In light of the tragic event in Prince George, remembering those that we’ve lost is unfortunately very fresh in the minds of many. In BC,

“…142 workers lost their lives on the job. Of the 142 fatalities in 2011, 71 were the result of occupational diseases from workplace exposures, 42 were traumatic fatalities and 29 resulted from motor vehicle incidents.” – WorkSafe BC

While reflecting on these loses and injuries, it’s important to think about our own lives. Remember, have a word with yourself about preventable injuries.

I’ve had hot water that was too hot before and never did anything about it apart from make sure to mix it with cold water. The hot water tank was usually in an area that wasn’t easily accessible, and I simply lived with it. In the past, I made sure not to turn my taps on full blast to avoid hurting myself. Now that I have a kid, doing nothing about scalding water or simply ignoring the problem isn’t an option.

The BC Children’s Hospital has a new campaign that focuses on burns and children. It’s called Too Hot For Tots. Having just read and watched all the material about burns and kids, I can honestly say that it prompted me to get off my keister and lower the temperature in my hot water tank. Just before writing this, I took five minutes and lowered my hot water tank temperature from very hot to medium. I learnt how to do this from the Adjusting Your Hot Water Temperature Video, one of the many tools provided by this campaign.

Taking the time to help prevent your child from being burned could mean lowering the number of children under five who are treated for burns in BC every year.

“Each year, BC Children’s Hospital may care for as many as 130 young children with burns.” – BC Childiren’s Hospital

Of those roughly 130 burns, “More than 90 percent of these injuries are considered preventable as the majority of burns take place in the home – in the kitchen, bathroom, or family room with a fireplace – where safeguarding measures can be taken.” Hot surfaces, hot liquids, and hot tap water are three key areas where kids can get burns. The Too Hot For Tots Video speaks to these in detail. After watching this 16-minute video, I thought twice about things that I do regularly like leave hot tea not too far from the edge of the counter. Another thing I’ve done, knowing that my child finds the stove irresistible, I went out and bought him a play stove, so he could enjoy playing with cooking in a safe way.

I strongly suggest that you take a little bit of time to read through these materials and watch the videos. For those of you who do, I’m curious about what learned and, in particular, what you learned about your own habits that you could change when it comes to preventing your child from burns.

The paper is called “The impact of pedestrian countdown signals on pedestrian-motor vehicle collisions: A quasi-experimental study”. I can’t share the specifics of their findings because the paper hasn’t been published yet, but the conclusion they made from their research is that

the installation of PCS [Pedestrian countdown signals] at nearly 2000 signalized intersections in Toronto did not reduce the number of pedestrian-motor vehicle collisions at these intersections.

How’s that for a bombshell statement! I had thought the opposite was true. Heck, I’ve even written about pedestrian countdown signals before having assumed that countdown signals were safer than regular pedestrian signals. Dr. Howard mentioned that his results, based on 10 years of data, raised some interesting questions. Do pedestrians use the countdown clocks for convenience instead of safety? You see the clock counting down, so perhaps you run to get to the other side in time where you might not have risked crossing the street had there not been a countdown clock. Do drivers speed up to an intersection if they see the pedestrian countdown clock counting down?

“I don’t like to speak against [pedestrian countdown clocks] because giving people information to make themselves safe seems to be useful, but at the moment, Canadians in Toronto are not able to reduce their injury risk by using this information at a traffic light” said Dr. Howard during his presentation. He reiterates this point in his paper saying that even though his research shows pedestrian countdown clocks do nothing to reduce injury, they could possibly play a role in future pedestrian safety strategies.

What I took from Dr. Howard’s talk was that people use the added information gained with countdown signals to help them get through the intersection faster instead of safer.

If this is the case, then people attitudes override any good technology can provide to the safety of pedestrians.

This being a paper based on data collected in Toronto, it would be interesting to find out (anecdotally or not) what people in Vancouver or BC think of pedestrian countdown signals as they relate to pedestrian safety. Do you think these signals do nothing to improve safety, or are they beneficial to preventing injury? If countdown signals aren’t the answer to reducing pedestrian injuries, then what is?

It’s a good bet that overcrowding like this is going to happen again in the not-too-distant future. So, what can a individual do themselves to avoid adding to overcrowding in British Columbia’s hospitals?

Likely the best thing to do is to avoid visiting the hospital at all by preventing yourself from injury.

