An eight-month old baby falls into boiling water, 60 percent of its tiny body is scalded. A nine-year old boy falls from a tree and is impaled by a branch. A school pupil is crushed to death in a road traffic accident just crossing the street. More and more children are being injured in accidents.

According to a report in Modern Life Daily some 26 percent of deaths in childhood are caused by accidents. Zhang Qitao, deputy director of the Pediatrics Department in the Second Clinical Medical College of Harbin Medical University, speaks of causes of injury and loss of life in children that include choking, drowning, traffic accidents, toxic substances, burns and scalds. Most Chinese families now have only one child. Consequently accidents to children not only harm the victim but the effect on their families and society is greater than ever.

According to the report not only were just over a quarter of child deaths caused by accidents but this is now the main cause of death in children both around the world and in China itself. The numbers of such deaths are continuing to rise and have now overtaken all other causes such as infection, malnutrition and cancer.

Trends

According to the research clear seasonal, regional and age variations can be identified in the causes of unintentional injury of children.

Choking, toxic agents and traffic accident are the main causes of death in north China. However in south China, drowning, choking and traffic accidents are the most likely causes. Urban children are most at risk from road traffic accidents but for rural children the most common cause of death is drowning.

Babies up to one year old are particularly vulnerable to choking. Children of one through four years old are victims of drowning. Fatal road traffic accidents claim their victims in the five through 14 age group.

By their very nature, children are active and curious about the world around them. Their limited experience of life leaves them vulnerable to all sorts of danger. They are prone to being easily distracted. These weaknesses can be pointed to objectively as the main underlying factors giving rise to accidents to children. And of course these traits will be carried with them wherever they go.

Prevention Is Always Best

The experts all agree that prevention is by far the best means of keeping children out of harms way.

Sun Dongwei, a top leader at the Maternity and Child Health Hospital in Harbin, believes that most accidents to children are the result of carelessness and could be prevented if only teachers and parents would raise their levels of safety consciousness.

The experts ask parents to put medicines, poisonous and sharp articles well out of reach of curious little hands. The same holds good for socks and other sundry small items that could lead to choking. Children should not be allowed to talk while eating also for fear of choking.

While sleeping the quilt should not cover the head and soft pillows can also represent a danger. Children must be taught road safety and adults should take care to set a good example themselves to encourage safe habits.

Drawing on the American Experience

National Organizations for Youth Safety (NOYS) founded in 1987 is the only national organization devoted to the prevention of accidental injury to children in the United States.

Member organizations cooperate with government, companies, foundations and other organizations to educate parents, teachers, legislators, firemen, police and others who care for children's safety. Good use is made of the media and all this has surely contributed to rates of accidental injury to the under 14s in the United States decreasing some 37 percent in 14 years.

The field of safety legislation provides a good example. At first there was only one state with laws requiring children to wear helmets while cycling. But now this has grown to fifteen states and is still increasing. And this is paying off with reductions of the order of 40 percent in the numbers of children lost in cycling accidents.

Year 1994 saw measures brought in to make cigarette lighters difficult for young children to operate. This led to a reported 42 percent reduction in children playing with lighters and consequent decreases of 31 percent and 26 percent in death and injury from this cause.

(china.org.cn, translated by Wu Nanlan, November 1, 2002)