Home and leisure accidents pose a major health threat in Europe

Hospital workers

At the European Seminar on the Use of Injury Data for Safety Promotion, to be held in Vienna on 9th November 2016, EuroSafe will launch the latest edition of ‘Injuries in the European Union’. This report reveals that an annual average of 38 million people within the EU need hospital treatment  and 232,000 people die as a result of an injury event. Three-quarters of these injuries are due to home and leisure accidents.

Given the huge financial burden of injuries, all sectors of society will benefit from actions to improve home and leisure safety, not least by a decrease in health and social expenditures related to injury. It is the responsibility of governments to ensure proper arrangements for implementing safety regulations and actions and monitoring their impact.

EuroSafe calls on governments and the European Commission to agree on a binding arrangement for all countries to continue to collect and exchange injury data and to ensure appropriate programmes for preventing home and leisure accidents.

Read the report here.