussion on violence. (News and Notes).(World Health Organization)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... The WHO Executive Board, made up of a sample of 32 member states, decides on strategic technical and administrative issues of importance for the organization and to set the agenda for the World Health Assembly. In January, it discussed a paper...

Monsters and bears recalled. (News and Notes).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... About 39 000 copies of Monsters In The Closet children's board books are being recalled as the snap that secures the book could detach, posing a choking hazard to young children, the US CPSC announced in February. The CPSC and publishers Random...

Research on improving protective capacity of helmets. (News and Notes).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... The Australian Transport Safety Bureau has commissioned and published research on improving the shock absorbing liner in helmets. The report notes that approximately a quarter of motorcyclists and cyclists, wearing helmets, die from severe head...

$3 Million crib death settlement. (News and Notes).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... In one of the largest settlements ever in a case involving an unsafe children's product, the makers of the Playskool Travel-Lite portable crib have agreed to pay $3 million to the family of a 16 month old child, whose strangulation death was...

School health guidelines. (News and Notes).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... The CDC has released School Health Guidelines to Prevent Unintentional Injuries and Violence in the Recommendations and Reports series of the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. The guidelines can be downloaded from www.cdc.gov.mmwr....

Victoria increases controls of drink-driving. (News and Notes).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... The Australian State of Victoria has for many years deserved its position as a model for road safety action. After 2001 returned the worst motor vehicle accident deaths in a decade it appears that new work is required. On 21 December 2001, new...

Safest year on New Zealand roads for 40 years. (News and Notes).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... On 1 January 2002 the New Zealand Transport Minister announced that 2001 was the safest year on New Zealand roads in nearly 40 years, with the death toll of 452, the lowest since 1964. The 2001 low beat the 2000 record low by 10. Higher...

WHO initiative on environmental hazards. (News and Notes).(World Health Organization)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... The WHO has created a task force for the protection of children's environmental health to address the environmental hazards which specifically affect children. The first initiative to fight child mortality and morbidity linked to unhealthy...

New national emergency hotline. (News and Notes).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... Everyone in the US can now enjoy free 24 hour access to their regional poison control center through a single national, toll-free number--(800) 222 1222--that was launched on 30 January 2002. In the first full month of operation, the number...

New Zealand takes action on babywalkers. (News and Notes).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... New Zealand has taken action to curb the injury risks associated with babywalkers. From 1 March 2002, compliance with the American (ASTM) Standard on babywalkers became mandatory. The regulation covers all new and second hand walkers; fines up...

Fact sheets revised. (News and Notes).
June 1, 2002... The 2002 fact sheets are now available in English and Spanish from Safe Ride News Publications. There have been major changes in many of the sheets and all have been reviewed by specialists in their fields. A number of illustrations have been...

Socioeconomic status and injury. (News and Notes).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... Victorian injury data have been improved by the addition of information on socioeconomic status to the existing collection of injury data for deaths, hospitalisations, and emergency department presentation. To take advantage of this improvement...

Suit against gun makers gains ground in Illinois court. (News and Notes).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... In a major victory for advocates of gun control, a court in Illinois ruled in January that gun makers and dealers can be sued for distributing firearms in a way that makes it easy for criminals and juveniles to obtain them, a practice that...

Grim statistics on older motorcyclists. (News and Notes).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... Motorcycle deaths in the US jumped by more than a third from 1998 to 2000. with most of the increase involving middle aged riders on big bikes, according to a new study of data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The study,...

Call for drugs and driving action. (News and Notes).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... The British Medical Association has called on the UK government to develop a campaign to highlight that taking drugs--whether prescribed, over the counter, or illegal--can impair driving capacity in a similar way to alcohol. Visit...

Kidsafe Week in October. (News and Notes).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... New Zealand's Kidsafe Week runs from 18-25 October this year, focusing on water safety especially among preschoolers, reports Plunket Safety Update. When this topic was last the theme of the week, research showed that it had a significant...

