A safe home: simple precautions
17 September 2003
On average, every day in Australia, a staggering 5,000 children need medical attention due to accidents, often incurred at home.
According to the Wound Foundation of Australia (WFA), which organised Home & Play Safety Day 2003 — a national first aid awareness campaign — many of these accidents could be prevented if Aussie families made their homes a safer place and had some basic first aid knowledge.
‘The injury statistics are sobering with the most common place for children to be injured being in the home. For many children, home is not the safe haven it should be, but with some simple actions from parents and carers, that situation can be turned around,' explained Geoff Sussman, founder of the WFA.
With an estimated 5 million trips to Australian hospital emergency departments each year, Home & Play Safety Day organisers emphasise that it is vital for people to have a basic understanding of first aid.
In Australia hospitalisation of young children due to unintentional injury is most commonly the result of:
- falls;
- poisoning;
- scalds;
- choking; or
- dog bites.
Over 1,000 children under the age of 5 are taken to hospital emergency departments each year for the treatments of burns. This is more than 3 children per day.
Scalds and burns can be particularly serious for young children, as their skin is much thinner than that of adults and prone to more severe injury, explained Mr Sussman.
Simple precautions are advised by the WFA to help reduce the chance of burns, such as:
- getting a plumber to install a thermostat reducing-valve to reduce the temperature of water coming from the tap to less than 50°C; and
- always running hot and cold water together, not hot water alone.
Having the right first aid equipment on hand can often ease the pain of a burn, prevent the injury from getting worse, and kick-start the healing process.
Last Reviewed: 16 September 2003
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