Some examples of child injury interventions in Australia

Table 1 Selected examples of interventions that illustrate the range and scope of child injury prevention activities 1979-1994.

ISSUE		TIMING	ACTION
Motor vehicle traffic safety
	Restraints	1960	Seat belt anchorages in cars
		1970	Compulsory wearing of restraints by persons older than 8 years
		1973	Introduction of mandatory Australian Standard for child restraints
		1981	First legislation requiring back seat passenger to use available seat belts or child restraints
		1988	The first state introduced compulsory installation and use of child restraints for children of all ages
	Bicycle helmets	1977	Australian bicycle helmet standard developed
		1981	Helmets available
		1982	Major programs in Victoria to promote helmet use
		1990-92	Introduction of mandatory cycle helmet wearing legislation in all states Level of enforcement varied from state to state.
		1994	Compulsory helmet wearing regulations withdrawn for persons older than 17 in NT
	Other Road safety strategies		Improvement in road design including traffic calming and pedestrian protection, black spot analysis and interventions
			Random breath testing and widespread use of speed measuring equipment
			Australian Design rules for motor vehicles
			Promotion of road safety
			Bicycle rider education programs
			Media and education campaigns focussing on a number of road safety issues
Drowning in swimming pools		1970-72	Clear identification of the rate of drowning in domestic swimming pools. A few local governments required separate fencing of the pool
		1976	Some states required fencing of properties with swimming pools
		1983	Australian Standard on swimming pool fencing
		1989	Second wave of concern at continuing problem
		1993-4	States introduce mandatory fencing of all new pools but do not act uniformly on existing pools
		1996	Only Queensland requires fencing of all existing pools
			Victoria requires fencing of all existing pools by July 1997
Choking on toys		1987	Mandatory standard for all products for children under the age of three years to conform to the Australian Toy Standard. All toys with small parts labelled. State authorities check novelty show bags and develop practical guidelines on packaging
Fire deaths		1978	Labelling of children's nightwear to indicate flammability introduced locking in place changes that had occurred since public attention to deaths from this cause were raised in 1972
		1990	Victorian Building code requires all new and altered residential buildings to install smoke alarms
		1995	Similar regulations in place in most states and territories
Scalds		1995	New Australian Standard on domestic hot water temperatures in ablution areas. Lead by NSW, this requirement will affect all new hot water services. Some states have introduced regulations for all new dwellings
Poisoning		1981	Therapeutic Goods Act used to ensure that pharmaceuticals at higher schedules are packaged in a way that reduces the risk of access to young children. The first list named six products regarded as high risk
		1996	By 1996 the practice of packaging pharmaceuticals, including those not listed, in blister or other forms of child resistant packaging has become wide spread

Details supplied by Ian Scott Kidsafe Australia