UK injury prevention course. (News and Notes).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... The second delivery of the UK's postgraduate level injury prevention short course will take place in October 2002 and February 2003. The move follows the results of the Department of Health funded evaluation, which showed that the students had...

Toll-free New Zealand Poisons number. (News and Notes).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... Thanks to funding from ACC, national toll-free access is now possible to the National Poisons Centre throughout New Zealand, after it had been shown that cost limited some people's access to the service. Calls to 0800 POISON have increased by...

NHMRC funding for injury prevention research. (News and Notes).(National Health and Medical Research Council)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... In November 2001, Australia's National Health and Medical Research Council announced funding for four injury prevention projects: policy response to indigenous petrol sniffing; risk factors for serious farm work related injury among adult...

Association between state level drinking and driving countermeasures and self reported alcohol impaired driving. (Original Article).(Statistical Data Included)
June 1, 2002... Objectives: In 1999, alcohol related motor vehicle crashes in the United States claimed 15 786 lives and injured more than 300 000 persons. Drinking and driving behavior is shaped by individual and environmental level influences. In this study,...

Schoolboy loses legs in explosion. (LACU NAE).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... A 16 year old Pretoria boy lost both his legs after a home experiment went horribly wrong. Waldo van der Westhuizen, of Menlo Park High School in Pretoria, South Africa, had been mixing chemicals in his room when there was a reaction, followed...

Personal and situational influences on drink driving and sober driving among a cohort of young adults. (Original Article).
June 1, 2002... Objectives: To compare personal and situational influences on incidents involving drink driving with those involving sober driving. Methods: Information on a range of road safety practices was sought in face to face interviews conducted...

Older driver involvements in police reported crashes and fatal crashes: trends and projections. (Original Article).(Statistical Data Included)
June 1, 2002... Objectives: Older drivers have become a larger part of the driving population and will continue to do so as the baby boomers reach retirement age. The purpose of this study was to identify the potential effects of this population increase on...

The nature of newspaper coverage of homicide. (Original Article).
June 1, 2002... Objectives: Previous research has shown that some homicides are more likely than others to receive newspaper coverage (for example, homicides by strangers). The present investigation examined whether, once the decision has been made to report...

Residential fire related deaths and injuries among children: fireplay, smoke alarms, and prevention. (Original Article).(Statistical Data Included)
June 1, 2002... Background: The aim of the study was to describe the epidemiology of residential Fire related deaths and injuries among children, and identify risk factors for these injuries through a linked dataset for the city of Dallas, Texas. Methods:...

Board member biography.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... Dr Lesley Day is a Senior Research Fellow at the Monash University Accident Research Centre (MUARC), and an Honorary Senior Lecturer in the Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. She...

Citywide trauma experience in Kampala, Uganda: a call for intervention. (Original Article).(Statistical Data Included)
June 1, 2002... Objectives: To describe injuries and their emergency care at Five city hospitals. Setting: Data were collected between January and December 1998 from casualty departments of the five largest hospitals of Kampala city, Uganda, with bed...

South Australian attempt to protect "Good Samaritans". (LACUNAE).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... South Australian attempt to protect "Good Samaritans" In an increasing litigious society and to encourage people to give assistance where it is needed the South Australian Minister for Volunteers introduced a Bill into parliament in late...

Socioeconomic differences in injury risks in childhood and adolescence: a nation-wide study of intentional and unintentional injuries in Sweden. (Original Article).(Statistical Data Included)
June 1, 2002... Study objective: To measure socioeconomic differences in injuries among different age groups of children and adolescents. Subjects: Children under 20 living in Sweden between 1990 and 1994 (about 2.6 million). Method: A cross sectional...

Missing the target: a comparison of buyback and fatality related guns. (Original Article).
June 1, 2002... Objectives: To determine whether the firearms recovered in buyback programs in a large urban community are the types most closely associated with firearm fatalities in the same geographic area. Methods: The type, caliber, and manufacturer...

