Injury Prevention articles from September 2003

Injury Prevention archives from September 2003

State of the journal report: statistics tell the tale.(Editorial)
September 1, 2003... Journals are judged in many ways depending on who is doing the assessment. Obviously, what is important for readers is not often the same as what matters most to authors. Readers want high quality, timely, well written material, presented in a...

Playground injuries: recent attempts to begin to address what we don't know.
September 1, 2003... In the current issue of Injury Prevention two studies examine aspects of playground safety. Nixon and colleagues examined frequency of use of play equipment in public schools and parks in Brisbane, Australia (1) and Sherker et al present the...

Speed humps cost lives.(Lacunae)(speed bumps increase traffic accidents and congestion )
September 1, 2003... Paramedics are warning that speed humps on London streets are killing hundreds of people a year by increasing ambulance response times. Sigurd Reinton, chairman of the London Ambulance Service, claimed in February that more lives are being lost...

People in the news.(News and notes)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... The US Institute of Medicine of the National Academies has named seven behavioral scientists and health professionals as Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellows for 2003-04 including Injury Prevention Associate Editor Susan Gallagher. Susan...

UK injury surveillance system closing.(News and notes)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... The Department of Trade and Industry is, according to its press release, "refocusing its strategic priorities in relation to the provision of statistics". In other words, the UK's long established home and leisure injury surveillance systems,...

Graduated driver licensing symposium.(News and notes)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... The papers from a National Safety Council symposium on graduated driver licensing have been published in Journal of Safety Research. The collection of scientific research document both the higher risk and collision rates for teenage drivers and...

Car makes and models compared.(News and notes)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... A report from the UK Department for Transport presents estimates of the risk of driver injury in popular models of car, if they are involved in a two car injury accident. It does not address issues of primary safety and gives no information on...

692,000 fatalities on Germany's roads.(News and notes)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Statistisches Bundesamt, Germany's Federal Statistical Office, reported in June that there have been 692 000 fatalities on the country's roads since 1953 when the collection of official road accident statistics was re-established. This number...

Stronger safety system needed for recalled products.(News and notes)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... US non-profit organisation Kids in Danger (KID) released a new report in February detailing the danger to children from recalled juvenile products. A Minefield of Danger: Children's Product Recalls in 2002 reviews all children's products...

ECSA news.(News and notes)(European Child Safety Alliance publishes child safety report)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... The European Child Safety Alliance, an initiative of the European Consumer Safety Association, has published a detailed overview of regulations and standards in Europe. The report describes the regulatory process, presents a list of the...

Major recall of baby toy.(News and notes)(Playskool Magic Start Crawl 'n Stand toys)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... In cooperation with the US Consumer Product Safety Commission, toy maker Hasbro is voluntarily recalling about 300 000 Playskool Magic Start Crawl 'n Stand toys. The toy, sold through Wal-Mart, was designed to encourage crawling babies to pull...

Yo-ball actions.(News and notes)(strangulation risks)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... In May, the Canadian government issued a warning that a toy commonly known as a yo-yo ball, yo-ball, or water yo-yo may pose a strangulation hazard to children. This follows bans on their sale in France, Switzerland, and the UK. This is the...

Cell phone ban for inexperienced drivers?(News and notes)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... All US states should prohibit inexperienced drivers from using cell phones behind the wheel, the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said in June. The NTSB said it wants other states to follow the example of Maine and New Jersey by...

Canadian falls report.(News and notes)(fall-related injury trends and forecasts)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... A report, Unintentional fall-related injuries and deaths among seniors in British Columbia: Trends, patterns, and future projections, 1987-2012, is available on the British Columbia Injury Research and Prevention Unit's website,...

Low speed runovers.(News and notes)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... The March 2003 edition of Injury Bulletin from the Queensland Injury Surveillance Unit (QISU) examined the circumstances of low speed (non-traffic) pedestrian injury deaths and emergency department presentations of children younger than 5 years...

