This is verbatim from an article in the New York Times, via Lombardo. When we think about injury prevention we must never lose sight of the major role government has to play, especially when ensuring the safety of dangerous products. One of the most dangerous, in my view, is the automobile. “What we do know […]
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A radical step in injury prevention – preventing table-saw injuries
After blogging “Table saw 1, Injury-free arm and hand 0” on the 20th of May last year, I have remained alert to news regarding installation of injury prevention devices on table saws. Pleasingly my father has left the building industry with all his digits and limbs intact, however other table-saw users have not fared to […]
Grumpy over-protective Nanny Barry
Am I the only person in the injury prevention world who watched the Olympics with a mixture of admiration and condemnation? What struck me — and perhaps only me — was that virtually every one of the ‘sports’ were dangerous. The danger element ranged from simple falls on the ice for dancers without helmets to […]
Overcoming obstacles encountered in translating research into practice
Regular readers of the injury prevention blog will know I have commented on a number of occasions regarding the need to (1) share our research findings, and (2) translate research into practice and policy. Whilst this is the ideal, I also realise that there are many obstacles to this being the actual, another topic […]
Maintaining the momentum
Alcohol-fuelled violence continues on Australian streets – Google this topic, and pages and pages of hits will appear. You will also note in these pages that this has become an increasingly alarming issue over the years, with much public outcry in recent times. The randomness of such violence, and the magnitude and variety of injuries – […]
A safer paper-based (!) bike helmet
Anna Lacey, reporter for the BBC Health Check, notes that the basic idea behind cycle helmets is to create a mini crumple zone to absorb some of the impact energy and give your skull and brain more time to slow down before coming to a stop. Those extra few milliseconds can reduce the amount of […]
Toy gun ban in Brazil
The Guardian carried a story about a ban on toy guns in the federal district of Brazil. The law was intended to help reduce violent crime. The penalties for selling such replicas are steep: from $2000 to 44,000; closed for 30 days; or loss of trading license. The rising homicide rate in Brazil is part […]
Would you drive blindfolded?
I hope you said ‘no’ in response to that question! If you didn’t, maybe you shouldn’t be sharing the road with the rest of us sane people! To me, driving whilst distracted is just like driving blindfolded. In either scenario, you cannot and do not see the road in front, to the side, or behind […]
Cell phones and driving
I am struggling with trying to decide what the most effective preventive strategy might be to help control the epidemic of driver crashes associated with cell phone use. One possibility is more Public Service Announcements like this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0LCmStIw9E Go to it and tell me what you think. […]
The festive season or the injury season?
I thought as my final blog for 2013 that I would ponder the question: the festive season or the injury season? I recall spending a Christmas Eve some 20 years ago in hospital as my then fiancée had to be treated for dreadful scalds on his stomach. Needless to say, despite the sweltering heat and ridiculously-high humidity, he […]