Rewarding safety

Buckle up and win a pick-up truck? In an effort to increase seatbelt wearing in Manitoba, the province's public motor vehicle insurer has begun holding an annual contest to reward drivers “caught” with their belts buckled. Police issue entry forms during road checks, a more pleasant thing to receive than the $66 fine for not wearing a seatbelt. Despite nearly two decades of mandatory seatbelt use, Manitoba Public Insurance officials are frustrated that only 86% of local motorists buckle up regularly, the lowest usage rate among Canadian provinces. Still, that is considerably higher than the US average of 62%. The 1997 winner of a brand new pick-up truck donated by a local dealer was someone who has seen the results of ignoring the law—she's an ambulance attendant and traffic safety instructor (Winnipeg Free Press, November 1997).

Editor's note: Is anyone evaluating the impact on seatbelt wearing rates of this novel initiative?

New items on NISU web site

New items have been added to the web site of the National Injury Surveillance Unit (NISU), at the Research Centre for Injury Studies at Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia. The full texts are also published on paper.

• Spinal cord injury, Australia 1995/96 (the first statistical report of the new national register of spinal cord injury)

• Injury Issues Monitor #11 (NISU's rebirth as part of Flinders University, information on the 2nd National Conference on Injury Prevention and Control (February 1998, Melbourne), and other news)

• Injury Deaths Australia, 1991–95. (Counts and rates for the most recent five years available, aggregated in various ways. Pick what you are interested in and the page will produce a table.)

Visit the site at http://www.nisu.flinders.edu.au/welcome.html and go to the “what's new” section. Take a look, and let NISU know what you think.

Proceedings of 5th International Conference on Product Safety Research

The European Consumer Safety Association (ECOSA) and the Departament de Sanitat of the Generalitat de Catalunya (Barcelona, Spain) organised the 5th International Conference on Product Safety Research, Barcelona, 15–16 April 1997. The conference dealt with research into a wide range of subjects related to the safety of consumer products, for example children's products, products for the elderly, helmet use, safety in sports and recreational activities, and child resistant closures. Other research topics related to risk assessment, noise levels of toys, structural integrity of products, safety labelling, and warnings. The Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Product Safety Research, Barcelona, 15–16 April 1997, includes 25 research papers. Copies (price Dfl 100) can be ordered from ECOSA, PO Box 75169, NL-1070 AD Amsterdam, The Netherlands (fax: +31 20 511 4510).

The Accidents of Human Life with Hints for their Prevention or the Removal of their Consequences by Newton Bosworth, Honorary Member of the London Philosophical Society, London, 1813 (with thanks to Hugh Jackson).

Kerbcraft—smart strategies for pedestrian safety

The UK's Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions has distributed, free of charge, copies of a new training manual for teaching young children to be safe pedestrians. The Kerbcraft manual was developed by researchers at Glasgow's Strathclyde University and local road safety officers. It is based on a fully evaluated trial carried out in Drumchapel, Glasgow. The manual is aimed at enabling adult volunteers to train young children in three basic pedestrian skills: finding a safe place and safe route to cross; crossing safely near parked cars; and crossing at intersections.

The Strathclyde researchers, James Thomson and Kirstie Whelan, note that practical training is both time consuming and labour intensive, making it difficult to capitalise on the strengths of the method. Their research report describes a solution to this problem by adopting a community participation approach in which local volunteers carried out all roadside training, working in cooperation with schools and project staff. The project took place in an area of Glasgow known for its exceptionally high child accident rate. The aims of the project were to teach three pedestrian skills to 5–7 year olds, using practical training methods; to arrange for training to be undertaken by local volunteers, recruited and trained by project staff; to evaluate the effectiveness of the programme by assessing the extent to which it led to improvements in children's traffic judgments and behaviour; and to monitor the problems encountered in running such schemes and to consider the feasibility of introducing them on a wider scale.

Volunteers were recruited through local schools, community organisations, and by word of mouth. Over 100 volunteers took part in at least one training phase over the 30 month duration of the project. They acquired the necessary proficiency at half day training courses in which they both observed good teaching practice and gained experience of teaching under the guidance of project staff. Separate courses were designed for each of the three skills covered by the scheme and were run in each of the 10 schools in the area.

All training took place at designated sites in the streets near children's schools in sessions lasting 25–30 minutes. Children were taught in groups of two or three and received between four and six training sessions on a roughly weekly basis. Trainers maximised children's participation by using open questioning techniques and encouraging cooperation between children wherever possible.

