eLetters

175 e-Letters

  • Re:Re:Zero Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) Limit for drivers under 21
    Robert M> Solomon

    The major problem in enforcing the zero BAC limit is ensuring that the province or territory enacts accompanying legislation authorizing the police to demand a breath sample from drivers subject to this limit. There has been no problem with drivers testing positive with exceedingly small amounts of alcohol in their breath samples, because of natural processes or diet. Presumably, the machines have thresholds to eliminate...

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  • Re:Zero Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) Limit for drivers under 21
    Solitay Taiwo

    How easy is it to enforce zero limit in the face of possiblity of physicigical sources of alcohol and uses of other dietry and household sources of alcohol? There might be a lot or few false positive cases as a result. Is there anything of in the scientific evidence base?

    Conflict of Interest:

    None declared

  • Cycle helmet law not properly assessed
    Colin F Clarke

    Reading the article, The effects of provincial bicycle helmet legislation on helmet use and bicycle ridership in Canada (ref 1), it appears the conclusions reached were ill considered and unreliable for a number of reasons.

    The article concludes that helmet legislation is not associated with changes in ridership. This statement is somewhat misleading. Fig 3 in the article shows trends of recreational bicycle u...

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  • Belt up...Speed up?
    Tony H. Reinhardt-Rutland

    The story of seatbelts has ever been one of success - at least for government bodies and the motor industry. However, seatbelts have an unfortunate side effect owing to the dissipation of the kinetic and vestibular discomfort associated with acceleration and deceleration: in effect, faster and more erratic driving is encouraged.

    Moreover, any savings in casualties among motor vehicle occupants must be weighed...

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  • Interpreting the statistics: underestimation of casualties and vulnerable road-users
    Tony H. Reinhardt-Rutland

    Dear Editor

    Jeffrey et al's [1] evidence of a serious underestimation of road injuries is worrying for the year-by-year comparisons that are taken as evidence for the state of road safety. The UK figures for death and serious injury are reported to have followed a downward trend for forty years or so, which has generally been taken as evidence - if no more than implicitly - that a culture of safety on the roads i...

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  • Preventing Road Traffic Injuries in Africa.
    Adam L Kushner

    As noted in the recently released WHO and UNICEF World Report on Child Injury Prevention, globally, road traffic injuries (RTI) are the leading cause of death among 10-19 year-olds with more than 260,000 children dying from RTIs each year. (1) In addition, an estimated 10 million more children are non-fatally injured. Africa has the world's highest RTI mortality rate at 28.3 per 100,000 (2), yet relatively few resources...

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  • lit search analysis method
    David L Nordstrom

    Several analyses of the results of bibliographic databases have shown that--for several health fields and subjects--the number of databases searched influences the number of papers found. Library and information scientists seem to use certain methods and outcomes in their analyses. I am curious whether this study used the same methods and measures.

  • Simple Ways for Saving Lives
    Rizaldy Pinzon

    The article of Dr. Stevenson's is very interesting. This article showed that intervention increasing the use of safe belt. Traumatic brain injury is one of the most leading causes of death and disability in developing countries. In Indonesia, there are numerous reports that showed high mortality is correlated with unsafe practice of driving or motorcycling. Previous report showed that the use of safety belts is the single...

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  • Seat belt wearing in other Chinese cities
    Virginia H Routley

    The article documenting the successful seat belt intervention and attributable increase in wearing in Guanghzhou, China is a substantial contribution to road safety in middle-income and low-income countries. The reported increase in seat belt wearing is particularly significant in the context of documented declines over 3 years (2005-2007) in two other eastern seaboard Chinese cities, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province and Zhousha...

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  • Support for Research
    Joseph M. Fleming

    Dear Editor

    First I want to thank the authors for an excellent study. As the authors discuss, the benefit of using photoelectric technology to reduce smoke alarm disablement and thereby fire deaths has never been adequately communicated to the public. (Note: This author has made repeated requests, accompanied by extensive research, to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), Underwriters Laboratories...

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