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After this campaign, posters, leaflets and bookmarks continued
to be distributed during the remainder of the year as part of normal
health education work.
HOME SAFETY
The majority of home accidents, when investigated, show clearly
that human ignorance and carelessness were basic causes. The prevention
of home accidents depends on individuals having the necessary knowledge
to ensure their personal and domestic safety.
The Home Safety Act, 1961, empowers the Council to arrange for
the dissemination of information and advice relating to the prevention
of accidents in the home, and activities under this heading are combined
with the work of health education. Accidents in the home are not required
to be notified in the same way as accidents in factories, and therefore
information regarding home accidents is incomplete. However, figures are
compiled by the Registrar-General and indicate the continual increase in
deaths from home accidents.
1952 1956 1960 1961 1962
Number of deaths in
England and Wales
4,686 5,916 6,008 5,881 6,504
Number of deaths (included in the figures above) from:
Accidents caused by fire
and explosion of combustible
material*
574 579 564 552 690
(*A detailed analysis of these causes is not available.)
The London County Council, as the ambulance authority, have been
keeping records of home accident cases (both fatal and non-fatal) removed
to hospital by them. The Medical Officer for the County Council has
kindly supplied me with the following figures for 1963. It has not been
possible to give details of cases by cause in age and sex groups. The
figures relate to Health Division 1, which comprises Kensington, Chelsea,
Fulham and Hammersmith.
Cause of Accident Division 1 London County
Falls
On stairs 137 961
From ladder 12 102
From chair 14 132
Outside 44 233
In garden 10 174
In bath 2 23
From one level to another 52 400
On same level 105 866
Unspecified 535 4,009
Hit by object 22 189
Cooking stove 15 140
Teapots 9 52
Other boiling water 23 194
Electric shock 4 43
Poisoning 45 393
Gassing 39 294
Knife-like wounds 38 319
Fires 44 267
Windows 4 36
Suffocation 4 45
Not specified 41 436
Totals: 1,199 9,308