In total, more than 750 children received training over the duration of the project. To assess how effective training had been, a 30% sample of trained children undertook a series of roadside tests both before and after training. The researchers also tested a matched sample of control children who did not undertake the training programme. In all three skills, the judgments and behaviour of trained children improved substantially following training. They were much more likely to choose safe locations to cross the road; used a greatly improved strategy when crossing at parked vehicles; and were able to deal effectively with a range of intersections. Moreover, these benefits were maintained over a two month period after training ended, showing that the improvements were robust. The judgments of trained children also appeared to be underpinned by better conceptual understanding, making them able to deal with novel situations in a relatively flexible manner. By comparison, improvements in control children were much more modest. Although there was slight improvement, especially after the second post-test, this was well behind that achieved by trained children and was also conceptually weaker. The improvement seen in this group probably reflects the experience gained informally during the programme of pretesting and post-testing. However, at the observed rate of growth, it seems unlikely that this group would attain the level of trained children for several years.

It was not possible to assess the effectiveness of volunteers on an individual basis but, taken as a group, the results they achieved were easily comparable with those achieved by highly qualified staff in earlier studies. Although volunteers were not selected on the basis of having any particular qualification other than an interest in the wellbeing of children in Drumchapel, when given clear instructions about what they were trying to achieve together with a small amount of experience of working with children, they were able to translate this into action rather effectively. This shows that volunteers from deprived communities can play a central part in road safety provision, providing they have been properly prepared for the job. Given the importance of practical training, they must be considered an extremely valuable “resource”.

Contact Deidre O'Reilly, DETR, Great Minster House, 76 Marsham Street, London SW14DR, UK (tel: +44 171 271 4772, fax: +44 171 271 4728) for copies of the Kerbcraft manual and research report.

CPSC recalls more cigarette lighters

Each year, an estimated 190 deaths are caused in the US by children under 5 years playing with lighters. The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) estimates that child resistant mechanisms on lighters will prevent more than 100 deaths a year. The CPSC, working with an Illinois company, has announced that 53 000 lighters with faulty child resistant mechanisms have been recalled. The Customs Service has also prevented the import of about 600 000 of the lighters. Observant readers may recall that in the December issue of Injury Prevention, we reported that about 850 000 non-child resistant lighters were recalled.

European consumer bodies call for baby walker ban

Baby walkers on sale in the European Union are unsafe and can seriously harm young children, warn BEUC, the European Consumers' Organisation, International Testing (IT), and ANEC, the European association for the coordination of consumer representation in standardisation. In addition, despite the claims of manufacturers, baby walkers do not help babies to learn to walk. These are the conclusions of research conducted on 31 baby walkers commonly sold in Europe. The research was conducted by IT, in cooperation with independent national consumer organisations throughout Europe, and funded by DG XXIV of the European Commission (EC).

Jim Murray, Director of BEUC, has called on the EC and the standards bodies to revise the existing draft safety standard on baby walkers to provide better safety requirements for all baby walkers on the market. In the meantime, he urged manufacturers to act urgently on these results to withdraw potentially dangerous products from the market and to ensure that their products are safe for children.

IT tested 31 baby walkers to the draft European safety standard on baby walkers (prEN 1273). The tests showed that none of the baby walkers would have passed the draft safety standard, all failed to meet even the most basic requirements for product information (product marking and instructions for use), five of the 31 unsafe baby walkers would not even have been covered by the existing draft European safety standard.

Practical tests were also undertaken using children and dummies, which found that none of the mobile baby walkers addressed the risk of accidents occurring as a result of the child's increased mobility and reach, particularly the risk of falling downstairs—the biggest cause of accidents (such risks are currently not addressed by the draft European safety standard); all mobile baby walkers move at twice the speed of a fast crawling child—some attaining a speed twice normal adult walking pace; and none of the baby walkers encouraged movements associated with a child's normal walking development. This confirms independent scientific research which indicates that baby walkers do not help children to learn to walk. BEUC, IT, and ANEC have called for a ban preventing manufacturers from claiming that baby walkers help children to learn to walk. The results of the research, supported by independent scientific research, show clearly that this is not the case.

The report Safety of Baby Walkers and a supporting video are published by International Testing Ltd, 65 New Cavendish Street, London W1M 8AX, UK (fax: +44 171 436 0944).

