Of B.C.’s nearly 4 million residents, 10% will be seriously injured this year due to a preventable injury.  That’s thousands of British Columbians visiting the emergency room unnecessarily because they did not take proper precautions for what they were doing, whether riding their bike, going swimming, painting their house or taking over the counter medications.

When I first heard that an estimated 1,200 people die each year from injuries that could have been prevented with a little knowledge and sensible precautions, I was shocked. Like many of you, I bet, I thought that long-term illnesses, like cancer or heart disease, would have been the obvious major culprits. But in fact, 1,100 people per day are seriously injured, of which an estimated 4 will die, 90 will be hospitalized and 27 will be left partially or totally disabled.

Not only is this a tragic waste of lives and suffering, it costs our health care system an estimated $4 billion (that’s with a ‘B’) every year. Money that could be better spent investing in public infrastructure, treating patients with long-term illness or even going back into our pockets through lower taxes.

No one thinks preventable injury will happen to them; “accidents” always happen to other people. Until they don’t! So we’re taking action. Welcome to the Community Against Preventable Injuries. The Community, as we’re calling it, is a grass roots organization focused on stopping this epidemic through awareness and dialogue about preventable injuries. We’ve got concerned individuals and corporations, including Telus and BC Hydro, two of BC’s largest employers, on board to share their knowledge and expertise and commitment to reduce the number of senseless and very preventable injuries that happen across the province.

Over the coming summer months, you’ll see a barrage of media attention raising attention on this important issue as well as a friendly and (hopefully) helpful dialogue online, here at Preventable.ca. My contribution to The Community will be to start the conversations around these serious issues, raising attention around stories about preventable injuries that happen every day and encouraging you to participate by sharing your personal stories and thoughts. Because the only way that we can impact this serious issue is if we all lend a hand to the cause; come join The Community.

Our goal is to reduce the number of preventable injuries by informing you and getting you to make smarter decisions about all the potentially dangerous things you do every day. Through better understanding of the risks you take in your daily lives and the potential consequences, we can reduce the number of preventable injuries from that astronomical figure of 400,000 people per year.

But why should you care, preventable injuries happen to other people. Though we all like to think we’re immune, the truth is that we’re all guilty of doing things that too often lead to preventable injury, whether riding our bike around town without a helmet, mixing over-the-counter medications without considering their possibly dangerous interactions, or swimming in potentially dangerous lakes or streams (did you know that half of all children drowned in B.C. were unsupervised?)

Check out our site on a regular basis (even better, subscribe to our RSS feed or follow us on Twitter) and keep an eye out for the mass media campaign that just hit B.C. (you can’t miss it!) I can’t wait to hear from all of you over the coming summer months and work with you to educate, inform and change potentially risky behaviours.

What are some examples of preventable injuries (or near injuries) that you see around you in your daily life, whether around you or things you’re guilty of doing yourself? Speak up, let’s get this (important) conversation started!