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Accidents top killer for kids under 14 For this year's Children's Day, 3-year-old Ji Yunfei got a small bicycle as a gift. And like many, Ji's parents did not buy him a helmet -- as they did not fully appreciate the potential dangers he would face while out riding. In China, accidents remain as the top killer of children under 14. There are 200,000 fatalities in the age bracket each year, which accounts for one in every three deaths in the age bracket, according to medical experts. More than one-third of the injuries result from falls. Over 80 per cent of such tragedies for children aged under 4 occur in the family home as they fall out of bed, a window, down steps or elsewhere. Collisions, sprains, cuts and traffic accidents are the next most common cause of injury, according to a recent survey conducted by the National Centre for Chronic and Noncommunicable Disease Control and Prevention (NCNCD), SAFE KIDS World-China, and Johnson & Johnson. The mean cost for medical treatment per injured child was 250 yuan (US$30). Shanghai, the biggest city in East China, spends an estimated 62.5 million yuan (US$7.54 million) to treat injuries. Nationwide, children's deaths from the result of accidents cause an economic loss of 36.5 billion yuan (US4.40 billion) each year, accounting for 2 per cent of China's gross domestic product. The one-year survey conducted in China's three major cities -- Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou --covered a total of 10,000 respondents. "This is an important pilot study that measures childhood unintentional injury patterns and public awareness. And the result can provide scientific data to create proper preventative measures and related polices," said Doctor Duan Leilei from the NCNCD. Despite the number of fatalities, a "safety culture" is still sorely lacking in most of China, even in huge cities like Shanghai. "All the injuries and deaths could be prevented if proper measures are taken," said Professor Zhang Ling'en, vice-chairman of the Chinese Emergency Medicine Society's pediatric division. "The problem is that many parents believe accidents won't happen to their children, and very few take steps to minimize risks." The survey shows that less than half of the parents think their children are at risk and only 16.4 per cent had attended child injury prevention training courses. However, safety in the home must be emphasized, as more than 40 per cent of injuries occur around the house. Meanwhile, the social environment is also disadvantageous to children as there are not being protected by strong laws and regulations. "This can easily be shown by the limited demand for children's safety equipment here, which leads to high prices for such products," said Heather Paul, executive director of SAFE KIDS Worldwide, an international network dedicated to preventing childhood accidents. "More than 50 hours of wages are required in China to purchase a quality child safety seat, versus 2.5 hours in the US," she said. There are 540 million bikes in China and 16 million cars. Yet bike helmets are rarely used, despite the fact that China is a major manufacturer of helmets which are exported. For school-age children, game and sports periods have actually become the most likely time for children to be injured, according to a research conducted by Sun Hongyan from the China Youth and Children Research Centre. Sun's survey, which covered 5,846 students in 10 different cities, found that about 53.6 per cent said they often or sometimes got injured while playing games or sports at school. Those who said crowded corridors accounted for most of their injuries totalled 13.1 per cent, while 6 per cent said injuries were most likely while engaged in chemical or physics experiments at class. In Shanghai, in order to reduce risks, some schools have even cut physical exercise classes. |
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