Injury Prevention articles from March 2003

Injury Prevention archives from March 2003

Expanding the precautionary principle: injury prevention and the precautionary principle. (Editorial).(Editorial)
March 1, 2003... "As to diseases, make a habit of two things--to help, or at least do no harm" (Hippocrates, The Epidemics) "When an activity raises threats of harm to human health..., precautionary measures should be taken even if some cause and effect...

Injury prevention: blurring the distinctions between home and work: home and work injuries share many of the same characteristics. (Occupational Injury Prevention).(Editorial)
March 1, 2003... This issue of Injury Prevention contains three articles about work related injury, the most for any regular issue of the journal. Their inclusion is part of the increasing recognition of occupational injury prevention as part of the mainstream...

American Bar Association. (People in the News).(honors Alan H Schoem of Consumer Product Safety Commission)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... In October, the American Bar Association honored Alan H Schoem, Director of the Office of Compliance of the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), with the Mary C Lawton 2002 Outstanding Government Service Award. Schoem has led the...

Road Safety in Bangalore. (News and Notes).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... In January 2002, the Global Road Safety Partnership (GRSP) signed a memorandum of understanding with the Bangalore Agenda Task Force (BATF) for facilitating programmes for road safety in Bangalore. Andrew Downing, GRSP Advisor and International...

Tackling health inequalities. (News and Notes).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... The UK's Treasury and Department of Health have published the report of the interdepartmental look at reducing health inequalities. The report defines the problem, highlighting the health differences between population groups, and sets out a...

Amusement park rides and brain injuries. (News and Notes).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania who looked at the impact of G force on the head and neck say in a new study, reported in the Journal of Neurotrauma, that roller coasters are not as dangerous as previous studies suggest. The...

Papoff. (News and Notes).(International Society for Physical Activity for the Prevention of Osteoporosis Falls and Fractures newsletter)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... The International Society for Physical Activity for the Prevention of Osteoporosis Falls and Fractures (PAPOFF) produces an informative newsletter which includes reviews of selected recent research papers. Issue 4 includes papers related to...

Bed rail related entrapment deaths. (News and Notes).(alert from US Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... In September, the US Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations issued an alert highlighting the dangers associated with bed rail related deaths. Since 1995, the Joint Commission had received reports of seven deaths or...

European standard for Soothers. (News and Notes).(European Committee for Standardization)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... European standards organization CEN recently adopted the European standard EN 1400 Soot hers for babies and young children. The standard deals with general requirements for soothers and with product information, mechanical requirements and...

Project "safe toy". (News and Notes).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... DG SANCO, the Consumer Affairs Directorate of the European Commission, is providing 6130 000 to finance a project related to toy safety to promote the interest of consumers. The project will be executed by Hispacoop (Spanish association of...

UK funding for Home Safety. (News and Notes).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... Grants under the UK's Department of Trade and Industry's Modernisation Fund will be available during 2003/4 for practical home accident prevention initiatives across the UK. Funding this year for local community based projects will be up to...

Canadian Injury Statistics On-Line. (News and Notes).(www.hc-sc.gc.ca/pphb-dgspsp/dsol-smed )(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... Canada's Division of Health Surveillance and Epidemiology has introduced a new interactive website tool for Canadian Injury Statistics, Injury Surveillance On-Line, demonstrating how injury statistics can be made readily available. It allows...

"Safe Play Areas on Farms". (News and Notes).(National Children's Center for Rural and Agricultural Health and Safety report)
March 1, 2003... "Safe Play Areas on Farms" is a resource to assist in designing and building a safer play environment for children who live on or visits farms, ranches, orchards, or other agricultural settings. The guidance document, developed with support...

Accidental Injury Task Force report. (News and Notes).(www.doh.gov.uk/accidents)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... The multiagency Accidental Injury Task Force, set up in England following the Saving Lives: Our Healthier Nation White Paper, has completed its report to the Chief Medical Officer for England. Entitled Preventing Accidental Injury--Priorities...

Injury: predictable and preventable. (News and Notes).(Ontario Health Report )(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... The 2002 Chief Medical Officer of Health Report for the Canadian Province of Ontario notes that more than 2000 residents of Ontario are injured daily, translating into more than one person being injured every minute of every day. Injuries incur...

Car crashes and US teens. (News and Notes).(www.carfax.com/teen; National Highway Traffic Safety Administration)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for teenagers in the US, resulting in thousands of deaths nationwide per year. In fact, teenagers are involved in three times as many fatal crashes as other drivers, according to the National...

Using cars seats as cribs. (News and Notes).(warning from Transport Canada)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... The Canadian Government department, Transport Canada, has issued an advisory warning that infant car seats should not be used as cribs or swings, unless they are designed for these purposes. The warning followed three deaths in Canada and...

Safe Routes to School. (News and Notes).(www.saferoutestoschools.org.uk/html/ what_srs.htm)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... Want to know more about the Safe Routes to School initiatives in the UK? A visit to the website run by Sustrans, www.saferoutestoschools.org.uk/html/ what_srs.htm, is well worth a look. Safe Routes to Schools projects encourage and enable...