Road safety in Scotland

Want to know what is happening in road safety in Scotland? Get hold of a copy of the colourful newsletter Direction from the Scottish Road Safety Campaign (SRSC). It contains a comprehensive round-up of what is happening in each council, as well as an overview of Scotland-wide initiatives. To learn more about the SRSC, visit their web site at www.road-safety.org.uk or write to Scottish Road Safety Campaign, Heriot-Watt Research Park (North), Riccarton, Currie, Edinburgh EH14 4AP, UK (tel: +44 131 472 9200, fax: +44 131 472 9201, e-mail: info{at}road-safety.org.uk).

Guns for art

A “guns for art” incentive program to take firearms out of circulation recovered more than 700 guns in Winnipeg, Manitoba, far exceeding the expectations of the police chief when he decided to join five other cities across Canada in the 10 day amnesty for gun owners. In return for surrendering a firearm, people received a limited edition print from one of five Canadian artists. The Guns for Art Foundation in Montreal hoped to retrieve 10 000 weapons. All the firearms will be destroyed (Winnipeg Free Press, October 1997).

Meanwhile, gun control advocates in the US—where an estimated 1500 children are accidentally shot each year—were reportedly pleased that eight gun manufacturers have agreed to provide child safety locks on their firearms by the end of 1998. The voluntary initiative will affect some 80% of handguns made in the United States (Reuters, Winnipeg Free Press, October 1997).

Australian/New Zealand standard for children's playgrounds

Child's play involves issues of safety, challenge, learning and fun, so standards in this field attract strongly held, divergent views about what is the best approach. While there is no doubt that everyone involved wants to do the right thing, the difficulty is to reach agreement on what that should be. This has been the case for playground standards in every country that has developed them, and the process of revising the existing Australian and New Zealand standards for playgrounds and playground equipment has been no exception. After a difficult start, it was noted that, although there were no International Standards for playgrounds or playground equipment, the European standards organisation, CEN, had released several drafts forming the start of a series of prENs (equivalent to Australian drafts for public comment) dealing with specific playground and playground equipment issues, with more to come. The four prENs which were available at the time were issued for public comment in Australia and New Zealand, and considerable comment was received, reflecting the widespread interest in the subject. The remaining parts in the prEN 1176 series are being evaluated by the Committee as they become available, and used as the basis for further public comment drafts.

The first of the revised Australian/New Zealand standards resulting from that process has already been published as AS/NZS 4422:1996 Playground surfacing—specifications, requirements and test method. The next two parts of the European series considered by our Committee (Installation, inspection and maintenance, and operation) have been revised in the light of the comment received, and combined into one document which has been finalised and should be published soon. In addition to the topics in the European drafts, the resultant document contains playground design and development aspects to assist in ensuring the playground and its equipment are suitable for the intended age group and located appropriately. The public comment responses on the other part of the European series already released for comment in Australia and New Zealand (General safety requirements and test methods) will be considered next. The Committee has agreed that consideration should be given to providing more information on requirements for children with special needs, but has not yet decided whether it should be a separate part, or incorporated into the general requirements.

Because of the need to balance safety, play value, and challenge (and not forgetting fun), there will never be unanimity on what the requirements for playgrounds and playground equipment should be. However, with a strong Committee, focused on cooperation and finding solutions, the road to new playground standards is clearer than ever before. You could almost say we are on the downhill slide!

Updated child resistant packaging standards

A Canadian Standards Association Technical Committee is reviewing and revising the existing Canadian standard on child resistant packaging. The work will also include the development of new requirements for non-reclosable packages such as a blister packages. The Committee will be looking at the new US CPSC's child resistant protocol and the ISO standard as the basis for the review. One of the key issues that the Committee will be addressing is the problem that older adults experience in trying to open the child resistant packages. There are three consumer representatives on the Committee, including one representative of a seniors association.

Bunk bed recalls

Since 1990, the US CPSC has received reports of 35 children who died from being caught on the top of wooden bunk beds. All but one was aged under 4 years. In addition, five children aged 2 and under have died in the US due to entrapment in the top of metal bunk beds. In the light of these figures, it is no surprise that 16 500 bunk beds with openings that present a potential entrapment hazard were recalled in September 1997. The gaps can be large enough for a child's body to pass through but small enough to trap the head. Since 1994, more than 514 000 bunk beds have been recalled in the US with entrapment hazards.

