Page 23 - The Regent Digest Volume 12 Issue 36

Medical Corner Know and have accessible important

phone numbers, such as emergency re-

sponse teams, poison control, and family
doctors.
ENSURING Additional behaviours, such as refraining

from cigarette smoking in the home can
reduce multiple health risks to children
SAFETY and adults including chronic health im-
pacts (asthma) as well as unintentional
injury — residential fires caused by smok-

STRATEGIES FOR INJURY ing materials (including cigarettes) are
the leading cause of fire-related death.
PREVENTION IN THE Creating a safer home environment will

ENVIRONMENT serve not only to lower the risk of children

and adult unintentional injury but also to
assist in the establishment of an overall

DEFINITION OF TERMS lthough unintentional injuries are by healthier home and school environment.
definition accidental, there are ba-
A sic precautions that can be taken in
INJURY: Injury is physiological damage
the environment to help limit the conditions
to the living tissue of any organism. Inju-
conducive to injury:
ries can be caused in many ways, such as
mechanically with penetration by sharp
• Properly and consistently use safety devic-
objects such as teeth or blunt objects, by
es such as smoke detectors, bicycle hel-
heat or cold, or by venoms and biotoxins.
mets, gates, and child-proof containers
SAFETY: Safety is the state of being “safe”, and latches.
the condition of being protected from
harm or other danger. Safety can also re- • Actively supervise children’s activities, in-
fer to the control of recognized hazards to cluding continuously monitoring children
achieve an acceptable level of risk. while they are in or near water and gen-
erally restricting children’s access to areas
PREVENTION: Is any action taken to keep
containing potentially hazardous materi-
people healthy, and prevent or avoid the
als or objects.
risk of poor health, illness, injury, and early
death.
• Keep other dangerous items out of chil-
IFEDOLA OPESAN
dren’s reach, such as knives, handles from
pots on the stove, hot liquids, and cords to SCHOOL NURSE
appliances and window treatments.

THE REGENT SECONDARY SCHOOL 22 THE REGENT SECONDARY SCHOOL 23
22