US seatbelt use at 75%. (News and Notes).(National Occupant Protection Use Survey by National Highway Traffic Safety Administration )(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... Seatbelt use is continuing an upward trend in the US in 2002, reaching 75%, its highest level since national surveys began in 1994, according to an announcement in September by Dr Jeffrey Runge, Administrator of the National Highway Traffic...

Bull bar standard published in Australia. (News and Notes).(protecting pedestrians from automobile safety devices)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... Since 1988, vehicle design rules in Australia have progressively changed to reduce the harm suffered by pedestrians in the event of collision. The most problematic item has proved to be the ubiquitous, pedestrian unfriendly bull bars. After...

ANEC research on rear seat back strength. (News and Notes).(European Association for the Co-Ordination of Consumer Representation in Standardization)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... European consumer organization, ANEC, has awarded a contract to one of the leading suppliers of automotive engineering and testing services to look at rear seat back strength. For many years, consumer groups have been arguing for improved...

Ski helmet website. (News and Notes).(www.lidsonkids.og; National Ski Areas Association)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... The US National Ski Areas Association is trying to encourage parents to put lids on their kids and will get a boost with the help of a new website designed to educate parents about the importance of helmets on the ski slopes. The web address is...

Diversity of trends in occupational injury mortality in the United States, 1980-96. (Original Article).
March 1, 2003... Objectives: Although the United States has generally enjoyed declining rates of fatal occupational injury, the rate of decline has not been uniform. To examine the heterogeneity of trends, changes in fatal occupational injury rates from 1980 to...

UN child injury conference addresses one million preventable deaths. (Lacunae).(United Nations)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... One million children die of preventable injuries every year in the developing world, eclipsing deaths from infectious diseases, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said ahead of a conference in Bangkok in October on the issue. Public...

Unintentional fatal injuries arising from unpaid work at home. (Original Article).
March 1, 2003... Objective: Unpaid work in and around the home is a common and potentially high risk activity, yet there is limited information about the circumstances surrounding resulting injuries. This study aimed to describe circumstances surrounding fatal...

Nail gun injuries in residential carpentry: lessons from active injury surveillance. (Original Article).
March 1, 2003... Objective: To describe circumstances surrounding injuries involving nail guns among carpenters, calculate injury rates, identify high risk groups and preventive measures. Methods and setting: Active injury surveillance was used to identify...

Seatbelt use by high school students. (Original Article).
March 1, 2003... Objective: To determine seatbelt use of teenage drivers arriving at high schools in the morning and at evening football games compared with belt use of adults driving teenage passengers to these events, and teenage passenger belt use depending...

Seatbelt legislation in Japan: high risk driver mortality and seatbelt use. (Original Article).
March 1, 2003... Objectives: To clarify why seatbelt legislation did not achieve the expected reduction in mortality in Japan. Location and background: Seatbelt legislation was enacted in Japan in September 1985 and penalties were introduced in November...

Board member biography.(Peter Lundqvist)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... Dr Peter Lundqvist is a Professor of Work Science at the Department of Agricultural Biosystems and Technology at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. He is located at a campus in Alnarp in the very south of Sweden. Peter got...

Socioeconomic variation in injury in children and older people: a population based study. (Original Article).
March 1, 2003... Objectives: To compare hospital admission rates for all causes and specific causes of injury in children and the elderly by a measure of economic deprivation. Study design: All emergency admissions far Welsh residents from 1997-99 were...

Discrepancy between actual and estimated speeds of drivers in the presence of child pedestrians. (Original Article).
March 1, 2003... Objectives: First, to measure the speeds of vehicles with and without children on the footpath, and second to compare these with drivers' estimates of how fast they would go in these conditions. Design: The speeds of vehicles in three...

Injury prevention attitudes and awareness in New Zealand. (Original Article).
March 1, 2003... Objectives: This study was designed to obtain New Zealand data on beliefs related to a broad spectrum of injuries and their prevention. Methods: A cross sectional phone survey was conducted of approximately 400 randomly selected households...

Lacunae.(various articles on traffic accidents and death statistics)
March 1, 2003... The Arizona Republic reported in October that Native Americans are living in danger. For most Americans the leading cause of death is heart disease, then cancer. For Navajos, it's accidents. The unintentional injury, or accidental, death rate...

Association between handgun purchase and mortality from firearm injury. (Original Article).
March 1, 2003... Objective: To determine the association between mortality from violent or firearm related injury and previous handgun purchase. Methods: Case-control study of 213 466 Californians ages 21 and older who died in 1998; cases were the 4728...

Studying "exposure" to firearms: household ownership v access. (Original Article).
March 1, 2003... Background: Firearm ownership has often been used to measure access to weapons. However, persons who own a firearm may not have access to it and conversely, persons who do not own a firearm may be able to access one quickly. Objectives: To...

Lacunae.(various articles on safety)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... "I accidentally squashed my accountant". A German actor who weighs 121 kg was jailed for 15 years for squashing his accountant to death. The defendant, who claimed to have accidentally fallen on his 60 year old accountant, was cleared of...