European Road Safety News

European Road Safety News is published free of charge in English, French, and German by Prévention Routiére Internationale (PRI) on behalf of the European Road Safety Foundation. It can also be found on the internet at www.pri.lu. The October 1997 issue gives brief details of road safety programmes from around the world. To receive the newsletter, contact Léon Nilles, PRI, 75 rue de Mamer BP 40, L-8005 Bertrange, Luxembourg (fax: +352 31 14 60, e-mail: int.road.safety{at}pri.lu).

WHO pamphlets include child safety

The European Region of the World Health Organisation (WHO) has commissioned the development of a series of pamphlets on 10 themes, one of which is accidents including child safety. The pamphlets are designed to be educational documents, with three distinct parts: a summary outlining the subject in short, punchy style aimed at busy politicians; a main section written in largely non-technical language and aimed at the interested lay person; and a technical annexe intended for the person who has to take action on the subject.

The pamphlets will cover 10 themes (air, water, solid wastes, urban planning, noise, accidents, housing, radiation, toxicology, hygiene). For each theme a cover pamphlet is written (for example air and health) and then the topic is broken down again into more focused and accurate subjects (for example indoor air pollution). This is a large undertaking and will eventually comprise in excess of 120 documents, each covering a specific topic and each translated into up to 25 national languages. Case studies from around the European region are used to illustrate problems and possible solutions and each pamphlet offers clear advice on the action local government can take. The languages in which pamphlets have been printed so far include Russian, Latvian, Estonian, Lithuanian, Albanian, and English.

These pamphlets will allow knowledge to be disseminated to as wide a readership as possible. As well as being useful for politicians as informative and/or background documents for press conferences, the pamphlets will be particularly important in developing the skills of people currently in service.

The accident series of the pamphlet project is at a very early stage in development. Accidents are very high on the WHO's agenda. The Health For All 2000 strategy has focused target number 11 on accident prevention. There is a key role for local authorities in preventing accidents on the roads, in the home, and at work and play. They are regulators in setting and enforcing safety legislation, providers of services, buildings and roads, they are major employers and purchasers, and they are influential public educators. They also have direct contact with the public which puts them in a unique position to raise the profile of safety issues and preventive action. The accident series is being developed with these issues in mind. A series of subject areas is being considered as high priority, these are local policy for accident prevention, accidents and the elderly, child accidents, road safety, home safety, water safety, play and leisure, nursery and school safety. A pamphlet is intended for each one.

Authors for the pamphlets are being identified from across Europe to reflect the breadth of European experience related to accidents. Each author will cover issues to do with history, social and economic costs, statistics, particularly vulnerable groups, prioritisation of intervention, framework for action, and evaluation. Evaluation is an integral part of the process which the pamphlets wish to promote, as this ensures that the whole process is one of “action centred research”. The use of case studies is also a way that this style of research is promoted, ensuring that others learn from innovative action which has resulted in effective intervention on accidents.

Each pamphlet will be written in such a way that it will stand alone, although the whole series will also be written consistently to stand together as a whole. Each pamphlet in the series will contain basic areas: baseline information; prioritising of issues; framework for action; effective interventions, recommendations, case studies, and costs. WHO hopes to publish the pamphlets by July 1998.

Call for ban on “octopus straps”

Eye specialists called for a ban on octopus straps—elastic luggage straps—because they cause horrific eye injuries, according to a report in the Melbourne newspaper, The Age, quoting a paper in the Medical Journal of Australia. The federal government estimate that they cause 170 eye injuries a year throughout Australia.

Trouble in Toyland

Hazardous toys can still be found on toy store shelves across the country, despite passage of the 1994 Child Safety Protection Act, according to a nationwide toy safety survey released by US Public Interest Research Group (US PIRG). However, the group's 12th annual survey noted some cause for improvement, as both toy hazards on shelves and toy deaths have declined this year.

“Children are still needlessly choking to death on toys, especially balloons and balloon parts and dangerous toys can still be found on toy shelves” said US PIRG Consumer Advocate Ed Mierzwinski. “But, we have good news as well. Our twelfth national survey of toy stores finds the number of toy hazards appears to be declining and the vast majority of toys include tough new choke hazard warnings for small parts, balls, marbles and balloons that will help prevent future deaths. The new warnings are required by the 1994 law”, added Mierzwinski.

The annual US PIRG Trouble in Toyland report lists 18 dangerous toys discovered during a survey of toy stores across the country. At least nine of the toys violate the CPSC's small parts standard designed to prevent choking deaths. Two toys violate the CPSC's new small ball regulations. Other toys narrowly evade the small parts standard, but still pose choking and other hazards.

