Vital advisories

Dec 10, 2014 Editorial

Just how much effort and types of initiatives go into truly protecting our young children is something which should be highlighted and kept in the public view. This position is arrived at because it seems as if information that is vital to children’s safety and their survival is either ignored or not placed in the public domain.
Among the safety issues that many people are seemingly ignorant of are: the importance of child restraints, their proper usage and positioning in motor vehicles. During May 2013 in the U.S., an 11-month child Cameron Wagner was removed from life support machines after remaining in a coma, the result of a vehicular accident. The child had been placed in his car seat with all the proper restraints, but was facing forward instead of toward the rear of the car. That incident is not as isolated as might be widely thought, since right here in Guyana it is common to see young children placed in a similar position, which is at variance with acceptable international practice.
According to updated guidelines by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), infants and toddlers should ride in a rear-facing seat until they are at least 2 years old or until they reach the highest weight or height allowed by the car seat’s manufacturer. Maybe some research could be undertaken by the relevant stakeholders to determine the degree to which properly installed child safety seats contribute to a decrease in childhood motor vehicle traffic-related fatalities, and the findings communicated for the information and compliance by parents and care-givers of young children.
At the risk of reopening healed scars, a few years ago a young child was left forgotten for several hours in a locked car. This is yet another area where care needs to be exercised, since the pressures of existing in this country could affect people to the point of distraction making caregivers forget there is a child in the car.
Official anxiety about safety issues should be extended to other contentious areas of daily life. These should include an emphasis on the requirement for children to wear helmets while bike riding. Just as how the law requires motorcyclists to wear helmets the same serious consideration should be given to the dangers cyclists face on the roadways. But just as importantly, another danger that can be seen in photographs in the newspapers is where small children are carried on bicycles sometimes on the thigh of the rider, or standing on the crossbar. The law should be amended to address the carrying of children under a certain age on bicycles if we are to back rhetoric about road safety with positive action, even if unpopular at first.
Another danger faced by our young children as a result of their limited life experience and knowledge is their exposure to carbon monoxide (CO). This ‘silent killer’ is more than likely to have fatal consequences for those households which depend on kerosene lamp light for illumination during the pervasive Guyana Power and Light-caused power outages. There was a case of at least two persons dying from carbon monoxide poisoning over at West Demerara because they slept in a home with a generator in operation. A generator which was making noise caused those deaths. However, not much is left to the imagination regarding the fate of the groups most vulnerable to CO poisoning including young children, pregnant women and the elderly who are in a poorly ventilated or sealed home with a silent kerosene lamp burning.
No matter how much people think that everyone will be sensible, it is inexcusable to not reinforce the dangers posed by leaving medicines within easy reach of children. The hoarding instinct makes it hard for some people to get rid of unused or expired medicines, and so they should be advised to clean out medicine cabinets which should be so placed to avoid children gaining access to them.
Guyana Association of Private Security (GAPSO) is to be commended for its demonstration of corporate social responsibility in its advisory to the public on security measures that the public can take during the holiday season. There is no good reason why other agencies and groups have not as yet done the same in other areas of daily life.

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