Safe kids Canada calls for baby walker ban.(News and notes)(safety of baby strollers not regulated)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... The theme of Safe Kids Week 2003 in Canada was product safety, with a focus on baby walkers. The national safety organisation called for the federal Health Minister to ban walkers, under the Hazardous Products Act, a national law which has been...

ATV injuries double in five years.(News and notes)(All-terrain vehicle )(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... All-terrain vehicle (ATV) safety was the focus of a US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) public hearing in West Virginia in June. ATV related injuries in the US have doubled in a recent five year period and deaths also continue to...

Safety and usability of products by people with special needs.(News and notes)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... The May issue of the ANEC newsletter reported that the European Standards Bodies, CEN, CENELEC and ETSI, have released their report on the identification of those product standards that are in need of early review under Mandate M283 (safety and...

Home injuries cost US employers $38 billion.(News and notes)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... US employers are spending an average of $280 per employee helping to pay for injuries that employees and their dependents suffer at home. These "off-the-clock" injuries result in a $38 billion a year financial burden to US employers according...

Safety belt pretensioning effective.(News and notes)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... A study released by the US Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in April showed the effectiveness of safety belt pretensioning devices, which pull safety belts snug as a crash begins, and load...

Injury control history.(News and notes)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... The Injury Control and Emergency Health Services Section (ICEHS) of the American Public Health Association has published commentaries since September 2002 in the section newsletters, focusing on the leadership history of the injury control...

Road traffic injuries special publication.(News and notes)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... CDC's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control and the Harvard University Center for Population and Development Studies collaborated to produce a special issue of Injury Control and Safety Promotion (Vol 10, No 1-2, March to June,...

Speeding fines rise in Victoria.(News and notes)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... The Victorian Government crackdown on excess speed has resulted in a significant boost to state revenue. The general increase in the number of fines was 53% but some areas increased by 249% and revenue rose from Aus $20.1 million to $33.5...

Canadian programme premiered in UK.(News and notes)(safety education)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... The safety roadshow, Heroes, developed in Canada, is now running in the UK. Smartrisk UK has been established as a non-profit organisation and a UK version of the Canadian show has been produced. The premier took place in Leeds in June. Contact...

Traffic calming for the prevention of road traffic injuries: systematic review and meta-analysis.(Systematic Review)
September 1, 2003... Objective: To assess whether area-wide traffic calming schemes can reduce road crash related deaths and injuries. Design: Systematic review and meta-analysis. Data sources: Cochrane Injuries Group Specialised Register, Cochrane Central...

Safety in numbers: more walkers and bicyclists, safer walking and bicycling.(Original Article)
September 1, 2003... Objective: To examine the relationship between the numbers of people walking or bicycling and the frequency of collisions between motorists and walkers or bicyclists. The common wisdom holds that the number of collisions varies directly with...

Injury and frequency of use of playground equipment in public schools and parks in Brisbane, Australia.(Original Article)
September 1, 2003... Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the frequency of use of play equipment in public schools and parks in Brisbane, Australia, and to estimate an annual rate of injury per use of equipment, overall and for particular types of...

Trends in hospitalization after injury: older women are displacing young men.(Original Article)
September 1, 2003... Objective: To evaluate trends in hospitalization after injuries in the USA. Design: National Hospital Discharge Survey data from 1979 to 2000 were evaluated annually by age group, sex, injury severity score (ISS), length of stay, and...

Evaluation of North Carolina child care safety regulations.(Original Article)
September 1, 2003... Introduction: The goal of this study was to track any changes in injuries and injury hazards during the first 3.5 years of implementation of the North Carolina Child Care Commission's 1996 playground safety regulations. Methods: All...

Safety advice needed.(Lacunae)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... A great deal can change over a generation when it comes to keeping babies safe. It is important for new grandparents to keep up to date, so if you have any tips for Injury Prevention editor Barry Pless and his wife, Ann, please send them to...

"Drunk on Life": Australian Boozie Awards.(Lacunae)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... In imitation of industry awards the Australian Drug Foundation gives TV awards in recognition of "excessive, inappropriate or unconscionable marketing of alcohol", called the "Boozie Awards". A very popular drama series The Secret Life of Us...