After all, Preventable injuries are the #1 killer of British Columbians between the ages of 1 and 44 (Preventable.ca). According to 2004 data, “Preventable injuries cost each person in BC $665 per year“.

Lack of beds is common complaint about B.C.’s hospitals, and with each bed comes a cost. The financial costs of preventable injuries could be spent on new hospital beds or other areas that could benefit the health of British Columbians. Not becoming a patient in the hospital not only helps your heath, but can possibly help the health of others.

What do you think about the cost of preventable injuries? Have you made changes to your attitudes or habits to avoid personal injury and becoming a further drain on our health care system?

Have you made a Christmas list for yourself this year? My nephew has. It’s complete with a legend that tells me that the stuff with an asterisk next to it is the stuff he wants most. There are a few stars among the 12 or so items. I imagine some of you reading this have read or have written your own Christmas lists this year. Well, this year Preventable wants to ask people to think seriously about adding a ski or snowboard helmet to those lists.

Similar to our campaign last year, we’re hitting a few BC slopes just after Christmas and spreading the word about the importance of wearing a helmet when on the hill. During the end of the December, we’ll be sending out the Preventable Snow Team to a handful of BC hills wearing branded snow wear that reads “Have a word with yourself” emblazoned on it. They’ll be on the slopes skiing, snowboarding, and leaving branded snowboards with the words “Before you think you won’t need a helmet today, have a word with yourself” on them, outside lodges and other areas.  Here’s where you can see them:

 
• Mount Seymour – December 26-27, 2011
• Big White – December 28, 2011
• Silver Star – December 29, 2011

*****Look out for our Snow Team who will be handing out coupons for discounts on helmets on these dates and at these hills!*****

We don’t just do this because it’s fun. We’re spreading the word about head injuries and ski hills because we know that traumatic head and neck injuries are is the leading cause of death among skiers and snowboarders (Smartrisk, 2009) and that helmets have been linked to a 35% reduction in head injures for skiers and snowboarders (Russell et al., 2010).

We also know that getting more people to wear helmets isn’t just about statistics–it’s about changing attitudes. Like you, we all want to get out on the hill and enjoy ourselves this holiday season. We just want you to do it wisely and in a way that prevents you from injury.

So if you didn’t find that helmet under the Christmas tree this year, do yourself a favour and pick one up this Boxing Day or Week. Before you think you don’t need a helmet today, have a word with yourself!

We’re back on billboards this winter season. Last year we had a billboard that spoke to the need to act preventably when it comes to hanging your Christmas lights. This winter, we’re still focused on ladder safety, but this time around our billboards theme is acting preventably when it comes to painting. Instead of showing the aftermath of an injury, this billboard show the moment before an injury might happen.  A dummy that looks like a man with painter cloths on is standing on a ladder precariously leaning on one leg on the ladder rung while he reaches away from the ladder to paint the billboard.

The billboard has been on the corner of Hastings and Willingdon in Burnaby since November. Besides the painter and the ladder, there’s text on the billboard which reads, “Before reaching for that extra foot and a half, have a word with yourself.”

Whether you’re using a ladder for painting, hanging Christmas lights or cleaning eavestroughs, having a word with yourself before you reach could save you and your loved ones from injury this holiday season.

The argument can be made that waiting for the first snowfall to shift into winter conditions is too late. If you’ve managed to get through these recent cold snaps and heavy snow or rainfall by scraping your windshield with a credit card or some other makeshift tool to get your vehicle from a to b, you’ll hopefully know the need for the shift.

Campaigns like Shift Into Winter are aimed at helping people avoid being unprepared in winter conditions on the road. Let’s hope that campaigns like this one can help people think about preparing themselves for winter driving conditions before winter driving conditions are forced on unprepared drivers.

I can’t even remember the last time I had a cold, so when I felt the sickness really hit me, I did what many do: I opened up my medicine drawer to see what I had that could remedy my illness. For me, my medicine drawer is like a history of any ailment I’ve had in the past five to ten years. I’ve got your over-the-counter drugs like Buckley’s Mixture, your medicated hot drink mix, etc. I’ve also got empty bottles of prescription drugs I’ve taken. Not being a doctor (or ever having played one on TV), the labels on the brightly coloured bottles read like a Latin textbook for the utterly non-fluent speaker. I have no idea what they are for, and there’s little-to-no information on the labels to help me guess.

