CRICOS No. 00213J Kirsten McKenzie 1, Jesani Limbong 1, Dave
Strachan 2 1 CARRS-Q, 2 Office of Fair Trading, Queensland
Government 2 nd October 2012 Comparing child product safety
concerns with injury incidents: Does the evidence support the
response?
Slide 2
Presentation Aims 1.Describe methods to utilise existing injury
data for product safety surveillance purposes 2.Discuss approaches
to proactively prioritise areas for further investigation using
injury data 3.Outline findings from comparison of product safety
regulatory data and injury data for Qld children
Slide 3
Background Recent reviews of product safety regulation in
Australia and legislative changes -> Increasing requirement for
safety of consumer goods Reporting of injuries/deaths associated
with products Need for evidence-base to support system Reactive vs
proactive surveillance Criticisms of utility of injury data for
product safety surveillance but costs of establishing new system
too high, thus need to use existing data sources
Slide 4
Product-focus vs Risk-focus Product-focused surveillance
considers each product individually to assess level of risk and
determine responses to a specific product Risk-focused surveillance
prioritises hazards of concern Specific hazards -> distinct
injuries Greater utility of injury data under hazard-based model
May be universal design/regulatory/information standards across
range of products as preventative measures
Slide 5
HazardRiskInjury Moving and rotating
objectsCutting/piercingOpen wounds, amputation Drowning Hazardous
heightsFallsContusions, open wounds, fractures Inadequate
stabilityFallsContusions, wounds, fractures, crush Inadequate
structural integrityFallsContusions, wounds, fractures, crush
FlammabilityFire/hot objectBurn Open flamesFire/hot objectBurn
Small objectsForeign bodiesChoking, internal injuries
ToxicityPoisoning ProjectilesStruck by objectOpen wounds
Non-permeable enclosuresSuffocation Gaps and openingsSuffocation;
Cutting/piercingAsphyxiation, strangulation, amputation Ch 19
Injury and Ch 20 Ext Cause Ch 19 Injury and Poisoning Chap
Slide 6
Utility of injury data for product safety regulators Data
soughtData available FrequencyNational ED data, hospital data, and
mortality data; two state-based injury surveillance system
Product-specific dataBroad objects, ED text descriptions
Risk-specific dataMechanism and type of injury SeverityAdmission
rates, diagnosis-based injury severity, length of stay, discharge
outcomes Vulnerable groupsDemographics (age, region, gender,
country of birth etc) Injury scenarioPresenting problem and injury
description text Accessible, recent dataSystematic compilation of
data which is approx 6-12 months old is possible with ethics/health
dept sign off Exposure dataNot available
Slide 7
Examples from Qld Child Product- Related Injury Study Data
sources: Product safety documents outlining investigations,
recalls, compliance checks, bans/standards etc Emergency department
injury presentation data Hospital admission injury data Scope:
Children under 18 years of age Incident/investigation occurring in
2008 or 2009 Queensland-based Document analysis, secondary data
analysis and text mining
Slide 8
Slide 9
Product-focused surveillance Age groupProduct safetyInjury data
(ED and hospital)