Seen in St Andrews-by-the-green burial ground, Glasgow. (LACUNAE).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... LACUNAE Seen in St Andrews-by-the-Green Burial Ground, Glasgow Jane Eliza Madden Born 21, Nov 1859 Killed by being run over by an omnibus 19 Nov. 1871 All little Children that survey The emblem'd Wheel that...

Risk factors associated with non-fatal adolescent firearm injuries. (Original Article).
June 1, 2002... Study objective: To identify behavioral, environmental, and sociodemographic risk factors associated with non-fatal firearm injuries among inner city adolescents in the United States. Design: A case-control study in which patients with...

Safety attitudes and beliefs of junior Australian football players. (Original Article).(Statistical Data Included)
June 1, 2002... Objectives: To describe the safety attitudes and beliefs of junior (aged 16-18 years) Australian football players. Selling: Six Victorian Football League Under 18 (VFL U 18) clubs in Victoria, Australia. Methods: Cross sectional...

Are we blind to injuries in the visually impaired? A review of the literature. (Review).
June 1, 2002... Objectives: To review the literature on the risks and types of injuries associated with visual impairment, and to identify pertinent areas for future research. Methods: A search of bibliographic databases was conducted in April 2000 for...

Research on injury prevention: topics for systematic review. (Methodologic Issues).
June 1, 2002... Background: Duplication should be avoided in research and only effective intervention programs should be implemented. Objective: To arrive at a consensus among injury control investigators and practitioners on the most important research...

Kissing rattlesnakes. (LACUNAE).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... A medical research article on unusual rattlesnake bites described several bizarre human-snake interactions, including an intoxicated 45 year old man who was "bitten on the tongue after placing his pet rattlesnake's head in his mouth in an...

Child bicyclist injuries: are we obtaining enough information in the emergency department chart? (Methodologic Issues).(Statistical Data Included)
June 1, 2002... Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess the range of information relevant to bicyclist injury research that is available on routinely completed emergency department medical records. Methods: A retrospective chart review of...

Letter.
June 1, 2002... Safe hot tap water and the risk of scalds and legionella infection. The recent paper in Injury Prevention by Jaye et al on the barriers to safe hot tap highlights the problem I raised last year regarding the perception of plumbers of the...

It's No Accident: How Corporations Sell Dangerous Baby Products.
June 1, 2002... By E Marla Felcher. (Pp 302; US$17.95.) Common Courage Press (PO Box 702 Monroe, Maine 04951), 2001. ISBN 1-56751-204-6. This is a passionate, powerful, and well informed book written by an academic and journalist trying to show why the...

National Strategy for Suicide Prevention: Goals and Objectives for Action.
June 1, 2002... US Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Services. (Pp 204, free: 1-800-789-2647: reference document # SMA 3517), 2001. 02NLM:HV 6548.A1 2001 or see: http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/library. In 1999, the publication of Kay...

Les accidents de l'enfant en France. Quelle prevention, quelle evaluation?
June 1, 2002... by Anne Tursz and Pascale Gerbouin-Rerolle. (Pp 204; price not listed.) INSERM, Institut national de la sante et de la recherche medicale, 2001. ISBN 2-85598-791-1. This book deals with a standard public health topic. For the last 20 years...

Drunk driving and alcohol related crash involvement. (Splinters & Fragments).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... Examining the age at which people begin drinking alcohol has resulted in some interesting relationships: younger onset has been associated with a greater likelihood to report drunk driving and alcohol related crash involvement, as well as other...

National Suicide Prevention Week. (Splinters & Fragments).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... Many people report feeling depressed during the dark days of winter. But suicide rates increase in spring--one reason why National Suicide Prevention Week is held in May in the US and Canada, and in August in Australia. A brief international...

19th century medical literature. (Splinters & Fragments).(suicidal contagion)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... Another widespread concern about suicide is its "contagion", spread by media reports and other publicity. This study presents a historical perspective, describing how 19th century medical literature also warned of news reports triggering...

