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Business partners and their commitment to child safety:
Johnson and Johnson - Europe, Middle East and Africa
Children’s health is a natural area of focus for Johnson and Johnson - Europe, Middle East and Africa with interests in baby-care products and first aid as well as pharmaceuticals and surgical equipment.
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RAM
RAM Consulting is world's leading safety consultancy company. That position reflects the success in ensuring the safety of client’s products and the integrity of their corporate image and brand.
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RAM’s multidisciplinary approach to safety involves world’s foremost authorities, and is recognised as the standard by many in the medical research community and principal regulatory agencies.
RAM works with companies to make product safety integral to every level of their business process from design and engineering through manufacture and distribution. RAM enables safety through research pursing insight into the relationship between product characteristics and people.
RAM develops processes that ensure that products for clients are designed for safety. Whilst technology and research are the foundation of these processes, it is only through ongoing partnership with clients that we succeed in preventing injuries and saving lives.
RAM Consulting, Oak Brook USA, Luton, England
Consumer Safety Institute
The Consumer Safety Institute (CSI), established in 1983, is an agency with a mission to improve the safety of consumers and cut the toll of home and leisure injuries in the Netherlands.
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Project partners and their commitment to child safety
European Commission
The mission of the EU “Health and Consumer Protection” is to implement the responsibilities entrusted to it by the Treaty and derived legislation so as to ensure that a high level of human health and consumer protection is attained throughout the EU.
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In accomplishing this task ‘Health and Consumer Protection’ will, within the priorities defined by the Commission, exercise its specific responsibilities in the areas for which it is responsible, i.e. Public Health; Food Safety; Veterinary and Phytosanitary Standards and Controls including Animal Welfare; Scientific Advice; and Consumer Protection. Achieving a high level of human health and consumer protection necessitates the active involvement of other participants. In this connection ‘Health and Consumer Protection’ will co-ordinate and co-operate closely with other services of the Commission, Member States, NGOs and all interested parties.
At the occasion of the launch of the European Child Safety Alliance in Brussels on November 20, 2001, Erik Hansson, Deputy Head of Unit in the Directorate General of the Directorate General Health and Consumer Protection of the European Commission made the following statement:
‘All statistics indicate that children are among the most vulnerable groups in society. Therefore, the initiative of European Consumer Safety Association and their partners around Europe to create the European Child Safety Alliance is very much welcomed and we are pleased to have been able to provide a financial contribution to the Network. We are noting a growing political interest and activity at the European level on consumer safety issues, which have historically very much been dealt with on national level. The European Child Safety Alliance, gathering experts from all around Europe, is yet another important initiative to develop consumer safety in Europe in a more concrete way’.
‘We in the Commission are committed to do whatever is possible for us to improve the safety for the citizens. One important step was the adoption of the revised Directive on General Product Safety. This Directive will provide the very important improved legal framework based on which we will now be able to take more initiatives. Examples of such initiatives will be to develop an improved networking between Member States to ensure that products placed on the market are safe, to enhance the standards used to define the concrete safety aspects, make
product safety information more publicly available and to improve the systems for injury data collection. Injury data are essential for identifying trends with regard to products involved in accidents. We will also in more detail study the needs to take initiatives in relation to safety and liability for services. The safety aspects are one of the main issues highlighted in the new Consumer Policy Strategy. But in the end, we as a Commission, can only contribute to a safer Europe. Additional activities are needed throughout Europe involving experts, consumers and business. The Child Safety Alliance is a good example of such an initiative’.
Health and Consumer Protection, European Commission, Brussels, Belgium
Corresponding author: Erik Hansson, Directorate General Health and Consumer Protection, Erik.Hansson@cec.eu
World health Organisation
Injuries - an environmental health threat for children
Injuries are a major threat to children’s health with a strong environmental component. Globally, the WHO recognises accidents and injuries such as drowning, burns, traffic accidents and poisoning to be among the most important environmental causes of death and disability for children world-wide.
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According to the Global Burden of Disease estimates, this burden will further increase over the next decades. In the European Region there is an enormous variation in rates of injuries across countries, with a huge gap between east and west. Highest rates were found in the Newly Independent States of the former Soviet Union, where mortality exceeds by more than eight times the rates reported by best performing countries in Western Europe. Out of 10 child deaths, 3 to 4 occur as a consequence of injury. The effects of injuries go beyond the already dramatic burden of death and disability. The fear of accidents can influence life-styles, and have in turn indirect negative effects on children’s health. For example, the freedom of children to meet their mobility needs by walking or cycling is being restricted by parents out of fears of traffic accidents. As a result, children are more sedentary, and their risk of becoming overweight or obese, and/or of developing serious diseases such as diabetes increases dramatically.
The major concerns posed by injuries need to be addressed using a broad range of tools, which include effective implementation of appropriate policies and regulations to improve safety standards, measures to raise awareness and promote safer behaviours of families, caretakers, teachers and children, and measures to introduce structural changes in the environment and in sectoral policies. Where needed, this may require re-designing and re-thinking these as a function of the needs of children and of their specific vulnerabilities. For example, strategies to reduce road traffic deaths and injuries should include structural changes in infrastructures, driving behaviour and speeds that do take into account the slow reaction time, reduced vision and ability to judge speeds, and low conspicuity of children, along with their unpredictable behaviour. Furthermore, the responsibility for injury prevention in children should be seen as a shared one, where relevant sectors of the economy, and different departments of administrations are accountable for children’s safety, along with parents and educators. While this is already happening in some sectors of the economy, the same approach needs to be further expanded.
The protection of children from environmental health threats is based on international agreements designed to ensure that children grow up and live in an environment that is conducive to the highest attainable level of health. The Declaration of the III. European Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health held in June 1999, identifies the implementation of public health interventions to reduce accidents and injuries as one of the four priority areas to protect children’s environmental health. In addition, the 4th Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health, which took place in Budapest in 2004, focused on “The Future For Our Children”, providing another important political platform at the pan-European level to promote action, including aspects related to children’s safety. Accordingly, WHO is engaged in setting the prevention of injuries in childhood high on the policy agenda, and in promoting inter-sectoral action, as exemplified by the approach taken in the field of Transport, Health and Environment. To build awareness, assess and monitor progress throughout the European Region a core set of environmental indicators is being developed by WHO in collaboration with other international agencies. Mortality and morbidity rates due to road accidents, burns, falls and poisoning and drowning are among the proposed indicators. A combined indicator assessing the policy implementation has been proposed. Rates will have to be analysed further by socio-economical status and geographical area to identify high-risk groups and to stress the need for focused policies and interventions.
WHO Regional Office for Europe, European Center for Environment and Health, Rome, Italy
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