The full PIRG report is available for $20 from US PIRG, 218 D St SE, Washington, DC 20003, USA or on the state PIRG web site http://www.pirg.org/consumer/products/toy/97/. Send an e-mail to the automated address watchdog{at}pirg.org for more information about PIRG consumer watchdog programs.

Safe as Houses—the report of the Community Fire Safety Task Force

Britain's Home Secretary established the Community Fire Safety Task Force in 1996 to review fire safety initiatives and recommend a five year strategy to reduce fires and casualties in the home. The task force has produced its report for comment, making persuasive arguments for refocusing the fire service towards a greater degree of proactive prevention and education effort. Drawing on national and local initiatives that have increased smoke alarm ownership from 9% to 79% in 10 years and have reduced fire fatalities dramatically, the task force calls for improved leadership and coordination of education and publicity campaigns through the establishment of a fire safety centre, improved evaluation, and a communications strategy. The task force's report is available from the Home Office, Queen Anne's Gate, London SW1H 9AT, UK.

Airbag news

The US Secretary of Transportation, joined by the American Automobile Association (AAA) and other safety organizations, announced in November a major educational campaign to help consumers make informed and appropriate decisions about airbag safety. The campaign highlights the cooperative efforts between the US Department of Transportation and its traffic safety partners to preserve the benefits of airbags and minimize their risks.

The campaign launch followed an announcement allowing consumers fitting certain risk profiles to purchase an on-off switch to temporarily deactivate their motor vehicle airbag when necessary. Under the new rule developed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), auto dealers and service outlets began installing on-off switches in January 1998. Mark Edwards, managing director of AAA Traffic Safety, remarked that the on-off switch preserves the safety value of airbags while offering protection for the few people at risk from airbag deployment.

The educational campaign includes activities by both the department and its partners. NHTSA initially will produce more than two million copies of an information brochure and distribute it nationally through federal and state offices, auto dealerships, AAA clubs, and other outlets. NHTSA also will develop and work with partners to help consumers learn about the benefits and risks of airbags. Along these lines, medical organizations will inform physicians about those few medical conditions that warrant airbag on-off switches. The Auto Safety Hotline will answer individual calls and requests for information, and information about air bags will be posted on NHTSA's world wide web page.

US consumers who have questions or concerns about airbags should contact the agency's toll-free Auto Safety Hotline at 1-800-424-9393. For up-to-date information on airbag education contact NHTSA's site on the world wide web at: http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov.

Firework injuries in Northern Ireland

For very many years, fireworks were banned in Northern Ireland. However, in 1996 the legislation was changed with the result that 202 people were injured in 1996 during the five weeks around Halloween, the time of year when firework sales peak throughout the UK and during which period special data collection procedures for firework injuries are implemented. (In the rest of the UK, Guy Fawkes night (5 November) is the most popular time for fireworks.) Two thirds of the victims were aged between 7 and 16 years, including one third who were 12–14 years. Eighty six per cent were male. The report on these injuries is the only mention of children's unintentional injuries in The Health of the Public in Northern Ireland. Annual Report of the Chief Medical Officer 1996 despite the fact that the province has the worst record for accidental childhood mortality for any part of the UK.

Helmet hazard

A 7 year old girl in Saskatchewan died in September when her bicycle helmet became trapped in playground equipment. She slipped while climbing a wooden play structure and was strangled by the chin straps of her helmet which wedged between two logs. Although some Canadian safety education programs warn children and parents to remove bike helmets at playgrounds, one newspaper account referred to the injury as “a freak accident” (Saskatoon Star Phoenix, September 1997).

Editor's note: This is a disturbing phenomenon as it does little to assist the promotion of helmet wearing. It does not describe an unknown problem. When the European standard for protective helmets for cyclists was developed a number of similar cases were described, mainly from Sweden where helmet wearing is commonplace. The consequence was that a European standard, EN 1080 Impact protection helmets for young children, was developed, specifying requirements for children's helmets offering protection from impacts but with a retention system that would release itself if a child was hanging from the helmet as described in this report. The dilemma is that in crashes helmets need to stay securely on the wearer's head. I do not look forward to the first report of an EN 1080 helmet coming off in a crash and the child suffering severe head injury as a result. (The English language version of EN 1080 is published by the British Standards Institution as BS EN 1080.)