I don’t have any data to back this up, but I’d bet that my lack of medication knowledge and how I store them is typical of many British Columbians. What I do know for a fact is that,

“Most injuries from unintentional mixing of medications are 100 per cent preventable.” – John Tse London Drugs

Now that I do have a kid, I’ve learned to be less cavalier with my health because of how invested I am in the health of my child. I look back at my life before being a parent and think about how lucky I am that I didn’t run into problems mixing medications. Now if I have a word with myself like, “Do I really know 100 per cent what this drug is and what it’s for?”, my answer would most likely be no, and I’d seek the advice of pharmacist or physician. I wouldn’t have had a word with myself a few years ago. I wonder how many people in British Columbia do?

Halloween seems to be a weekend affair in Metro Vancouver. All weekend, I saw adult ghouls, bloody nurses and Star Wars characters roaming the streets. Now that Halloween is officially here, it’s time for kids to take to the streets (with costumed parents I’m sure). The weather looks like it will be fine this year (in Metro Vancouver at least) for kids to get as much candy and chocolate as possible. That means more kids on the street at night than normal and the need to keep kids safe tonight.

Safe Kids Canada has some great ideas for keeping kids from harm’s way tonight. Having a chat and having a plan when it comes to trick-or-treating is important.

On October 31 2008, the average number of hospitalizations due to motor vehicle pedestrian injuries was 4 times higher than the average number of hospitalizations in a day.
- Derived from BCIRPU data for hospitalizations by injury type, 2008

Tonight is a time when injuries to people can increase, so we need to be vigilant.

Let’s try to make this a safe Halloween for kids and adults alike. Happy Halloween from Preventable!

Who doesn’t love Top 10 lists? David Letterman made them famous years ago. In a few months, the Top 10 movies, books, and albums of 2011 will be glutting newspapers, blogs, and magazines. Following in this well-worn tradition of Top 10s, ICBC has recently released one of their own.

I wouldn’t say I love ICBC’s B.C. Drivers’ Top 10 Excuses for Using a Cellphone Behind the Wheel. I do find it interesting though. Before you jump to the list below, it’s important to know that these are real excuses that police have reported after a month-long focus on distracted drivers. In all, police estimate they issued more than 3,500 tickets last month to drivers using electronic devices in vehicles.

Here’s their Top 10:

1. This is a bogus law.
2. It was my boss on the phone. I had to answer it.
3. I wasn’t using it. I just like to hold it.
4. Sorry officer, I didn’t see you trying to pull me over because I was on my phone.
5. But it was an emergency call to my wedding planner!
6. My Bluetooth died.
7. Driver: I’m using my speakerphone. Police officer: No, you’re holding your phone in one hand and steering with the other.
8. I’m not driving. I was stopped at a red light.
9. I wasn’t talking. I was checking my messages.
10. I was just checking the time.

The “bogus law”, I was “just holding it”, “I was stopped at a red light”, and “I was using my speaker function” are excuses I’ve hear before. My “boss on the phone”, “wedding planner” on the phone and my “Bluetooth died” are excuses I would put in the lame but plausible category (my humble opinion here). The I was “on the phone” so I “didn’t see you trying to pull me over”, “I wasn’t talking” but “checking my messages” and I was “checking the time” excuses are so poor I almost hope these people were making them up out of desperation to avoid being fined.

While reading these, I came up with my own set of poor excuses that while not found in the Top 10, seem just a plausible:

• I have to use my phone to use the GPS map function to figure out where to go.
• I wasn’t talking. I was texting.
• Talking on the phone while driving? Nah, I was passing the phone to my passenger when you saw me holding it.
• I was using the mirror app for just a split second.
• I was taking a video not talking, officer.
• I wasn’t talking. I was tweeting.

I’m sure there are plenty of other excuses that drivers in B.C. give for still using their cell phones behind the wheel. Why don’t you share the excuses you’ve heard or maybe use yourself. After all, a recent Ipsos Reid survey conducted on behalf of ICBC showed that,

“Over 50 per cent of respondents reported that they see other drivers violating the restrictions on using hand-held devices “several times a day”, yet only about 16 per cent admitted doing the same while driving in the past 12 months.”

This suggests that driver’s know it’s wrong when they see people using cell phones behind the wheel, but aren’t prepared yet to admit they do it themselves.

Discussing attitudes about cell use in vehicles is a good way to start to change injury-prone attitudes. If you leave a comment, question, whatever, I promise to weigh in on it… no excuses.