Conference focuses on preventing injuries to children

A statewide conference in Des Moines today is focusing on preventing injuries to children. Kathy Leggett is one of the organizers of the event at Blank Children’s Hospital.She says 90 to 95-percent of the injuries to children could’ve been prevented. Leggett says they covered several topics in this morning’s session, including burns, falls and motor vehicle related incidents, and they’re hearing about successful programs to stop injuries. Leggett says most of the people attending the conference are health care workers, emergency medical technicians and police. They also will have daycare workers in tonight.The keynote speaker today is Christine Branche, the director of the Division of Unintentional Injury and Injury Prevention at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. Branche says accidents involving children are a serious concern across the U-S.She says it’s a problem in every state, and it’s hard to find a state where injuries to children are not the leading cause of death. Branche says Americans need to change their attitude toward childhood injuries.She says we tend to accept the bumps and bruises as part of growing up — but says it’s worse than that — as six-thousand children die in the U-S every year because of injuries. Branche says preventing injuries is cheap compared to the costs of treating them.She says for every dollar spent on smoke alarms, you save 69 dollars in treating injuries, for every dollar spent on bike helmets you save 29 dollars, for every dollar spent on child safety seats, you save 32 dollars for the cost of treating injuries from car crashes.