ACCIDENTS IN THE HOME

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27040, 15 May 1953, Page 8

ACCIDENTS IN THE HOME

INCIDENCE OF BURNS AMONG CHILDREN

FIREGUARD REGULATIONS IN ENGLAND Bums are second only to road accidents as the most common cause of fatal injuries among children, according to the Department of Health; and of the accidents which occur in .the home, burns are probably the most distressing. to New Zealand, many hundreds of children each year suffer from burns, from poisoning and from fractures. The “Nursing Gazette," published by the department, shows that in 1980, nearly 500 children under five years of age suffered bums, compared with 544 with fractures and 334 who suffered from some form of poisoning, to the group from five to 15 years of age, there were 1800 fractures, 200 cases of bums, and only 26 poisoning cases.

Many of the cases of burns suffered by children arise from an insufficient regard for the dangers of open and other fires. An appreciation of the danger has been shown in Britain, where two important measures were passed by Parliament, one before the Second World War, and the other within recent months.

The English Children and Young Persons Act, 1937, says that if any person of 16 years or over who has the care of any child under seven, allows the child to be in a room containing an open fire insufficiently protected to guard against the risk of the child being burned or scalded, and the child' is killed or suffers serious injury, he is liable to summary conviction and a fine not exceeding £lO. Guards on Beaters This measure, dealing only with cases where children suffered injury, has been replaced, in part, by the Fireguards Act, 1952. It is now an offence in England for any person to sell or hire an electric or gas fire or oilburning space heater which, is not fitted with a guard conforming to prescribed safety regulations. “The passing of this act was an important step in the elimination of burning accidents from our homes, but it is not enough,” says an article in the “Lancet," the British medteal journal “The act takes no account of the 4,000,000 or 5,000,000 gas and electric fires already in use, to say nothing of coal fires, which are believed to number something like 12,000,000. These various types of fires have been Involved to about 2400 severe burning accidents a year since the, war—about seven a day. About 280 of them each year have proved fatal, and 75 per cent of them have happened to children, to people over 65. or to epileptics.’' With the approach of the coldest months- of the year, the danger of children suffering bums from open and other fires increases. Each winter there are reports in New Zealand newspapers of small children suffering scalds, or of their clothing being set alight The Health Department, in the “Nursing Gazette,” recommends that parents ask their family doctors to inspect their homes thoroughly, to help to discover any possible cause of accidents, and to ensure that safety precautions are adequate.