Family characteristics and pedestrian injury risk in Mexican children. (Original Article).
March 1, 2003... Background: Family characteristics have been described as risk factors for child pedestrian and motor vehicle collision. Research results come mainly from developed countries, where family relationships could be different than in developing...

Seismic, structural, and individual factors associated with earthquake related injury. (Original Article).
March 1, 2003... Background: Earthquakes cause thousands of deaths worldwide every year, and systematic study of the causes of these deaths can lead to their prevention. Few studies have examined how multiple types of risk factors are related to physical injury...

Suicide among North Carolina women, 1989-93: information from two data sources. (Original Article).
March 1, 2003... Objectives: To characterize the events and examine suicide precursors among women and to examine gaps in surveillance. Setting: A statewide study in North Carolina. Methods: Suicides of women age 15 and older for the time period...

Validity of self reported home safety practices. (Original Article).
March 1, 2003... Objectives: To examine the validity of self reported data on parents' home safety practices of using smoke alarms and stair gates, and having syrup of ipecac. Setting: Families from a pediatric continuity clinic in a large, urban teaching...

Injuries and death of children in rollover motor vehicle crashes in the United States. (Original Article).
March 1, 2003... Context: There is an increased awareness of the problem of rollover crashes, but few data on children involved in rollover crashes in the United States. Objective: To determine: (1) the rates of rollover crashes involving children and the...

Predictors and severity of injury in assaults with bargiasses and bottles. (Original Article).
March 1, 2003... Background: Although glasses and bottles are frequently used as weapons in assaults, there is little knowledge an which prevention strategies can be based. Design: Scrutiny of a random sample of 1288 criminal injury compensation...

An investigation of child restraint/seatbelt usage in motor vehicles by Maori in Northland New Zealand. (Brief Report).
March 1, 2003... Objective: To investigate child restraint/seatbelt use by the indigenous (Maori) population in Northland New Zealand. Method: Observational surveys were conducted at the two main car parks (McDonald's and the largest supermarket) to...

Children's response to a commercial back-up warning device. (Brief Report).(risk of pedestrian injury)
March 1, 2003... Fullerton-Gleason, L. Objective: To determine preschool children's response to a commercial back-up warning alarm in a mock setting of on automobile backing up. Setting: Preschool parking lot in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA. ...

How much science is there in injury prevention and control? (Brief Report).
March 1, 2003... Objectives: To determine what proportion of research papers at an injury prevention conference reported an evaluation. Methods: A random sample of 250 abstracts from the 6th World Conference on Injury Prevention and Control were classified...

Research letters. (PostScript).(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2003... Misclassification of seat belt use In a recent article, Robertson (1) commented on our study of scat belts and death in a crash (2) Robertson wrote: "What is not explained adequately by thc theory [about misclassification of scat belt use]...

World Report on Violence and Health. (Book Reviews).(Book Review)
March 1, 2003... Edited by E G Krug, LL Dahlberg, J A Mercy, A Zwi, R Lozano. (Pp 340; $US 27; Swiss francs 30, developing countries Swiss francs 15.) Geneva: World Health Organization, 2002. ISBN 92-4-154561-5. The World Report on Violence and Health is a...

Falls in Older People: Risk Factors and Strategies for Prevention. (Book Reviews).(Book Review)
March 1, 2003... By S R Lard, C Sherrington, and H B Menz. (Pp 249; A$85.00.) Cambridge University Press (Private Bag 31, Part Melbourne, VIC 3207, Australia), 2001. ISBN 0-521-58964-9. This book has been written with a view to consolidating the now...

Conference focuses on behavior and injury control. (Conference Report).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... A significant decrease in the motor vehicle death rate for Americans--90% fewer deaths per million vehicle miles between 1925 and 1995--shows that efforts to raise safety standards and change personal behavior can be highly successful. Vehicles...

Calendar.(Calendar)
March 1, 2003... 68th RoSPA Road Safety Congress 3-5 March 2003, Blackpool, UK. 68th RoSPA Road Safety Congress Safer drivin--Reducing Risks, Crashes and Casualties. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accident's congress will focus on recent...

Splinters and Fragments.(various articles on accidental poisoning, motorcycle helmet laws, domestic violence, and prison health services)
March 1, 2003... Agricultural poisonings, particularly those due to pesticides, are a large problem in the developing world, A study of all poisoning patients admitted to hospital in a cotton growing area of Pakistan 1996-2000 reveals that the majority of the...

Zipper slips suffered in silence. (Lacunae).(clothing injuries)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... They may be the tip, so to speak, of a very substantial iceberg. The 13 men and boys who have fronted up to Queensland hospitals in the past four years with trouser-zipper injuries to the penis are probably outnumbered many times by those who...

Australian safety organisation. (People in the News).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... Ian Scott, Injury Prevention book editor, has moved from the Australian safety organisation, Kidsafe, and is now working for the Injury and Violence Prevention Program of the WHO Regional Office for the Western Pacific in Manila. He can be...

US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). (People in the News).(new president selected)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has named Dr Frank Richey to the new position of President and Academic Dean of the NTSB Academy. The Academy, which is currently under construction, is expected to open in late summer of 2003....