Injuries among disabled children: a study from Greece.(Original Article)
September 1, 2003... Objective: To compare the differential implications of sociodemographic and situational factors on the risk of injury among disabled and non-disabled children. Design: Data from the Emergency Department Injury Surveillance System (EDISS)...

Community based program to improve firearm storage practices rural Alaska.(Original Article)
September 1, 2003... Objective: To develop and evaluate a pilot program to reduce unauthorized access to firearms by youth by distributing gun safes and trigger locks to households. Design: Pilot intervention with pre/post-evaluation design. Setting: Two...

Board member biography: Etienne Krug, MD, MPH.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Dr Krug was appointed Director of the Department for Violence and Injury Prevention at the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland in October 2000. He has coordinated the development of WHO's first World Report on Violence and Health...

Identification of risk factors for non-fatal child injury in a rural area: Keokuk County Rural Health Study.(Original Article)
September 1, 2003... Objective: To identify risk factors for non-fatal injury among rural children. Design: Cross sectional health interview survey, 1994-98. Setting: A rural Iowa county, not adjacent to a metropolitan area. Subjects: Stratified,...

Squirrels and jaywalking.(Lacunae)(male squirrel population)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... No one ever said a squirrel's life was easy. Just how tough it may be for male squirrels, however, has been found by a study at Texas A&M University. A Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences' Animal Ecology course student project that...

Crocodile teeth a health hazard!(Lacunae)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Australian scientists have found that crocodile teeth are a health hazard! Scientists from Darwin have begun a study into the diversity and toxicity of bacteria growing on crocodile teeth, to help develop better antibiotics for survivors of...

Farm work practices and farm injuries in Colorado.(Original Article)
September 1, 2003... Study objectives: To describe the farm work patterns and the relationship between hours spent working on specific farm tasks and task specific work related injuries among women and men. Design: A cross sectional survey of farm operators and...

Nighttime driving, passenger transport, and injury crash rates of young drivers.(Original article)
September 1, 2003... Objective: This study examines the association of nighttime driving and the carrying of passengers with the rate of motor vehicle crashes that resulted in severe or fatal injury to young drivers in California before the implementation of a...

Motor vehicle crash fatalities by race/ethnicity in Arizona, 1990-96.(Original Article)
September 1, 2003... Objective: To compare rates of motor vehicle crash (MVC) fatalities among different race/ethnic groups in urban and rural Arizona. Method: Using the Fatality Analysis Reporting System and the National Center for Health Statistics Multiple...

Effect of Italy's motorcycle helmet law on traumatic brain injuries.(Original Article)
September 1, 2003... Objectives: To evaluate the impact of a revised Italian motorcycle-moped-scooter helmet law on crash brain injuries. Design: A pre-post law evaluation of helmet use and traumatic brain injury (TBI) occurrence from 1999 to 2001. ...

Home delivery of an injury prevention kit for children in four French cities: a controlled randomized trial.(Program Evaluation)
September 1, 2003... Objectives: Home delivery of counselling and safety devices to prevent child injuries could help parents to adopt safe behaviour. The aim of this study was to test a safety kit designed and used in Quebec (Canada). Design and subjects: One...

Trends in serious head injuries among English cyclists and pedestrians.(Brief Report)
September 1, 2003... In England the use of bicycle helmets remains low as debate continues about their effectiveness. Time trend studies have previously shown an inverse association between helmet wearing rates and hospital admissions for head injury, but data on...

Lessons for increasing awareness and use of booster seats in a Latino community.(Brief Report)
September 1, 2003... Objectives: Latino children are more likely to be unrestrained passengers in motor vehicles than non-Latino children, but little is known about the use of booster seats in Latino families. This study investigates Latino parents' knowledge,...

Immediate care of school sport injury.(Brief Report)
September 1, 2003... School sport is a major cause of injury in the post-primary age group. The importance of primary prevention in sport has been identified; however secondary prevention of school related sport injury has not been described in Ireland. A...

