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Reasons for action: Unintentional injuries may impair cognitive and behavioral development and motor functioning, resulting in a lower quality of life for the child and poorer prospects for school success. The incidence of unintentional injuries can be reduced by: (1) preventing the creation or release of the hazard, (2) reducing the amount or distribution of the hazard, (3) creating barriers or separations of time and space from the hazard, and (4) making children more resistant to damage.
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Health care providers, hospitals, and other agencies working with families promote safety practices. They furnish or link families to sources of car seats, home fire alarms, bicycle helmets, and window guards. They provide information on household safety, including the prevention of accidental falls, drownings, poisonings, dangerous ingestions, shaken-baby syndrome, and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).
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| The National Safe Kids Campaign conducts research and disseminates information about preventing unintentional injury. State and local coalition members offer programs on the proper use of child passenger safety seats and bike helmets through media events, device distribution, and educational activities. Through local health departments, the Campaign also supports a home visiting program to reduce unintentional injuries among children age 14 and younger who live in communities with high rates of preventable, home-related deaths and injuries. Through local fire departments, the Campaign supports fire prevention programs that sponsor community events and provide discounted fire alarms to families. www.safekids.org/ | |
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Service providers share information about products that the Consumer Product Safety Commission has determined to be unsafe for young children.
Local coalitions track the incidence of preventable injuries in children seen at health care facilities and devise strategies to reduce their occurrence.
Local coalitions encourage the national and local media to conduct public education campaigns that support safety measures, teach about injury prevention, and inform parents and other adults about the importance of preventing injuries.
Local coalitions keep funders and policymakers informed about barriers to effective action that require solutions at the funding, policy, or regulatory level.
Funders provide resources to community agencies to educate families about safety practices, furnish families with safety equipment, and assist families in their use.
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The Center for Disease Control’s (CDC) Unintentional Injury Prevention Program awards cooperative agreements and grants to state health departments, injury prevention units within large city or municipal health authorities, and universities to conduct community-based unintentional injury prevention programs.
http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/pub-res/unintentional_activity/07_state_programs.html | |
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Funders support the work of local coalitions to track the incidence of preventable injuries and to devise strategies to reduce their occurrence.
Local policymakers adopt ordinances that specify safety standards and establish penalties for code violations.
Federal agencies keep consumers informed about unsafe products.
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| The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is charged with protecting the public from unreasonable risks of serious injury or death from more than 15,000 types of consumer products. It provides information on over 4,000 product recalls on its website, www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prerel.html. | |
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