Mental health advocates and brain injury. (Splinters & Fragments).(seat belt use in movies)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... Does Hollywood portray real life? Of course not, but it can and does affect viewers' perceptions of social norms. A brief report describes seat belt use in 211 top grossing movies and compares it with actual trends in US belt usage. Although...

Consumer Product Safety Commission. (Splinters & Fragments).(amusement parks)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... Amusement parks are building faster and higher rides in theft efforts to attract and thrill their customers. But several well publicized deaths--mostly on rollercoasters--underscore the dangers that accompany the thrills. An analysis of medical...

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation training. (Splinters & Fragments).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... I am pleased to summarize a report from the Mideast. A retrospective review of 28 cases of near drowning in warm water identified a lack of cardiopulmonary resuscitation training in the children's families and many swimming pools without safety...

Future of Children. (Splinters & Fragments).(special edition on children, youth, and gun violence)
June 1, 2002... By the time this issue of the journal is in readers' hands, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation will have released their special edition of Future of Children on children, youth, and gun violence. The publication, which is free, is...

Front seat occupants had almost five times the risk of severe injury or death. (Splinters & Fragments).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... Two recent articles focus on passenger safety: in many nations, seat belt use is required only for occupants in the front seats of motor vehicles. Researchers in Japan found that front seat occupants had almost five times the risk of severe...

Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. (Splinters & Fragments).(injuries to children in compact extended-cab pickup trucks)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... Researchers at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia examined injuries to children in compact extended-cab pickup trucks. In these trucks, the side facing "jump seats" are exempt from occupant protection standards and have only lap belts...

Detox. (Splinters & Fragments).(injury rates and alcohol dependence)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... Why do people with alcohol and drug dependence continue to sustain high rates of injury even after going through "detox"? Researchers who interviewed clients of a detox center found that those who had alcohol dependence had higher rates of...

Reducing childhood pedestrian injuries. (Preface).
June 1, 2002... Dedicated to children walking, everywhere Few news stories are as disturbing as that of a child killed while crossing the street. The photograph below (see fig 1), winner of the 1959 Pulitzer Prize, is still unsettling. Why did it happen?...

Unintentional gun injuries. (LACUNAE).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... A paper in the Canadian Journal of Public Health (Vol 92, No 5) concludes, not surprisingly perhaps, that owning a gun increases the risk that someone in your household will die unintentionally from that firearm. "Unintentional firearm deaths:...

Children in France urged to turn in toy guns. (LACU NAE).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... As a sign of solidarity with children in war zones, children in France are being urged to turn in their toy guns, the BBC reported on November 14. The non-profit group Medecins du Monde is calling on the country's four million children between...

Label instructions on consumer products... (LACUNAE).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... * On a Sear's hairdryer: do not use while sleeping. * On packaging for a Rowenta iron: do not iron clothes on body. * On Boot's children's cough medicine: do not drive a car or operate machinery after taking this medication. * On...

Cat gasses family. (LACUNAE).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... A family in the Italian town of Pinerolo is recovering from gas poisoning after their cat got caught in the home's heating system chimney and caused carbon monoxide to spread around the living room. Firefighters found the family cat roasted to...

Court case examines liability of administrators in "dangerous" sports. (LACUNAE).(rugby accident, Australia)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... A Sydney court case concerning a football player paralysed in 1982 is examining aspects of the duty of care of administrators in sports. In 1982 the Sydney amateur rugby union player was hooker in the front row of a scrum, which collapsed...

"Like some fries with that?" (LACUNAE).(Kentucky Fried Chicken managers fire walking leadership exercise)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... It was meant to develop leadership skills but the fire walking exercise for 30 managers of the KFC fast food chicken restaurant chain was too hot to bear. Eleven ambulances responded to an emergency call, seven people received burns requiring...

New Year fireworks deaths. (LACUNAE).(China, Peru)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... The China news agency Xinhua reports that nine were killed and 60 injured in a firework factory blast in the south east Province of Jiangxi in December. An initial explosion in a warehouse set off a series of blasts that destroyed 10 of the 11...