Design and implementation of injury prevention curricula for elementary schools: lessons learned.(Methodologic Issues)
September 1, 2003... Objectives: Project objectives were to: (1) design and produce an easy-to-use, replicable comprehensive injury prevention curriculum for elementary schools; (2) pilot the program to determine instructors' ease in teaching the material and its...

Development of a multidisciplinary method to determine risk factors for arm fracture in falls from playground equipment.(Methodologic Issues)
September 1, 2003... Objectives: To present the development of a novel multidisciplinary method to investigate physical risk factors far playground related arm fracture. Rationale. Previous playground injury research has been limited in its ability to...

Can martial arts falling techniques prevent injuries?(Research Letters)
September 1, 2003... Although falling techniques are taught to martial artists, athletes and paratroopers, a BMJ search of Highwire listed journals has discovered no mention of "falling correctly", "safe falling", etc. "Reducing the force of impact of a fall on...

New trends in suicide in Japan.(Research Letters)
September 1, 2003... Suicide is the 10th leading cause of mortality in the world. It is just as common as road traffic deaths (1) and a leading cause of death among the young. 2002 was the fifth consecutive year where there were more than 30 000 suicide deaths. The...

Further reflections on the seatbelt use and effectiveness issue.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2003... In a recent letter, Cummings and Rivara (1) misstate my point regarding changes in estimated belt effectiveness in the mid-1980s using the comparison of front seat occupant pairs. They cite my statement, "What is not explained by the theory...

Precautionary principle.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2003... I had a hard time digesting the preemptive strike doctrine of the Bush Administration until I read your editorial on the precautionary principle in a recent issue of Injury Prevention. (1) Your piece helped me regain my sanity in the seemingly...

Accidental Injury: Biomechanics and Prevention. 2nd Ed.(Book Review)
September 1, 2003... Edited by Alan M Nahum and John W Melvin. (Pp 577; $165.00.) Springer-Verlag, 2001. ISBN 0-387-98820-3. Accidental Injury: Biomechanics and Prevention attempts to address the communication gap between engineering researchers studying the...

Looking Beneath the Surface of Agricultural Safety and Health.(Book Review)
September 1, 2003... Dennis J Murphy. (Pp 104.) Published by American Society of Agricultural Engineers, 2003 (ASAE Pub 801M0303). ISBN 1-802769-28-X. Agriculture is a very dangerous occupation and a complex industry. Health and safety initiatives must account...

The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Difference.(Book Review)
September 1, 2003... By Malcolm Gladwell. (Pp 279; US$14.95.) Little, Brown and Company, January 2002. ISBN 0-349-11346-7. The Tipping Point, first published as articles in the New Yorker and then in book form in 2000, offers a fascinating look at a concept...

Getting Research Findings into Practice. 2nd Ed.(Book Review)
September 1, 2003... Edited by Andrew Haines and Anna Donald. (Pp 240; 19.95 [pounds sterling].) London: BMJ Publishing Group, November 2001. ISBN 0-7279-1257-7. This book is a response to the ongoing interest in the uptake of research findings. The editors...

Correction.(Correction Notice)
September 1, 2003... We regret that due to an oversight the acknowledgements were omitted from the paper by Sorenson and Vittes published in the June issue (Sorenson SB, Vittes KA. Buying a handgun for someone else: firearm dealer willingness to sell. Inj Prey...

Calendar.(Calendar)
September 1, 2003... 19th International Traffic Medicine Conference 2003, Budapest, Hungary 14-17 September 2003. Details: www.itma2003.hu. Canadian Injury Prevention eConference 2003, Ottawa 23-25 November 2003. The meeting will build on the national...

Measured responses to improve safety.(Lacunae)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Even in serious matters there can be something to laugh at. Privacy International has sifted through 5000 nominations from 35 countries to find awardees for stupid mechanisms for increasing security. The Delta Terminal at JFK Airport in New...

Splinters & fragments.
September 1, 2003... Health care workers in Capetown, South Africa, noticed a spate of eye injuries caused by spring-loaded toy air guns shooting plastic projectiles. They embarked on a campaign to draw attention to the risks which has been repeated each Christmas...