Mandatory playground safety in California

California is the first state to order compliance with federal safety guidelines for playgrounds. By 2000, slides, seesaws, and merry-go-rounds must be modified or scaled down to fit the children who use a particular playground. Surfaces must be absorbent. Municipalities must also comply with any revisions by the CPSC, which is expected the update the guidelines again soon, and to provide for regular inspections. The state law was passed in 1990 but given a decade to take effect. Other states are expected the follow California's lead. There is a loophole to the California law: if no state funds are available for repairs, public entities such as schools do not have to comply; however private schools, motels, and restaurants with playgrounds would not be exempt. There is no enforcement strategy to the law; the threat of lawsuit is the stick.

More news about ICRIN

Hank Weiss has announced that the Injury Control Resource Information Network (ICRIN) (http://www.injurycontrol.com/icrin) new options make ICRIN easier to use. ICRIN's Active “New” Channel provides automatic notice of monthly updates to the “What's New” page via your choice of e-mail or browser notice and caches this page (and the main menu) for faster downloading. Use this “channel” to automatically stay attuned of the latest ICRIN additions of interesting and useful global injury control related web sites.

Clothing safety code of practice

The British Standards Institution has published a code of practice, BS 7907: 1997 The design and manufacture of children's clothing to promote mechanical safety. It aims to minimise hazards including ischaemic injuries, injuries from sharp objects, including zips, and detached objects, strangulation, snagging and entrapment, suffocation and choking, and falls and trips. It also deals with restriction of vision and hearing caused by hoods and other headgear. The standard notes that seven children died in England and Wales in clothing related incidents, mainly hangings.

... and child dies on the London Tube due to clothing entrapment

In October, a 9 year old died when his anorak toggle caught in the closing door of a London underground train. He was dragged to his death when the train moved off. A London Underground spokesman noted that the automatic switches designed to disable a train when a door is obstructed would not be triggered because the toggle was too small.

Playground study ranks surfacing material effectiveness

A study of injuries to children in Cardiff, UK, showed that while bark and rubber surfacing are associated with a low rate of injuries, bark alone is insufficient to prevent all injuries, particularly arm fractures. The authors conclude that rubberised surfaces are safer than bark. They also call for the outlawing of monkey bars on safety grounds. The paper also reinforced the conclusions of the Injury Prevention paper from New Zealand by David Chalmers and his colleagues, notably that the risks associated with falls from higher than 1.5 m rise dramatically. (Mott A et al. Safety of surfaces and equipment for children in playgrounds. Lancet 1997;349:1874–6).

New US government consumer web site

Not sure where to turn to find out what toys are safe or if your car has been recalled? Consumers in the US now have a one stop web site to multiple federal access consumer information resources. The site, www.consumer.gov, provides information from the CPSC, Federal Trade Commission, Food and Drug Administration, and NHTSA. It is divided into 10 major categories including product safety, your home, and children.

Safe primary schools in Gateshead, UK

A randomised controlled trial of an injury prevention programme conducted in 15 primary schools with 30 control schools is underway in Gateshead in the north of England. The study, funded by the Department of Health, aims to evaluate programmes that concentrate on preventing injuries in schools and sports and leisure injuries, and reducing hazards in and outside schools. The schools have been randomised on the basis of their type, size, and social priority rankings. The two year intervention phase of the project started in September 1997 after a year of collecting baseline data from hospitals, pupils, and their parents and school staff. Further details: Dr Elizabeth Towner, Community Child Health, 13 Walker Terrace, Gateshead NE8 1EB, UK (tel: +44 191 477 6000, fax: +44 191 477 0370, e-mail: e.l.m.towner@newcastle.ac.uk).

News from the CDC

The CDC National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC) has just released the publication Prevention of Motor-Vehicle Related Injuries: A Compendium of Articles from the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 1985–1996. This 323 page book is a compilation of all of the motor related MMWRs published between this time period, and serves as a reference document that includes the aeticles in their entirety, with tables, graphs, graphics, and references. The executive summery includes short abstracts of each of the 53 articles. Areas covered include motor vehicle related injury as a public health problem, economic impact, drinking and driving, child occupant restraints and airbags, safety belts, bicycle and motorcycle helments, pedestrian safety, and motor vehicle related injuries in rural areas, To order one free copy contact the CDC/NCIPC. This and other publications can be ordered by fax to +1 770 488 1667 or by using the NCIPC web site at http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/pub-res/pubsab.htm. (Requests for the CDC/NCIPC newsletter Injury Control Update can also be made on this web site.) For further information visit the NCIPC home page at http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc.