Document LJBnQ8Rz0N6zJOe0J6wn5KLy3

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HOMEv**Xw!<* &S8SS&6 SAFETY888888 As presented in the Heme Safety Sessions of the 1951 National Safety Congress mm v.v.v.v.v ifSi V.W.VAV .w.v.v.y. mm mm Mgw mm 888888888 mm gmm vmm The Educator and Home Safety........................................... 4 The Safety Engineer and Home Safety............................... 6 The Public Health Official and Home Safety..................... 8 The Safety Council and Home Safety................................. 12 Public Health Department Opportunities in Home Accident Prevention............................................... 16 Our Children Can Have A Safe Community When the Educator Cooperates......................................... 18 When the Industrialist Cooperates......................... 21 When the Public Official Cooperates........ ............ 25 It's Everybody's Business--Together................................. 27 Volume 13 Transactions 39th National Safety Congress v'wKwX lilt uIwXpivK NATIONAL SAFETY COUNCIL 425 No. Michigan Avenae Chicago 11, 111. r'.Ci PLAINTIFFS EXHIBIT PLAINTIFF'S EXHIBIT Ttecv ^dcai,... If safety is to keep pace with today's rapidly advancing technology, we must continually have "new ideas." Each year, at the National Safety Congress, the ideas and experiences of many of the nation's top safety men are presented in the various sessions. Many of these ideas, devices and methods, first presented at a Congress session, later become generally accepted within their fields. In order to present this information conveniently and at small cost, the Congress Transactions are published in volumes, one for each Section or Division, along with a General Sessions and Detailed Index to all volumes. The 34 volumes of the 1931 Congress Trans actions are listed on the last page of this volume. Safety directors everywhere have found the Congress Transactions a useful aid in their accident prevention programs. In industry, for example, their judicious distribution to key personnel in management and supervision has proved to be of invaluable service. In preparing these Transactions, the proceedings of the Congress have been condensed and edited for reference purposes. Complete original manuscripts, with any charts or illustrations which were used, are available in National Safety Council files. Views expressed at the Congress or in this record are those of the Congress participants and are not necessarily those of the National Safety Council THE HOME SAFETY CONFERENCE This volume is a record of die sessions held at the 1931 National Safety Congress by the Home Safety Conference. The conduct of these Congress sessions each year is only one of the many cooperative activities which the Conference carries on for the benefit of accident prevention work in the home. The activities of the Conference are under the direction of the officers of the Conference-listed at the close of this volume. .t 4 Home Safety The Educator and Home Safety By GARRY CLEVELAND MYERS, PhJD. Editor. Highlights for Children, Columbus, Ohio The parents, who are chiefly responsible for home safety for themselves, their chil dren, and other members of their families, are reached to some extent by able leaders of the National Safety Council through the P.T-A-'s and other groups, the press, radio, and television. But if we are to get very far with home safety education, we must do more among the parents of the future, the children now in our schools and colleges. Those of you who have been working for safety through the schools have done more good than you will ever know, especially by your, school safety patrols and councils, to practice children in safe behavior while on or near the school premises. You have thus rendered school children more con scious of accident hazards to themselves, their younger brothers and sisters, and the older members of their families at home. But with all vour fine efforts you often are discouraged because only a little of this good instruction and practice in safety at school apparently carries over to home life. You have been handicapped. So many jobs are crowded upon the teacher that die in clines, naturally, to resist taking on anything' more in the classroom. With sane notable exceptions, home safety education is not a regular part of the school curriculum, nor is it often adequately incorporated in any of the baric courses. Few teachers today in their training to be teachers were edu cated to think of safety as a fundamental subject. What is more, the average teacher has. been steeped in the notion that you can't teach any kind of behavior with words except in die immediate situation. While this prevailing ideas accepts such activities ST the safety patrol, it hardly allows much of a place to talk about anybody's safety at hone. Fortunately this viewpoint does grudgingly admit a bit of dramatizing at school, as in assembly programs, of some home safety, particularly on hazards to babies and tots. But the proposal to have children in elementary grades or higher study physical perils to their baby brothers and asters or grandparents at home is us ually regarded by the school as just talk, and out of step with modern education. A means for putting this talk about safety into constructive motivating action is provided by the wonderful graded safety lesson units of the workbook type, for school children from the early grades through high school, prepared by the School and College Division of the National Safety Council Also on the brighter ride, modern education emphasizes appreciation by the teacher of each child as a person, and awareness of his home and family. Great teachers with such attributes can't easily deny pupils the opportunity of talking about their loved ones at home. How easy it is., then for the group to discuss accidents which members of their families have had at home or which nearly happened but were prevented. From such talk the teacher can stimulate the children to learn the most common hone hazards and ways to remove or minimize these dangers. In such ways positive caution against home accidents can be rather effectively taught at school. In my judgment one of the greatest hindrances to parents in training the pre school child in safety is the notion created in recent years that they should not spank the little child, even to save his life; that they merely must be ever watchful of him and so persuasive that he will choose to play only in safe places made attractive to him, gradually avoiding specific dangers which have been labeled and defined for him. The mother supposes, for instance, that she must never use pain in connection with his running into the street, playing too near a fire, or tampering with a gas jet And tills doctrine is being almost uni versally taught io future parents in our col leges and high schools. WTien in despera tion the misled mother apprehends her youngster deliberately venturing into sane of these hazards, she may, in spite of her convictions to the contrary*, spank or even whip him. Then she usually discovers that the violent treatment has not "cured" him, and she suffers deep remorse; agreeing with the so-called "expert" that spanking will do no good. Such cases are practically always cited by those who say that physical pain won't help. Why should it be expected The Educator and Home Safety 5 < about iction is I safety pc. for grades : School I Safety modem by the on, and v Great t easily* ig about tsy it is,icddents ave had ned hut : teacher the most > remove ch ways ents can ml. greatest the prei created ot spank ife; that 1 r ^n hot..../to active to dangers ined for instance, xmection playing It a gas nost uniour coldesperands her tto some e of her or even vers that ed" him, agreeing spanking tactically . physical expected to work under such conditions? AU ani mal life tends to approach or do what promises more pleasure than pain. Any tot, say from two to live, who gets repeated pleasure from rushing into the dangerous street, playing with fire or a gas jet, with only occasional discomfort from the act, can be expected to go on doing this excit ing thing. Physical pain--preferrably a sharp slap with the fiat hand on the young child's bare thigh--should be immediately connected with the first forbidden expe rience and always thereafter till it is auto matically and permanently avoided. . It is amazing what little pain is needed and how quickly and lastingly the youngster thus learns to stay away from known hazards, especially if he can always turn at once to another -pleasurable but permissible activity. If the word No. uttered once in a moderate tone, is always connected with the pain, the word alone may later dete& the youngster from new dangers and, moreover, make him cautious when in doubt This worked at very little cost of pain with our own three children when they were toddlers, and also with their children, four in each family. It has worked, too, accord ing to objective records, with many of my students' children, when I was teaching par ents of preschool children at Western Re serve University, and scores of parents throughout the country who have read my syndicated column have written to say it has worked with them also. Many farmers have hit on a simple, in expensive means of keeping cows inside a pasture. They string a single wire around the field on posts not much larger than broomsticks. The wire is charged with a little electric current, and one or a few contacts with it keep the cows inside, even after the charge is turned off. The secret is that pain occurs on the first offense and regularly thereafter. Electric wires are al ways dependable, hut parents are not, though they could be. There are no ex ceptions with these cows, and pain always immediately results from the offense. The wire is identified with pain, so is avoided by the cow. Aren't our children as smart 35- cows? Aren't their lives a whole lot more precious? But let's not, of course; build wire fences around our lawns and electrify them. The dangers are too great Besides, the tot needs to leant the connec tion between pain and No so the word alone will be effective in many other and new situations; so he trill learn to recognize danger in time and respect it Let's urge parents to build for their children an in visible protective fence which can be quickly thrown about than at any time by utter ance of No. There has been a general weakening of restraints for young children at home. The toddler who does about as he pleases won't easily learn good safety attitudes and hab its, and he will manage to circumvent our most rigilent efforts to keep dangerous things beyond his reach. If the parents of our nation were convinced of the efficacy of teaching physical safety to the child un der five or six through means of a little pain consistently applied by a self-disciplined adult, a large majority of the 8.000 of them whose lives are snuffed out in the streets and by falls, gunshot poisons, burns, as phyxiation, etc. in their homes and else where in the period of a year, and often in the very sight of their helpless parents, could be kept alive and whole. How radio and television contribute to child safety we can't he sure exactly. Ap parently they keep some youngsters physi cally safe while listening or watching. But because of their exciting effect they can cause children to be less self-controlled, less cautious of hazards at other times. They cut in on time for preschool children to be read to and older children to read to themselves, for creative play at hone and fun with playthings and tools. Passive in appeal, they-seem to lessen interest in more constructive activities. Surely parents who read much to the young child at home, and cultivate in him the love of bood books are contributing to his safety. So do they also in providing him with good playthings and tools in the home, attracting his playmates there, stim ulating his imagination and encouraging him to draw, color, paint, and make things out of paper, doth,- clay, cardboard, and wood. The modern school is making good contri butions in this direction as are the chil dren's magazines with their appeal to the imagination and emphasis on things to make and do at home. All sorts of family companionship and enjoyment obviously contribute to home safety*. They* indicate a deep regard for 6 Home Safety each member of the family as a person by every other member. Under such conditions parents can be more persuasive with their children concerning safety. Instead of scold ing them with warnings about dangers, they talk companionably with their children about bong careful and the children are re ceptive in proportion to how much mutual esteem and love prevail. A favorable at mosphere and relationship at home provide a background for the safety of each fam ily member at home and elsewhere. Having acquired in such a family at mosphere the essential self-restraints, the child is more ready to leave alone some things he likes but knows may be harmful. He will also be more cautious when facing strange experiences. Furthermore, these early self-restraints will stay with and help him as he grows older. Having learned in his very early years to stop and wait at the curb, for example, he will be more likely to do so when he is six, sixteen, or sixty. No person beyond the age of one or two can be safe without adequate self-discipline. Let us, therefore, go on providing better home amusements for young children, in a family atmosphere of understanding and love. Let's give them more and better play places and supervision, for other, people's children as well as our own. Let's be more vigilant at protecting the very young child from known home hazards, but we must also train the young child in safety, espe cially in his preschool years, by administer ing bodily pain and No selectively and con sistently when he subjects himself to dan ger, thus teaching him to protect himself from acddqits long before he can under stand the danger. The Safety Engineer and Home Safety By H. W. HEINRICH Assistant SupL, Engineering and Loss Control Division, The Travelers Insurance Co., Hartford, Conn. At dinner one evening the head of a fam ily held forth on his favorite topic "this dangerous age." little five-year-old junior listened attentively while father spoke of the tragedies in air, rail, automobile, and ma rine transportation accidents, in the shops and on the farms. He lost the trend mo mentarily when his dad mentioned the new and different hazards brought about by ad vances in science and changes in materials, machines and processes. But when the old man said, "and don't`think you can escape it all by going home and crawling between the sheets in bed. You're likely to have an accident even there," little junior's worst suspicions were confirmed. He said "Not -Jast night, daddv, I was a good boy last night." Seriously, as we all know only too well, our homes are far from safe places. We are concerned here with finding practical wavs and means of preventing home acci dents that result in personal injury or death, and we have two good reasons to be con cerned--not only because the annual toll1 oi approximately 28,000 fatalities, four million 'From Accident Faeti, 19)0 edition, Katkmal Safety Council. Chicago. disabling injuries, and over 800 million dol lars lost is amazingly high, but also because so little of a constructive and continuing nature is being done about it The professional safety engineer has both responsibility and opportunity to assist sub stantially in the home safety program. Also, he is keenly interested, well informed as to causes and remedies for accidents, and im bued with a desire to serve the cause of safety. As to the enlistment of his services in home safety, therefore, it remains only to develop a practical community program whereby his knowledge, abilities and activi ties can be of help. From his viewpoint there are two groups which, working cooperatively, can success fully sponsor, organize and make effective these much-to-be-desired community borne safety programs. They are local safety councils and industrial establishments. Safety councils will find it advantageous to give more consideration to home safety. There seems to be no good reason why each and every council, with few exceptions, should not have a special section or committee on home safety, regular home sessions, meet ings and talks. As to industry and its safety The Safety Engineer and Home Safety 7 tit at the re.^kely or ft. ! 01 iWO lisdpline. lg better ren, in a ling and ttter play . people's be more mg child we must -*ty. espeIminbterand con i' to dant himself in under 's illion dolso because continuing r hasboth as(' 'subrat.... -Also med as to s, and imi cause of iis services nains only jr program and activi- ;wo groups in successre effective mity borne teal safety ats. Safety us to give ety. There y each and ons, should mmittee on ions, meetid its safety engineers, they are quite aware that their accident records are vitally affected not only by the on-the-job attitudes and en vironment, but also by. off-the-job circum stances. When safety begins at home, It will carry on into the shop itself. Indus trial management, therefore, has a responsi bility and a splendid opportunity to serve itself and its community, and improve its public relations by encouraging, sponsoring, and taking a more active part in home safety. An experienced safety engineer knows well the great advantage of careful prelim inary planning. If he were asked what activi ties community' home safety should include he would probably say let's get together and talk it over. He could readily suggest several -things to do, but he would much prefer to follow his natural bent as an engi neer--assemble the facts, consider the prob ability' of effectiveness and practicality as to time, cost and personnel; prepare a basic activity outline, and fill in the details. Then and only then would he be satisfied that he and his fellow volunteers were set to go ahead with the job. It would be his proposal, as it is mine, to hold, as the very first step, a preliminary' meeting of interested persons in the com munity*. Some one person usually b the spark plug; but in most cases he b not likely to be the practicing safety engineer, who from experience knows the difficulties of creating enthusiasm and continuity of action even in well-organized industrial es tablishments. He will anticipate an early lagging of interest He will sense political obstacles and suspect, perhaps with good reason, that he has "stuck out his neck" only to have it collared with most of the work, though he b apt to be a bit modest about assuming leadership in civic affairs. But don't overlook the professional safety engineer, and there b at least one in every community. He can assist substantially in home safety*, and he really wants to help. This first step--arranging the preliminary meeting of a selected group--is the easiest of all, but some one has to handle the de tails and lay out the agenda. If you don't already know a safety engineer in your community, check pie directory, inquire of a manufacturing plant, the town engineer, building inspector, police or fire chief, or the traffic engineer--find him and ask Ins help with the problem. Organization, sys tem and order, with an action program, are of first concern, while technical detail can come later. Home safety is mostly a mat ter of common sense precaution, involving such simple things as keeping objects off the stairs, renewing frayed lamp cords, using a stepladder instead of a rickety chair, keeping pots with hot liquids and sharp ob jects away from children. Personal contacts should be made with the town mayor or manager, radio and tele vision stations, newspaper editors, health authorities, school principals, the P.T.A., churches, police and fire chiefs, building inspectors, chamber of commerce, insurance companies and their agents, scout master. Red Cross, luncheon clubs, women's club presidents, architects, house builders, the labor unions, and local manufacturers. At this ]>oint money isn't necessary. All you need to ask is "will you come to a meeting in the interests of home safety'?" At thb meeting of organization representatives and interested individuals its purpose will be ex plained, the need and value of organizing for home safety emphasized, and agreement reached on the formation of a permanent home safety committee. Subcommittees will l>e appointed as required tor programs and arrangements, publicity, education, construc tion and repair, kitchens and interiors, yards, walks and ground, etc. When the home safety committee has been organized and is ready* to function, it must have a plan of action. It must do something effective to eliminate the causes of home accidents. Measures that should be considered are: Publicity--Make full use of newspaper and radio publicity. Remember that editors want news, so prepare home safety mate rial that will be acceptable as news. The formation of committees b news, so too are the reasons for your organization and your objectives. Assign to a committee member the task of checking with insurance com panies, magazines, employers, safety equip ment manufacturers, and safety councils for data and stories for local release. The committee should dig up interesting facts on the home accident problem locally, and prepare them for publication, including pho tographs whenever possible to increase reader attention. There are many sources of such data. One large multiple-line in 8 Home Safety surance company1 publishes a list oi 38 dif ferent kinds of home accidents for which claims have been paid. In 1949, falls on stairs and steps were in first place. Cats on sharp instruments and broken glass came second. Falls on slippery floors and rugs or on uneven ground and walks were next, etc Over one and a quarter million dollars were paid out in benefits under per sonal accident policies for home accidents in 1949 by this one company alone Many a tragic and intensely interesting story lies in case histories of home acci dents which can be obtained from hospitals and doctors. The pity of it is that although the great majority of them are readily and inexpensively preventable, they happen again and again. One approach in educational publicity that is particularly effective is to portray unsafe acts as not merely dangerous but also as something to be ashamed of, as silly or even close to moronic bang care ful always, however, not to identify a par ticular person or location. In other words, there is great value in both imparting knowl edge as to safety in habit and environment as well as in making dangerous acts so un popular that the bragging chance-taker is set back on his heels. Educational material--As a home safety committee cannot police homes for hazards, it must rely on persuasion to guide families in home safety through education. Home safety education means the imparting of knowledge about unsafe personal practices and dangerous physical conditions--the gen eral causes of alt accidents. Surveys and voluntary inspections are an other productive activity for . the home safety committee The professional safety engineer can and will assist in preparing a form or questionnaire and survey teams 3See Protection, April 26, 1910. The Travelers In surance Co.. Hartford. Coon. can advise home owners and tenants about the removal of accident hazards found on their property. Schools can contribute to this project by encouraging pupils to take home one of the inspection forms for a self-survey by their parents. Cooperation with industrial safety pro grams--In many communities there are in dustrial companies whose job safety pro grams endeavor to include employee safety while at home. Such activities are often known as after-the-whistle-blows safety campaigns, and offer fruitful opportunities for cooperation by the community home safety committee. These are but a few of the many ways .n which such a committee can apply its ability, knowledge, and zeal to reduce home accidents in its community.. Other activi ties are contests, distribution of literature, sponsorship of safety dubs, lectures, de bates, exhibits, and the showing of motion pictures. Like charity, safety begins at home. In dustrial and traffic safety engineers recog nize the paramount influence of safe home life on accident occurrence in the shops and on the highways. They want to help our home safety programs, and they have something to offer. Bring practical people they think the way to begin is to begin. There is no better time to begin than now, and it seems that we have already had enough talk. Action is the key now. Let each one here cany the message of this home safety' conference back to his own hometown. Let him recommend and effect positive, early action, so a beginning will have been made in all our communities to accomplish more in home safety for the benefit of the community, the state, the nation, and ourselves personally through the prevention of death, injury, and economic waste from home accidents. The Public Health Official and Home Safety By L. M. FISHER Engineering Field Associate, American Public Health Association Presented by DR. A. L. CHAPMAN Medical Director, Region III, U. S. Public Health Service The public health official of today is tak- and groping for an effective method which ing an increasing interest in home safety, he can employ to reduce the huge toll from fits about found on 1*0*0 s I. Ike ns for a fety pro. t are in* fetj' proee safety are often s safety ortunities ity home any ways apply its nee home activiliterature, nres, de>f motion tome. Inrs recogafe home he shops t to help hey have nl people to begin, has now, tady had w. *' jof a h. Jwa ind effect ning wi]] unities to for the state, the rough the economic ty od which toil from The Public Health Official and Home Safety 9 home accidents in fatalities, disabling in juries, monetary and property loss. He still has a certain feeling of doubt that it is an appropriate interest for him to have, but he cannot avoid a sense of concern when he studies the facts. Traditionally he has been responsible for preventing communicable diseases. He readily accepts this job, but is less ready to assume responsibility for measures to reduce home accidents. He has long looked at the prevention of accidental death--especially in the factory and on the highway--as the primary, if not the exclu sive responsibility of those connected with the safety movement. He is now, seemingly, beginning to doubt that this aloof attitude is completely proper, and to wonder whether or not he should take a hand, especially in home safety. He has not yet fully made up his mind, probably for several reasons: 1. he'is not quite sure that his help would be warmly welcomed by those already active in the field of accident prevention; 2. be is uncertain about the methods or procedures he could effectively follow to reduce the many deaths and disabilities resulting from home accidents, with their attendant eco nomic loss; and 3. he has not been given a direct mandate implemented with funds and personnel to engage in home safety measures, perhaps because he has not sought one. In spite of these influences he looks at the appalling problem uneasily, and does give serious thought to its magnitude and im portance, brought home to him by the stead ily high rate of fatalities in his own com munity from home accidents. He has a suppressed feeling of confidence that some of the methods he has employed in practically eliminating from the American home such one-time serious diseases as typhoid fever and malaria might also be effective in re ducing most of the preventable home acci dents. This somewhat uncertain confidence, combined with an increasingly urgent re quest for help from sources he cannot ig nore, is prompting him to take a broader view of public health: a view which rec ognizes that the loss to the community is just as great when a child dies from acci dental poisoning at home as from typhoid fever. He is greatly- disturbed by the fact that more children between 1 and 14 die from, accidents (10,741 in 1948) than from the six most important non-accidental causes of death taken together, with home acci dents the leading killer, ahead of any single disease, in that age group. When, therefore, he is urged to utilize his special skills for ferreting out various contributory causes of death in mobilizing official and community effort to reduce death from home accidents, he hesitates only because it is not quite clear to him how he should best proceed. With his present knowledge,'he can more easily prevent com municable diseases in the home than acci dents. After long and patient search by many health people, the causes of most communicable diseases are known to him and his staff, and this knowledge provides the basis for effective preventive measures. It has enabled him and his specialists--in cluding engineers, sanitarians, bacteriologists, chemists, nurses, entomologists, statisticians, and many others--working together as a. team to accomplish great triumphs in sani tation. The once-dreaded scourges of cholera, yellow fever, smallpox, and typhus are no longer terrifying American homes because this team knows what causes them and the nation possesses the economic strength to control them. Because of these and other accomplishments, people support the disease prevention work of the public health team willingly, but public resources placed at its disposal have not been adequate to enable effective application of all the preventive measures known in the field of communi cable diseases alone. As long as this situa tion continues the health official hesitates to assume obligation also for home accident reduction, a field in which he is a new comer. He sees great unsolved and intrigu ing problems in his traditional field of pub lic health, and outride this he knows that the average length of life could be further increased if the causes of heart disease, cancer, and nephritis were better under stood. He would like to find these causes and remove them, and is also worried by the fact that every other hospital bed is occupied by a patient with mental illness. While commendably engrossed in seek ing the solution to these challenging prob lems, he sees at the same time that acci dents are still fourth among causes of death, for all ages and, according to latest estimates, first for the ages of 1 to 38. He sees, too, that home accidents are still in ninth place as a cause of death, disregard- 10 Home Safety mg difference* by age groups, although some reduction was experienced in 1950. The precise underlying factors in many home accidents are unclear, and effective measures for preventing many of them are obscure and difficult Research into the in cidence and causes of home accidents is needed, as they are not reportable by law and facts are scarce. There is insufficient official interest, and it can be said that governmental responsibility for home accident reduction does not exist except in rare cases. It is completely lacking in most states and munici palities, and until this is corrected it is a serious handicap to progress. The statement that "everybody's business is nobody's busi ness" is true especially in home safety. When the modern health official looks back over the years and sees what great progress was made before his day in controlling the principal causes of death and what has been done in his lifetime to prolong die average man's life by eliminating typhoid fever and malaria, for example, almost entirely, his confidence that the accidental death toll will some day be greatly reduced too, even though proven methods for this are not yet deter mined is justified. This confidence comes from having with him the same team which contributed so importantly to the achieve ments in disease prevention, and knowing what can be accomplished through profes sional and organized community effort. The prevention of home accidents is strongly similar in basic requirements to the prevention of communicable disease. In both cases the increase in wealth, making possible a higher standard of living and better finan cial support of his efforts, contributes im portantly. Just as malaria tended to disap pear with the increase of wealth--enabling the fanner to drain a mosquito-producing swamp and cultivate the land, to build a better and fully screened house, to purchase medicine and medical care, and secure a more nutritious diet to build -up bodily re sistance--so an expanding economy with greater per capita wealth makes it easier to have better homes less hazardous in design, better maintained and equipped with better and safer appliances, therefore less condu cive to fatigue and worry'. All of these phys ical advantages undoubtedly are important in home safety. Probably no one knows better than the public health official the close rela tionship between poverty and disease, be tween a high standard of living and good health. It seems reasonable to assume that the same relationship exists between stand ard of living and home accidents. The public health official is concerned with anything that adversely affects health and causes death, but he can be effective against it only if given adequate facilities, which for home accidents would consist of means to develop precise knowledge of the factors causing them and proven methods for remov ing these causes, and the personnel and funds necessary to effect those methods. In order to obtain the requisite knowledge about fac tors causing home accidents and about the best preventive measures, funds for further research are needed. Once such measures hare been established, demonstration projects in local health departments help convince doubtful budgetary officials and dvic leaders. A lively and intelligent personal interest in home safety on the part of public health offirials is a prerequisite, and more of them are taking such an interest now than ever before. Home accidents are caused in so many different ways and so constantly, with such a drain on the economy, that the interest and effort of nearly every individual, group, institution, and agency in almost every field should be enlisted. All individual and organi zation leaders trying to promote community betterment should take part in home safety programs. This can best be brought about, it is believed, under the responsible leader ship of a public official. Official and volun tary agencies should cooperate to reduce the incidence and severity of home accidents, and the public health official has had much experience (and many headaches, at times) in stimulating and organizing such coordina tion. This background should prove invalu able to him in both giving and receiving assistance for home safety. Splendid beginnings have already been made by the U. S. Public Health Service and the American Public Health Association, as well as some state and local health de partments. They have been in the form of research and experimental programs, the production and distribution of materials, special training of personnel, the holding of forums and institutes, and support with grant-in-aid funds. Further steps for estab lishing home safety training courses in local health departments and seminars in schools of public health are being planned. All this ame that at stand* /""-N neu ,,-lth alth and e against rhich for neans to : factors r removnd funds In order >out fac* ibout the further measures projects convince : leaders, iterest in ic health of them han ever so many nth such interest J. group, cry field 1 organ!* immunity ic safety ht about, e Iederid(i \itdriw'the icddents, ad much it times) roordinae invalu* receiving dy been . Service sodation, ealth de form of ims, the naterials, tiding of art with or estab> in local i schools All this The Public Health Official and Hume Safely 11 is coining about because an increasing num ber of health officials accept the thesis that home safety is a logical function of the health department The U. S. Public Health Service now officially recognizes this fact, as do the American Public Health Associa tion, the Conference of State and Territorial Health Officers, the National Organization of Public Health Nursing, and the Na tional Safety Council. This action by the National Safety Coun cil should be particularly encouraging to those health officials who may still entertain doubts than any efforts on their part to prevent home accidents would be sincerely welcomed and supported in the safety pro fession. The mutual interests of safety councils and health departments in home safety, have been developing satisfactorily at the state level, but only lip service is too often the rule at local levels. This attitude will disappear soon, we hope, for if any problem needs the concerted support of all groups it is the problem of preventing home accidents. This area of public welfare is still greatly handicapped by the lack of governmental as sistance like that which has been given to industrial and traffic safety for many years. This is perhaps because the general public is not yet fully aware of the seriousness of the situation. Spectacular accidents, like the loss of many lives in a theatre fire or in the burning and sinking of a ship, arouse public indignation and compel immediate remedial action by government. In the field of com municable diseases, an epidemic causing many deaths arouses people and requires the quick application of preventive measures.. The funds necessary to correct the evil in such cases are made available promptly. But no such public feeling occurs when several members of a community are killed by ordi nary home accidents, or over 27,000 nation ally in a year. They happen privately, not in public view, usually one at a time instead of in large groups; they are not usually spectacular; they do not often make the front pages. A fatal or disabling home acci dent tends to be accepted as a matter of fact, with no one aware but the victim, his family and circle of friends. While they may take action to prevent a recurrence, little notice is given to the tragedy outside this small group, and the lessons that it might teach others are lost. No careful recording of all the facts in the case or search for the rea sons is made. No information is ascertained about the physical and mental state of the victim before the accident and little or none sought about the hazard involved, the wrong ful act--either of the victim or of another person--to be studied for the benefit of others. For in any accident there is one or a com bination of causes: the dangerous condition and the unsafe practice. The elimination of either might have prevented the accident A slippery rug on a polished floor is a fall hazard, but there will be no tall until some one steps on iL Some progress in cutting down accidents can be made by removing only one of these two factors, and rapid progress if both are eliminated. Sometimes the removal of a hazard is not as simple as in this illustration. It may be built into die house in the form of a chirk hallway step, getting rid of which calls for preventive design or alteration. Some day the local public health engineer may have the oppor tunity to review house construction plans and be able to detect such built-in hazards before they materialize. As a member of he engineering profession he should be tamiliar with the principles of safe house design, construction, and maintenance, and with safety features which equipment going into modem homes should have. As an engineer he should have a special interest in household appliances, fixtures, etc., developed by the engineering profession,, and assume a lively responsibility for preventing acci dents m which such apparatus is involved. The private nature of home accidents makes the public apathetic toward the prob lem. Therefore, -much improvement will probably never come about through compul sory measures, and chief reliance will have to be on cooperative education. An effective way to arouse public interest seems to lie in the continued use of promotional and educa tional material presented as challenging!)- as possible Progress made in this way is likely to be relatively slow, but probably sound. With home accidents causing far more deatlis and disabling injuries together (in cluding about 110,000 permanent impair ments in 1950) than any other type and costing the nation over $800,000,000 last year, there is ample justification to spend generously for research and experimental projects which give promise of disclosing the important information we need to perfect preventive measures. The Public Health 12 Home Safety Service has made an important, though mod est, contribution by trying, in cooperation with state and local health departments and the National Safety Council, to develop methods for health agencies to use to reduce home accidents in their jurisdiction. It is also making possible at least one research study in home safety this year. That health departments can act effectively in reducing home accidents if given better facilities is being proven at Kalamazoo, Michigan, where the work of the city-county health department the past 2J4 years has had such promising results that the pro gram's sponsor, the Kellogg Foundation, is now supporting exploratory projects through three more local health departments in other sections of the country. There is hope, too, that a state-wide home safety program will be financed by this Foundation. It was assumed before the studies at Kal amazoo were started that the friendly con tacts of health department people with fami lies afford opportunities to teach home safety in an informal manner on home premises where it would do the most good. This has been proven largely true. Safe home habits and conditions can thus be taught more ef fectively -with minimum effort at the point where the lessons must be applied, but not all health workers are already proficient in such teaching. For maximum benefit they need special training in this field, as in other fields of public health. Bacause home acci dent prevention concerns everybody's health and welfare, it is logical to make it a com munity effort with mass education, but reli ance must not be placed on this method alone. People are often slow to apply the information they receive, and will remember safety lessons longer if they engage in the corrective measures while a health worker is in the home. They profit most from what they see and experience. A model hazardfree home might be an effective educational demonstration. The great need in this, as in other com munity problems, is competent leadership, implemented by trained personnel and public education funds. When public health work ers are shown that .carefully directed efforts such as they can make will appreciably re duce borne accident fatalities and injuries, they will want to accept home safety as a regular function of their team. Great progress will have been made when this is done. Therefore it is important that the results obtained at Kalamazoo be impressed on health workers and the pupils, and if the outcome from one or more of the other three such experiments now under way is as favorable, a further long step forward will have been made toward safer homes for alL The training of health department person nel in the proven methods will follow, as will research into improving and perfecting those measures. Doubting public health of ficials will become convinced that their pro cedures for reducing preventable deaths in other fields of public health can be; with slight modification, equally successful in home accident prevention. With this assur ance will come official leadership and re quests for. funds and personnel to deal with the problem thoroughly as a community re sponsibility, which it rightly is. The Safety Council and Home Safety By ROBERT R. SNODGRASS Vice Pres., National Safety Council; Chairman, Conf. of Local Safety Organizations; _ and President, Atlas Auto Finance Co., Atlanta, Ga. Home safety is the step-sister in our accident-prevention family. Dress up the members in their Sunday-best, line them up for a family photograph and here's what you're apt to see. Traffic--the glamorous, headline-getting, popular child of every safety movement. Quick to seek publicity. Always the talk of the town. Acquainted with everyone from the comer beat man to the president of the leading bank. Industry--the "family provider." No pro moter need worry about him. Since he came of age he's been steady and dependable. Al ways willing to kick in to the family kitty. The right hand of safety everywhere. Fleet--the hard-hitting extrovert Inherit ing the qualities of Traffic and Industry. apply the remember gethe wtj ] is :om Jat 1 hazardlucational her comeadership. ind public 1th work ed effons ably re injuries, fety as a u Great en this is that the impressed s. and it die other way is as ward will s for alL it personollow, as perfecting walth oftheir pro deaths in be, with essful in his assuri aivt retkf )ith rasu./n- ilzations; ssident oi No proe he came table. Alnfly kitty, ere. . Inherit- Industry. The Safety Council and Home Safety 13 Fleet is a more conservative Traffic and a more personalized Industry. Fire--who comes into her own once a year and helps when she's needed. But what about Home, the Cinderella of die family, who seldom shows up in the family portrait, and then only in the back ground? Yes, what about Home Safety? The skeleton in our family closet which we don't boast about. The step-sister of our profession. Traffic safety is glamorous, but accidents in urban homes kill far more of our citizens than motor vehicles in towns and dries. Industrial safety is steady, but home acci dents kill almost twice as many Americans - die from work accidents. Traffic and industrial safety use the easy strength of enforcement, but our homes are fertile en vironment ''for education, on which home safety must depend and winch, in the long run, is more potent than enforcement and certainly longer lasting; The Situation Home accidents wear the No. 1 accident killer tag more years than riot Last year these deaths decreased 11 per cent under the 1949 total. This is the only appreciable re duction ever recorded, but some of it no doubt is attributable to a change in death cause classification in 1949. Home acddents still account for about a third of all acciden tal fatalities each year, and half of all the disabling injuries. A study made by the Na tional Safety Council, and published in the 1931 edition of Accident Facts, shows the breakdown of accidental deaths in 38 rep resentative dries for 1950. The information it contains is challenging! Only three of the 38 dries registered more accidental deaths in traffic than in homes. Home deaths led more than two to one. I am cognizant of the difficulties facing a safety cound! or other organization work ing in home safety. Traffic safety attracts more operating funds. Enforcement powers in industry and traffic are a ready-made tool for improvements. Procedure and precedent are already established in the fields of traffic and industrial safety. The neglected need today is home safety. Only a few communities have faced this problem with an honest attempt to solve it Most safety councils have a home safety section or division or committee on paper, but too often actually it is little more than a publirity campaign with spasmodic radio or press releases. Most safety coundls are not taking full advantage of all the educa tional and engineering facilities available to them that can be used to prevent home acd dents. Few safety coundls use their in herent strength to supplant public com placency or indifference with awareness and active support What's the Answer for You? This situation must be corrected, and it is up to the safety council to establish the program, instill and develop the interest that will do it, and act out its part as the rec ognized leader of all aeddent prevention in the community. Leadership is what is lack ing most. There is some awareness of the problem by most organized groups and agendes. Industry has recognized somewhat that off-the-job safety is essential to good pro duction. In their own way, many safety organizations, health and humanitarian groups and individuals are trying to promote education in home aeddent prevention. There are many who will help; but they must have the guidance, encouragement and example of the safety coundL Before a safety council can present a home safety program suited to local needs, inter ests, limitations and potentialities, it must know the exact problem in its own commu nity'. How serious are home acddents com paratively there? How and where are they happening? To what age groups? Such facts are obtainable on a national level from Accident Facts. Quite possibly the picture is the same in your community. If so, you cannot hdp but perceive a need for home safety promotion slanted to particular age groups and aeddent types, primarily: Falls among people over 63 years of age; fire barns among children under five and adults over 65; poisoning among children under five. These are some specific problems you quite likely will discover as outstanding in your community. The approach is then ap parent: Concentrate first on eliminating the causes of the most home aeddent deaths in your locality. This cannot be done soldy by publidty or propaganda. Although these rudiments are essential and have their place, they are not the answer. The answer lies in continuous partiripation in a definite pro- 14 Home Safety gram by all members of the community, individually and colleclively. The Proofs in the Pudding I learn l>esl when 1 try to teach others what I've learned. So do other people When I advocate something, I try to follow my own advice. Because 1 am now very interested in safety, and active in its pro motion, I am more satety-conscious person ally than l>efore. By helping the safety movement 1 l>ecome a afer person myself. I think this ]>ersonal participation is the reason tor the outstanding success of "Op eration Safety" in the traffic field. I see no reason whatsoever why this procedure can not be used effectively in home safety too. A few safety councils have "Operation Home Safety" programs modeled after the traffic version, but it is still only a pioneer ing field. I believe more councils should consider this approach. Let me give you an example. The Greater Atlanta Safety Council, of which I am a member, initiated its public safety programs last year and now has a full year's expe rience lteliind it. It was quick to organize "Operation Safety" with leading groups siKwisoring specific pltases of traffic accident prevention. Why. asked Manager Bob Leo pold, couldn't the same type of program be used in home safety, and in farm safety? There are actually over 1000 well organ ized groups in Atlanta, with members eager to improve their community, which could be brought into the job. The answer is obvious. They can and will work for safety in At lanta; Los Angeles; Portland, Oregon; or Portland, Maine, if they are shown the way. The Atlanta Red Cross chapter made available to the new Safety' Council its records of hospitalized accident cases secured after organization of a reporting system in each hospital. These did not include all accidents" in the area, but did. cover most of those serious enough to require hospital attention. An analysis of this information gave us the picture on non-fatal injuries, which, besides statistics on fatalities from death certificates, is so essential in planning emphasis and activities. Such facts can be obtained in any community, but perhaps not always as easily as in Atlanta. Still, they must be had, as the first step in any suc cessful community home safety program. Next, a roster of organizations in the metropolitan area was secured from the Giamber of Commerce. Parenthetically, a good mailing list is necessary' for a wellrounded public information program, as di rect mail pieces are particularly helpful to home safety education. There should be no difficulty getting lead ing groups to sponsor and conduct programs for the safety council once they're sold on the need. Much care must be used, however, in choosing groups which will achieve the best results in an appropriate job and which will have the highest degree of membership participation. In Atlanta, those organizations were se lected which the staff thought could best handle special phases of home safety need ing intensive promotion. A meeting of rep resentatives from these groups was called and the plan presented to them. The results were gratifying: every group accepted the assignment suggested and a schedule for the 'first year's program was set up. It was inaugurated in September 1950 with the Girl Scouts sponsoring "Child Safety in the Home." The Women's Chamber of Com merce took "Fire Safety in the Home" dur ing October. The Business and Professional Women's Gub readily accepted the job for November, but the theme had to be changed from "Old Folks in the Home" to "Adult Safety in the Home." They didn't like the implication in "old folks." The Federation of Women's Clubs under took "Safe Housekeeping" during December and January. The Atlanta Chapter, Ameri can Institute of Architects, sponsored "Safe Equipment and Construction" during Feb ruary and March; an organization composed of 135 Garden Gubs worked on "Yard and Garden Safety" during Ap-.il; and the Boy Scouts sponsored "Child Safety Outdoors" during May. There were no program sponsors for the summer months this year because most groups disband during the vacation period, but we will have summer sponsors for home safety next year. The Recipe in Atlanta Six weeks or more before each campaign, the safety council staff holds a planning meeting with key people of the sponsoring groups to discuss its facilities and a plan of action. No two campaigns are alike, just as no two organizations are alike, so each m the ally, a g Ieadjgrams iold on iwever, ye the . which bership ere scld best .* needaf rep- called results :ed the tie for It was th the - in the Com" durrssional job for hanged "Adult ike the tmder!cr'''w l "Safe g Febtnposed ard and he Boy itdoors" for the e most period, ir home mpaign, ilanning msoring a plan ke, just so each The Safety Council and'Home Safety 15 must be handled individually. Every project homes and followed it up with a report of is tailored to the people who are conducting improvements. The soundness and potency it, and the individual members grasp their of this approach can be gauged by some responsibilities immediately. comments which I quote verbatim from the When the program is agreed upon, the reports: Safety Council prepares a kit including a fact sheet on the subject, a quiz, talk outline, program for club meetings, or some other tool for making member participation easier. In the campaign outline with this kit, it is emphasized that members should pass on what they learn to others, thus promoting "Smoking is now not allowed in beds." "Sewed anchors to rugs to prevent slip ping." "We have been trying to remember to turn pot handles to back of the stove." "Mother and Daddy stopped smoking in home safety outside as well as within their bed" own group. The Safety Council works closely "I painted the bottom step to the basement with the group's leaders in carrying out white." campaigns through its members for the most widespread benefit The staff handles all publicity on such special activities and carefully directs it so' there is no conflict or duplication with other important safety information supplied regu larly to radio, press and other media by the Council. Experience taught us that this fa the only way. During one of the early cam paigns, three different Scout troops contacted one radio station requesting time for the same campaign. Now the staff makes all such contacts and channels the publicity, securing the radio and television partici pants from the sponsoring organization. Press releases are handled the same way; the sponsor contributes news, names, ideas, etc. which a staff member writes up and releases. The newspapers and radio stations "Dad gave me some money to buy a stepladder for the kitchen. Also, I got a metal can from the store for oily rags." "I have been malting my little brother and sister pick up their toys and put them away after playing." "Mother said she would turn pot handles in a safe place if I would stay out of the kitchen when she is cooking." How's that for results! Children learning to do things safely--teaching and reminding their parents about accident prevention! You can be sure that these children will be a strong influence for safety in their homes. The girls presented skits at PTA meetings. They went on the air several times with panel discussions an various aspects of home safety. They made talks to their troops. appreciate this, for it means one agent con As part of the home fire safety campaign tacting them for local safety promotion, of the Women's Chamber of Commerce, a rather than several. The staff member han highly respected group of business women, dling public information finds that it makes a speakers bureau was formed which made his contacts with the outlets pleasanter, per talks to other groups. Civic and service sonal, and more fruitful. dubs helped reach tens of thousands of The Direct Approach people with fire prevention advice: Preach-* ers were contacted and urged to have fire But again let me emphasize that publicity drills for their Sunday Schools. A radio is only a part of the home safety program. and TV subcommittee presented home safety It is valuable in telling the public the need panels and other broadcasts. for home accident prevention--yes--and what they can do to make themselves and their families safer at home; but it also enables public recognition of the efforts of partici pating organizations and their members. For Another successful program, judging by the cooperation achieved, was "Safe House keeping" led by the Federation of Women's Clubs, composed of 104 groups in our Fifth District Every dub took part, some on what they do is newsworthy--their activities' make news--good, legitimate news which is more interesting generally than straight safety propaganda. , radio programs, others with talks or a quiz pand before their own organization, or when tiie Safety Council's speakers bureau provided them with a speaker. The Atlanta Girl Scouts made news when they sponsored "Child Safety in the Home." Appraisal and Challenge They made a survey of hazards in 4,000 Several advantages are apparent after a 16 Home Safety year of "Operation Home Safety" in At lanta. The promotion is not confined to the period of each campaign, but it gains im petus and momentum during it and continues through several months afterward. The Safety Council confines the publicity on a particular phase to the stated period in which it is stressed, so it will not conflict with other programs, hut the resulting interest and activities go on indefinitely. Another advantage to the Safety Council is that its news stories are made more in teresting and usable by highlighting the cooperating organizations and the people in them. Thus the credit is spread around and an avenue left open to the Council for pub licizing other phases of safety without satu rating the media with the same impersonal items. And, of course, the invaluable situation of thousands of people promoting the cause and disseminating the "good word." There is really no reason why the public can't be harnessed to the home accident pre tention team, why home safety can't be as outstanding in the safety council family as Industry, Fleet, and Traffic are--except that John Q. hasn't been offered much opportu nity to help, hasn't had the leadership, hasn't been shown the way. Here is a wonderful opportunity for any safety council, if it fully accepts and meets the challenge which Home Safety offers. Reducing home accidents in our communi ties is a tough, demanding, often frustrating battle which can be won only if it's hard fought So far we haven't done much more than give it lip service. Public Health Department Opportunities in Home Accident Prevention (A special forum for state and local public health personnel arranged in cooperation with U. S. Public Health Service, Chicago Regional Office.) Presiding: E. R. Kkumbiegel, M.D., Commissioner of Health, Milwaukee, Wis. (Summary of Discussion) Dr. Krumbiegel opened the discussion by stating that the following basic assumptions could be made: 1. Death, sickness, and permanent disabil ity resulting from home accidents constitute an important public health problem. 2. Public Health Departments have a moral responsibility to help reduce these accidents. 3. It is possible to reduce the incidence of home accidents. These points were accepted as correct by general consensus of the group. The following questions were posed and discussed as summarized below: 1. What resources do public health de partments have that they can devote to home safety right nowf a. Epidemiology b. Pub lic health nursing c. Statistical analysis d. Health education e. Mental health sendees f. Maternal and child health services g. En vironmental sanitation. There is in general a legal responsibility on the part of health departments for epidemiology, environmental sanitation, and vital statistics, as well as for other phases relating to communicable disease, but not necessarily for accident prevention. It is difficult to release personnel for home safety because most of the appropriate di visions are already overworked, but perhaps some of the time of personnel in certain divisions could be more advantageously used for accident prevention than for present purposes which have become less serious. 2. What percentage of these resources can be turned to hotne safety todayT The part of its resources which a health depart ment can release for this work varies ac cording to public interest in the problem. Therefore, the health department has to sell the public on the need. 3. Are additional resources availablef Wheref Maternal and Child Health funds are already authorized for accident preven tion services, because home accidents are the ation of le cause le v Jfc lent prei't be as amily as :ept that opportup. hasn't for my id meets f offers, ommuniustrating it's hard ich more l peratlon onsibility ents for tier OS _ but not for home mate dit perhaps 1 certain usly used present serious, resources ay? The li departaries acproblon. as to sell mailable? 1th funds t preven ts are the Public Health Department Opportunities in Home Accident Prevention 17 most important cause of death among chil dren from 1 to 14, and all accidents kilt more children in that age group than the six most important nonaccidental causes combined. According to Dr. A. L. Chapman. Medical Director, Region III, USPHS, General PHS funds can also be used now tor safety by health departments. Public support for a long-range program of home accident prevention by a local health agency can be built up through: a. Promotion of interest in the problem by the public health nurse among families she visits at home; b. The advisory health council of the community; c. Informing the local board of health; d. Indoctrinating the entire health de partment staff, who in turn can educate the public. Although it is wise to plan a compre hensive and continuous home safety pro gram with funds allocated for the purpose, in most communities the health department must start with a diversion of personnel from other assignments before it can get additional money. One way to begin is its own complete demonstration campaign in a small section of the community, or a project in cooperation with some other organization. 4. In which administrative section of the health department does the home safety program belong? It was agreed that some official agency in a community must assume governmental responsibility for home acci dent prevention as we have in traffic and industrial safety. The only such agency which regularly goes into homes is the health department, but it has no enabling legislation with respect to the home aeddent problem, except possibly that which covers environmental salutation. The problem must lw met through education. The environmental sanitation division can deal with accident exposure conditions, working with engineering and allied sci ences. The mental hygienists, health edu cators, etc. can work on accident immuniza tion and susceptibility in cooperation with the medical and psychiatric professions. The safety council should assume the program promotion and organization com munity-wise, acting as a clearing house and getting behind the official agency for co ordinated public support of its program. It should coordinate volunteer with official ef fort The administrative level for the health department's home safety program will de pend on the size of the agency and con templated scope of this program. In smaller departments the health officer will probably need to direct the program personally, but in larger ones it may be incorporated as an activity of the division of chronic dis eases. 5. What specifically can a health depart ment do m home safety, effectively and economicallyt In order to set up a program, the health department should first delineate the problem by: a. Follow-up of death certificates to de termine the extent and exact causes of home accident mortality locally. b. Ascertain the morbidity from home accidents by getting case reports from hos pitals and doctors. Other measures such as a sample survey of homes by public health nurses might be utilized if sufficient person nel tune is available. From these facts the most important problems to concentrate on can be estab lished and forces and procedures of attack chosen. It was suggested that in-service training in home safety for health educators and other groups in the comunity's so-called "health family" might be the next step. Men tioned for this training were public health nurses, sanitarians, health educators, public welfare workers, employees of voluntary service agencies who go into homes, insur ance collectors, utility men, etc. 18 Home Safety Our Children Can Have a Safe Community (Joint Meeting--All Public Safety Delegates) Presiding: NED H. DEARBORN, Pres., National Safety Council, Chicago When the Educator Cooperates By WAYNE O. REED Assistant Commissioner for State and Local School Systems, U. S. Office of Education, Federal Security Agency, Washington, D. C. Our children can have a safe community if the educator cooperates in helping them to learn to make it a safe community. Edu cators have placed great emphasis on this problem for the past thirty years or more and with such splendid results as to encour age us to redouble our efforts. The educator will also help children have a safe community if he continues to cooper* ate with agencies and individuals in under* takings directed toward the reduction of accidents in the community. Serving on committees, helping to conduct surveys, keeping accurate accident records, estab lishing good traffic controls around the school, discussing matters with parents and civic groups--these are but a few of the many ways in which the educator can as sume his responsibilities in community safety affairs. There are many aspects of a safety educa tion program, for safety education is a broad phase of the total educational pro gram. Safety education involves many serv ices such as the medical examination or observations and check-ups (screening) by the teacher and nurse. Through such serv ices, we may find a child who -has defective virion, or one who is weak or poorly coor dinated, or one who is psychologically dis turbed so that he is accident-prone. By keeping aeddent records, the school cui learn what the actual experiences of its own children are and thus point up the teaching. There are first aid and emergency case services for children who do have aeddents during school time. These services also indude adjustments (physical and pedago gical) for children who have handicaps. The Fire Drill is a real safety service. Often the local fire chief is consulted by the prindpal, teachers and representative chil dren in setting up precautions to be taken in case of fire. Unfortunately, today we have also to provide for possible emergency con ditions relating to Civil Defense. Here, too, we find school people and aril defense ofiidals working together. The school environment is involved in safely education. It indudes everything from the way the scissors are handled in the first grade to the use of laboratory equipment in the sdence rooms of the high schools; from the custodian's storage of cleaning supplies and equipment, to the maintenance of the school bus. And of greater importance, is the necessity of teach ing children how to use the facilities, equip ment, and supplies safely and to cooperate in correcting conditions that are hazardous. The organization and conduct of all school activities have safety implications. This involves such things as scheduling class ac tivities, lunch, "activity" and recess periods; the regulations dealing with the riding of bicycles; classroom management, such as procedures involved when small children handle scissors and other sharp tools, or the way materials and other matters are stored and handled in the classroom--such things as the way science and shop equipment are set up and used, the way homentaldng and physical education, athletic and recreation activities are carried on. There is also a necessity for planned and guided learning experiences in safety--in struction, if you will These learning activi ties range in scope and interest from helping the first grader find the safest route from home to school, to emphasizing the safe use of playground equipment for fourth graders, to special courses in first aid and driver education in the high school--with many other concepts, experiences, skills and atti tudes necessary for all children in between. Y Igoi ) V of taken in we have ncy con*_ Here, I defense olved in rcrything indled in iboratory the high wage of to the And of of teachs, eqqipmoperate azardous. ill school s. This class ac- children Is, or the re stored things as t are set ang and ecreation nned and fety--intg activin helping ate from safe use graders, d driver th many and attibetween. Our Children Can Have a Safe Community 19 In this broad program, many people have a responsibility. But most important, safety education is the responsibility of the teacher --not just the teacher who has some specific assignment for safety teaching but every teacher. Who is in a better position to favorably influence attitudes, to develop a safety consciousness, to impart knowledge, and to develop skills, than the teacher in his day to day intimate contact with boys and girls? Children learn safety--absorb safety--in many ways. The most important way is by living safely throughout the school day and carrying over those safe ways of behaving into home and community life. When chil dren help set up and understand certain regulations and safe procedures, and are encouraged to observe them--that is func tional safety education. There are thousands of examples: When children observe traffic in the halls, or handle their bicycles in the agreed-upon manner on the school grounds, or help keep the school grounds free of obstructions and debris, or light the ovens properly in the home economics class, or when they serve as a member of the school safety council or the safety patrol, they are living safety. The attitudes children develop and the practices they follow in school carry over into the home and community. It Is impor tant for parents not only to encourage safe practices, but to follow diem as welL There can be learning through dramati sation. This is not to say that all safety education must be so highly charged that inhibitions are built up. But safety can be taught in such a way that it is real and a part of life. There are times when interest b at "white heat." Then, of course, is the time to capitalize upon these incidents. I guess one reason why teaching seems so effective then is because the possibilities of unsafe behavior come closest to the person. One of the great hindrances to safety edu cation is the common feeling that "it can't happen to me." Such incidents as these bring home forcefully the fact that perhaps it could happen to me.- Many--almost ever}'--school experience involves some consideration of safety. Wher ever appropriate and natural, the safety im plications 'of any learning experience should be brought out. When the second graders visit the fire house, or the sixth graders go to the school camp, there are innumerable safety factors involved. In the high school, who can better teach safety in relation to athletics, recreation and physical education activities than the phys ical education teacher? Or the safety in the home--who can teach it more appro priately than the home economics teacher? Is not science teaching replete with oppor tunities for getting across safety concepts? Surely this is true; and full capital should be made of these opportunities for correlation. But then some of these experiences are so important that they must be a part of the education of all pupils. As an example, home economics reaches many but not all of the girls of the high school and few of the boys. Yet in the home it is the boys mainly who will operate the tools, fool with the electricity, or even wield the can openers these days. I suggest that we must look at our high school curriculum to make sure that all boys and girls have the privilege of profiting from certain basic and common experiences. There b, then, content in safety education. Certain knowledges and stalls to be learned. One must be in command of today's envi ronment today. It b more than that It is a way of thinking--so that one can also be in command of tomorrow's environment tomorrow. The content in each school will vary with the needs and interests of the students, of course. But generally, for talking purposes, some of the more common learnings might be organized into these headings: Home and Farm Safely: Safety in various parts of the home, the yard, in the barn, involving such things as the prevention of fires, burns, falls, poisoning, cuts, and as phyxiation, the handling of animals that as somebody put it "kick, bite; daw, scratch, buck; or gore." Public Safety: Traffic: For dementary children--tricycles, bicycles, wagons, scoot ers, skates; for high school children--motor scooters, hot rods, jeeps, trucks, and the family car. For all of them--pedestrian practices, use of public carriers, buses, trains, taxi cabs, etc. Public Buildings: Using revolving doors, elevators, exits, fire escapes, etc. Safety in Play and Recreation: Playing in the street and on playgrounds, using ) jj fc-r . fj 13 " r. mi equipment and supplies like kites, swings, seesaws. Water Safety: Swimming, boating, fishing. Safety Elements of Nature: The sun, wind, storms, insects, reptiles. School Safety: Safety on the grounds, in the halls, in the classroom; Safety in gym nasiums, play areas, locker room; Safety in special areas such as the science room, home economics department, shop, school lunch room, etc. First Aid & Home Care of the Sick & Injured: Once again thi ited value unless^ individual an^ ways that va Study dent one. especially concerned with pointing it up--someone to take a special interest to see that all of the educational opportunities are fully utilized, to help coordinate activi ties, to provide enlightened leadership so that school and community resources will be used to the fullest. In a state or local school system, this is ultimately the responsibility of the adminis trator. But so are many other things-- and so he must delegate. The manner in which leadership in safety education will be Relegated must necessarily depend upon many gs. The size of the community, the of pupils or students, their age and jfl, preparation of the. teachers, purees and .many other factors Stul to dete? and the ible with Evaluate teachers and other to note their influence Survey the school, home and community for accident hazards and for other safety needs. Use data available from the public health, police, highway, and other agencies. Survey textbooks, courses of study, cur riculum guides and other materials to deter mine what items are stressed; weight these items "ior appropriateness in the light of the needs of the particular children concerned. These are just suggestive--there are many other evidences of children's needs. ' State and Local Leadership The broad program of safety education in the schools of a community needs some ices the leadership might son especially employed as jrdinator,. or consultant in ^Or it may be a -person "fions described'in those jetion with a larger relas director of health, r education or assistant ismall organizations the ome from a committee especially designated as Emmittee. In other words, Son phase needs some one B in the program, who has Echnical background in the knows how to work with many States have someone in the Department of Education especially Signaled to coordinate the activities of the department that relate to safety education. Ten or more have such persons who give full time to the safety assignment There are counterparts of these school services on the national level. There is the National Commission cm Safety' Education of the National Education Association. In our own Office of Education we look mainly to our specialists in health and physical education for leadership in safety education. Each of those persons has had a wealth of experience and professional preparation in the field of safety. In addition, a number of our general elementary and secondary people are well versed in safety education and there are certain other specialists whose work deals in considerable extent with the safety aspects of education. i tinting it iterest to orf-^es tel >isrship so rces will a, this is adtninisthings-- anner in d wiU he xmmany aity, the age and teachers, r factors p might joyed as iltant in t -person in those rger re health, assistant ions the mmuttee ated as r words, Jtne one who has in the irk with specially 5 of die locationho give school e is the location ion. In : mainly physical ncatlon. salth of ition in number tondary tucation i whose nth the Our Children Can Have a Safe Commtmiiy 21 I 'hope I have conveyed to you my very strong' personal feeling that we can make our community safe for our children only if every citizen accepts ids responsibilities-- the educator no less than any other person. Hie'educator contributes in two ways: (1) by helping children and youth learn to live safely; (2) by contributing as a citizen of the community to those safety activities that Jead to civic betterment Safe living goes on out of school--at home and on the highways; in plantsjjjj^ shops and on playgrounds. The cogg holds many people other than ssIt who are extremely interests the police, the firemen, thj insurance companies, th the automobile dub, the transportation dynamite caps,, the, don, the dvic chiby ihe public health! more. The school'! uration is impor The schools not not avoid workirl Only when all oil ate together morel ests of children al Most of my corS mainly to demcntarjl Trade schools, too, aspects of safety education. They do a particularly important -job in stressing shop safety and the safe use of tools. In this respect .they are of service to industry in training young people to be safe workers. In the colleges we find a growing interest in the safety aspects of professional tech nical jobs--engineers, scientists, laboratory technicians, and others. Some few offer curricula in safety engineering and traffic safety control. Some offer general courses gjjjjcadon or safety units in perhealth courses. gg a major contribuRation of the pro|his responsibili|he pre-service kJ secondary safety, and ^r school \iere are ^ion that |oes profor iiertheir fill come educafon State colleges Fcation of When1 BjTS President, Kennecott Copper Corp., New Yore; Chairman, Board of Directors, NSC Presented by D. E. MUMFORD Suptof Safety, New York Central Syrtem, New York Today, industry accepts the fact that it has responsibilities to the community, and that the members of the community expect it to discharge properly these responsibilities. Increasingly, therefore; industry has been shouting leadership in various community activities, sometimes corporately, and some times individually through its management personnel. Examples of this leadership are shown in community chest and hospita.* drive, and business-indUstry-education pro grams. Industry's Interest in Accident Prevention Logically, industry may assume leadership in stiff another field--community safety edu cation, where it has so much experience and knowledge to contribute to public wel fare and benefit. Industry has a two-fold interest in preventing accidents. First; there is the humanitarian interest--we don't want our employees to get hurt Second, there is the dollars-and-cents interest--accidents cost money. ft If * -Mil I -.1 ;:Hr , 1 .1 ; [. ?i a I ; -I l* fit lill 20 Home Safety equipment and supplies like kites, swings, one especially concerned with pointing it seesaws. Water Safety: Swimming; boating, up--someone to take a special interest to fishing. Safety Elements of Nature: The see that all of the educational opportunities sun, wind, storms, insects, reptiles. are fully utilized, to help coordinate activi School Safety: Safety on the grounds, in the halls, in the classroom; Safety in gym nasiums, play areas, locker room; Safety in ties, to provide enlightened leadership so that school and community resources trill be used to the fullest. special areas such as the science room, home In a state or local school system, this is economics department, shop, school lunch ultimately the responsibility of the adminis room, etc. trator. But so are many other things-- First AH & Home Care of the Sick & Injured: Once again this content is of lim ited value unless tied in specifically with individual and group needs. Some of die ways that we can help find those needs are: Study and use medical, dental and acci dent records, the other health and safety appraisals, the recorded comments of. con ferences between teacher and nurse am par ents and others. Observe the safety practices of the chil dren in the school, on the playground, during the lunch period, in the community'. and so he must delegate. The manner in which leadership in safety education will be delegated must necessarily depend npoamany things.. The size of the community, the number of pupils or students, their age and grade level, preparation of die. teachers, available resources and many other factors are involved. In some instances the leadership might come from a person especially employed as .a supervisor, coordinator, or consultant in safety education. Or It may he a person who has the functions described `in those titles," but in connection with a larger re Observe the child's ability to live with sponsibility, such as director of health, and compensate for his handicaps. physical mid safety education or assistant Evaluate die quality of relationships among pupils, with one another and with adults. Learn what children do in their free time, what they talk about, how they fed about dungs. Study the organization of the school day to determine whether die things that happen and the arrangement of the day are compat superintendent In small organizations the leadership ought come from a committee with some one especially designated as chairman of the committee. In other words, the safety* education phase needs some one who is interested in the program, who has an adequate technical background in the subject and who knows how to work with people. ible with good safety practices. Today many States have someone in the Evaluate the philosophy and actions of State Department of Education especially teachers and other adults of the community designated to coordinate the activities of the to note their influence on safety attitudes. department that relate to safety education. Survey the school, home and community Ten or more have such persons who give for accident hazards and for other safety foil time to the safety assignment needs. There are counterparts of these school Use data available from the public health, police, highway, and other agencies. Survey textbooks, courses of study, cur riculum guides and other materials to deter mine what items are stressed; weight these items^or appropriateness in the light of the needs of the particular children concerned. services on the national level. There is the National Commission on Safety Education of the National Education Association. In our own Office of Education we look mainly to our specialists in health and physical education for leadership in safety education. Each of those.persons has had a wealth of experience and professional preparation in These are just suggestive--there are many the field of safety. In addition, a number other evidences of children's needs. of our general elementary and secondary' ' State and Local Leadership people are well versed in safety education and there are certain other specialists whose The broad program of safety education work deals in considerable extent with the in the schools of a community needs some safety aspects of education. >inting it Merest to or, iip so rces will IV this is adnunisthings-- saner in a will be poamany nity, the age and teachers, r factors ip might joyed as tiltact in * person in those iger re- health, assistant ions the xnmittec ated as r words, one one who has in the >rlc with e specially s of the location, dm give : school e is the incatko aoo. In : mainly physical location, eaith of itioo in number condaiy location t whose nth the Our Children Can Have a Safe Community 21 I 'hope I have conveyed to yon my very strong' personal feeling that we can make oar community safe for our children only if every citizen accepts his responsibilities-- the educator no' less than any other person. Tbe'educator contributes in two ways: (1} by helping children and youth learn to live safely; (2) by contributing as a citizen of the community to those safety activities that Jfead to civic betterment Safe living goes on out of school--at home and on the highways; in plants and shops and on playgrounds. The community holds many people other than, school people who are extremely interested in safety-- the police, the firemen, the fire marshal, the insurance companies, the safety engineers, the automobile club, the highway engineers, the transportation people, the makers of dynamite caps,, the parent-teachers associa tion, the civic dubs, the medical profession, lie public health people--these and many more. The school's part in this whole config uration is important and completely related: The schools not only stand to gain but can not avoid working with community groups. Only when all of us plan, work, and evalu ate together more closely can the best inter ests of children and youth be served Most of my comments have been related mainly to demeutary and secondary schools. Trade schools, too, are concerned with many aspects of safety education. They do a particularly important job in stressing shop safety and the safe use of tools. In tins respect .they are of service to industry in training young people to be safe workers. In the colleges we find a growing interest in the safety aspects of professional tech nical jobs--engineers, scientists, laboratory technicians, and others. Some few offer curricula in safety engineering and traffic safety control. Some offer general courses in safety education or safety units in per sonal and public health courses. The colleges also have a major contribu tion to make in the preparation of the pro-, festional educator to assume his responsibili ties for safety education. In the pre-service experience of elementary and secondary teachers or special teachers of safety, and in the post-graduate courses for school supervisors and administrators, there are many experiences in safety education that the college can, and in some cases, does pro vide. However, there is much room for improvement For the most part; our teachereducation institutions need to improve their services so that the school person will come to the job better prepared in safety educa tion. lids will reduce the burden on State and local school systems and the colleges themselves for in-service education of personnel Xj .1 i D.j**;> , m 4 When the Industrialist Cooperates By CHARLES R. COX President. Kennecott Copper Corp^ New York; Chairman, Board of Directors, NSC Presented by D. E. MUMFORD Supt-of Safety, New York Central System, New York Today, industry accepts the fact that it has responsibilities to the community, and that the members of the community expect it to discharge properly these responsibilities. Increasingly, therefore, industry, has been showing leadership in various community activities, sometimes corporately, and some times individually through its management, personnel Examples of this leadership are shown, in community chest and hospita.* drives, and business-indlistry-education pro grams. Industry's Interest in Accident rtcveouon Logically, industry may assume leadership in still another field--community safely edu cation, where it has so much experience and knowledge to contribute to public wel fare and benefit Industry has a two-fold interest in preventing accidents. First, there is the humanitarian interest--we don't want our employees to get hurt Second, there is the dollars-and-cents interest--accidents 'cost money. - :T!l -I m iv. Mi  Home Safety Industiy takes its text for accident preven tion from foe Bible, Deuteronomy XXII-- 8, which reads, "When thou (wildest a new house, then thou shah make a battlement on the roof, that thou bring not blood upon thine house, if any man fall from thence." That ancient admonition still holds good. It applies to industry and individuals alike--we don't want "blood upon our house." Industry is interested in all types of acci dents. Accidents to employees on the job cost the most. To the employee they mean pain and suffering, medical expenses, and lost wages. To the employer they mean com pensation expense, medical costs, damage to material and equipment, taxes for and contributions to hospitals, lowered efficiency and reduced production, and increased pro duction costs, reduced markets and lower profits. But accidents to employees away from the job are nearly as costly. The employee experiences the same costs whether he is injured at home or at work and the employer suffers lowered efficiency and re duced production, and increased production costs, reduced markets, and lower profits. Then there are the accidents to members of employees' families. When an employee's wife falls and breaks her arm, the employee suf fers medical costs and lost wages due to the necessity of his being away from the job as a result of the accident--and the em ployer sustains losses occasioned by the employee's absence from work and his worry and distraction while on the job. Even accidents to others than employees and members of their families cost industry money through reduced markets and other factors. There is no kind of accident that does not affect industry unfavorably, other directly or indirectly. What Industry is Doing About Plant Accidents Industiy has made great progress in re ducing occupational accidents. It has spent millions of dollars for accident prevention devices, and additional millions for safety education. The number of occupational acci dents per 100,000 population resulting in death has been cut in half, and a similar reduction has been effected in non-fatal accidents. Today the worker is safer on the job than he is off the job. Industiy can do much to reduce plant accidents still further. A great many com panies have safety programs and full-time safety men, but more companies, especially the medium sized and smaller business con cerns, should inaugurate safety programs. Moreover, the effectiveness of many existing plant safety programs should be improved and strengthened. What Industiy Can Do To Help Community Safety The interest in off-the-job safety in cer tain states has been increased by the passage of legislation providing employee disability benfits for off-the-job injury as well as occu pational accidents. However, in a recent survey of 400 representative organizations in the United States and Canada, otfiy 43 .were doing anything to reduce off-the-job* acci dents among their employees, and of these 43 only about 10 were really trying hard to educate their people in safety away from work, althoughall 400 companies bad some one charged with the responsibility of em ployee safety. Industry cannot afford off-the-job acci dents and should begin to do more about them. In the case of companies haring regu lar plant safety programs, the additional cost of incorporating off-the-job safety in the regular plant safety program would be small Here are some of the things that could be done: 1.. Keep records of off-the-job accidents in order to determine how, when, where and why. 2. Summarize off-the-job accidents and make the information available to all employees. 3. Compare the cost of off-the-job and onthe-job accident experience. 4. Show motion pictures, slide films and other visual aids relating to off-the-job safety at employee meetings. 5. Devote a proportion of safety publicity to the subject of off-the-job accidents. 6. Get employees to teach safety to members of their families. 7. Include first aid training, in plant safely programs. (It is impossible to take one of the courses and not become safety conscious.) Education to prevent non-occupational accidents will pay dividends in less absentee ism, lower labor turnover, bettter production, and higher employee morale. Off-the-job EJ tn cer- ents m o is and the-job Our Children Can'Have a-Safe Community 23 safety- has an important by-product value-- <fead and 9 million injured, at. a total cost it not only bringsdown the number of acci of $7,300,000,000 in money and an incalcula dents away from the plant, but it also helps ble amount in suffering and mental anguish. to reduce the number of on-the-job accidents, Statistics are dry things--instead of the by virtue of the fact that employees, when 90,000 dead, perhaps it would mean more if they become safety conscious away from the we think of the sorrow and deprivation in job, become more safety conscious while cm 90,000 homes resulting from the death of a the job. member of the family, in many cases the In making off-the-job safety of employees breadwinner, due to an avoidable accident. a part of the general plant safety program, Despite the progress in accident prevention industry is contributing to the community that has been made, we have not yet found safety program.. But there are other ways a way to bring home to the individual the in which industry can contribute more pos importance of safety to him personally. We itively to community safety. One of the have not been successful in making the most important of these is in helping the individual sufficiently concerned about the community get the safety program set up accident "that has not yet happened." on an efficient basis. Generally speaking, industry has had more experience with safely programs than communities have had, and its sdfety engineers can render invaluable assistance to the community in making the program effective. There is a misting link somewhere; be tween our efforts to prevent aeddents and the results we have thus far achieved. This misting link is really three links which are psychological, organizational, and financial in character. Another important way in which industry can contribute to the community program is What Can Be Done About It to make available its safety engineers to speak before the various community organi zations, including church gatherings, parentteacher's meetings, school groups, etc. The safety man should be ready and willing to talk safety on every occasion, wherever he happens to be. The psychological missing fink stems from the fact that safety involves more than putting up wanting signs, safety guards on machines, and painting moving parts yellow. It involves men's minds. The steel industry, after notable progress in reducing aeddents by the installation of millions of dollars of Industrial safety equipment and materials, protective equipment and devices, found that including motion pictures, slide films, safety- no matter how many more dollars were graphs, and other visual aids, are usually spent; the aeddent rate held steady. The men used only a small percentage of the time. By themselves were no more safety conscious lending them to the various community than they had ever been, and through neglect safety groups, industry can enhance their and misuse were dreumventing the mechani usefulness and further contribute to the cal safeguards. Since the problem was men over-all community program. tal and psychological, the solution was found, What is Wrong with the Safety Movement in the U. S. in safety education. But substantial further progress will have to come from more fun- . damental safety education than can be given. Forgetting for the moment what industry in industrial plants. can do to help community safety, let us Hie safety movement in this country will consider the safety movement in the United not be fully effective' until we accept the States and what is wrong with it Real concept of safety as an important part of progress in accident prevention has been the American way of life, and this means made. Since 1900 the "all accident" death that it must be taught in childhood in our rate per 100,000 population has been reduced homes and schools.. In some manner the about one-third. However, in 1950 aver individual must be made to think safety--so 35,000 Americans were killed in automobile that he will-act safely at all times. aeddents and 55,000 more in other lands of The organizational missing link is due to accidents, totaling more, than six times as ' the comparatively small number of aties many as Save been killed in Korea since throughout the United States which have the .beginning of the war there. organized community safety programs in Consider these figures--in one year 90,000 operation. There are more than 1200 dties t ;1I / Hi -3 t Hi 24 Home Safety of over 10.000 population, but ooly about 200 of them have organized community safety programs. In 80 of these tbefe are community safety organizations, which are affiliated as chapters with the National Safety Council and. generally speaking, the programs are effective and well ran. In the remaining 120 cities which have organized community safety programs, the programs arc less effective, often incomplete, haphaz ard. and part-time. Tins leaves 1,000 cities, most of which are between 10,000 and 23,000 population, with no organized safety pro grams. The inauguration of many more community safety programs, and the improvement of existing programs, is essential if the effec tiveness of the safety movement is to be increased materially. Safety programs must be carried down to die smaller communities of between 10.000 and 25,000 population, and even below. Then there is the financial missing link. At present not one person in a thousand makes any direct contribution to safety, nor would be know bow to go about doing so if he wanted to. People would be more con scious of the importance of the safety movement if they contributed to it financially. Getting the financial support of a substantial proportion of the rank and file of the citi zens of tins country is an important step toward making die safety movement more effective. What Industry Can Do What can industry do to help forge these missing links? In the first place industry can help persuade our people to think and act in accordance with the concept of safety as a fundamental of our American way of life, and it should urge that tins concept be taught in our schools and homes. Industry can help further by assisting in the develop ment of the school safety programs, by fur nishing advice and assistance, and by lending safety, equipment and materials for the presentation of the courses. Industry can play an important part in organizing safety programs in those com munities where none now exist, and improv ing those existing programs which are not effective^ It can do this by virtue of its position in the community and through its industrial safety men, who are trained in safety and who are working at it constantly. Safety is their business, whereas others in the community, who are interested in safety, have other duties and responsibilities which have first call on their tune. Industry can make no better contribution to community safety than by making available its safety engineers for helping set up community pro grams. It should be the responsibility of the National Safety Council to get industry started in the inauguration of safety pro grams in communities not now having them. The Council should draw up a simple, easyto-follow blueprint as a stimulus and guide. I fed that the professional safety engineers are the persons best qualified to organize community safety councils. They should work through badness and community lead ers, and obtain the people best qualified in die various phases of safety to make up die soandTs membership. The undertaking should have the Nesting of the mayor, but care should be taken to keep the council free of politics. An excellent example of a non-political safety council which has bad notable suc cess, is the coe at Waterbary, Connecticut. None of the members receive pay for work cn the council and all were chosen for their particular specialized knowledge and civic interest. The industrial members, I believe, are responsible for giving the council the spark winch has brought its activities to its present high level of accomplishment. The council makes available to any interested group tire services of speakers, material for speeches, films, slides, literature; statistics; etc. It holds regular meetings and receives good publicity from local press and radio. The council serves not only Waterbary, but a number of nearby towns and villages as welL Achieving broader financial support of the safety movement is-primarily the responsi bility of the National Safety CoundL One community that I know of that gives popular "grass roots" support for die safety move ment is Cleveland, Ohio. Here the Greater Cleveland Safely Council once a year carries on a Green Cross dollar membership drive. It gets help from tire police, the fire depart ment, and the public schools, and raises a substantial portion of its budget in tins way. Upwards of 70,000 members are enrolled, and, in addition; 100,000 school children get the Green Cross button for lesser coatribu- bers in miunity safety ty pro of the idostry y proI diem, v easygtride. gineers rganize should f lead fied in up the rtaldflg or, but council olitical le sucseticut. r work r their I crac lelieve, al the aes to hmp^. tistics, scenes radio. y. iwt ges as of the spoust. One opufcrr moverreater arries drive, teparttises a s way. soiled, en g itribu- Our Children Cun Have a Safe Community 25 tions. - The important thing about the Cleve land plan is not the amount of money that is raised bat rather, the comparatively large number'of people that become interested in safety as a result of their financial support I believe that some adaptation of the Cleveland plan can be found which can be applied on a national scale. In any event, when the council comes up with a way to attack the problem, industry will be able to lend substantial help through its plant safety programs and employee information chan nels. Conclusion In concluding my remarks cm industry's part in community safety, I would like to point out that industry has been the pioneer in the safety movement in the United States. It has made large contributions to safety, -and stands ready to increase its efforts in tins field. But safety must be a joint effort of all of us if we are to succeed in reducing the tremendous kisses that occur each year. There must be greater participation by edu cational Institutions, local governments, bad ness leaders, and individual citizens if we are to succeed in bringing to all our people the fundamental concept that safety is every body's badness. The American people cannot afford to continue to pay the unnecessary annual toll of 90,000 dead and 9,000,000 injured. Such a loss is beyond the ability of even this country to bear, whether considered from the -viewpoint of the amount of money in volved, or the human suffering. Safety must be accepted by all our people as a funda mental of the American way of life. Saving men's lives conforms to the ancient biblical concept that we are our brothers* keepers. Safety work should not he con sidered a chore which we of necessity must perform. Saving men's lives, and eliminating or reducing the pain and suffering resulting from unnecessary non-fatal accidents is a noble -occupation, worthy of the best efforts of all of us. When the Public Official Cooperates By HON. SID MCMATH Governor of the State of Arkansas, little Rock It seems to me that we have represented here the groups which can do the most about those reflections on our community integrity which we label "public accidents." When die industrialist, the educator, the safety council manager and the public official work together there is almost no limit to the good they can do. Conversely, no matter how hard each ought work individually, un less their efforts are related and unified in purpose, results are problematical. So rt is gratifying to "team up" with an outstanding industrialist, an eminent edu cator and an able safety council manager, and with them to try to establish a few gindeposts for our future effort The thesis of our discussion, that our children can have safer communities when all concerned cooperate, has been proved a. great many times. Through the process of cooperation we have made some gains m my own state of Arkansas; but we haven't made enough gains. And I challenge you, my friends, that in your communities too, no matter how good your safety programs, you have realized only a fraction of the potential. If we satisfy ourselves here today simply by agreeing on something we already be lieve, we are in danger of missing the point altogether. I submit to yon that none of us is doing anywhere near enough cooperating. First of all, let's examine this creature called "the public official." Contrary to what some might have told you, the average public official is a nonnal, decent american citizen; a human bong. From some of the things you have been reading, you may doubt flat; but it's true. I say he is a human being. Perhaps bis greatest fault is that he is too human. Human enough to believe he really should serve the expressed desires of the people who pay bis salary. Human enough to listen the most to those who shout the loudest, though Ins conscience tell him the shoot is a lie. Human enough to wonder why those who speak to him of high prin- 26 Home Safety ciple also ask him to compromise that prin ciple. And human enough to grow at least mildly cynical under the impact of what happens to him when he delivers what the public asks for, only to find that public missing, at home and silent, when the chips are down. Is this an indictment of the public offi cial's boss, the people? Is it just another way of saying that the people get the kind of government they want and tolerate? What I am trying to say is that the public official is of the people. His vision frequently is the vision the people give him; his courage, often as not, is the courage they impart. Here today we are talking about accidents. I think we should recognize that we could just as well be talking about some of the other tilings bothering our national con science, because in doing so we would be talking about the same thing. We are by inference declaring that accidents is all these areas have their roots in the same soiL For example, our fight against crime in our communities and in our states is the same as our fight against accidents. When ever we find indifference to law enforce ment, there we find in the shadow's deplor able traffic records. The prevention of crime is primarily a community and state responsibility. Organ ized crime can be eliminated for the most part by a vigorous and effective enforce ment of state laws and municipal ordinances. The responsibility for enforcing these laws belongs to the elected public official. By the same token, accident prevention is a community and state responsibility, and a rigorous enforcement of traffic laws and safety regulations will contribute greatly to accident prevention, and reduce the cost in lives and dollars that we are called on to pay each year. Last year, 1930, for example, accidents in the Tiome and on the highway resulted in 62,500 killed, 5,300,000 injured, and a $3,70%000,000 economic loss. This country cannot afford this drain on our finances and on our human resources. Our responsibility as a nation at this particular time in our history is such that this waste must be eliminated. Most of the things we do today, and most of the things we fail to do, must be con sidered in he light of the great struggle in which we are engaged. We need to husband our strength and conserve our national and human resources. America stands today, whether we like it or not, as the last clear hope of free men in the world. We are engaged in a conflict with com munism the outcome of which will deter mine not only the survival of our insti tutions and our way of life but will determine the future course of civilization as we know it. We find ourselves in the position of leading the free forces of the world in this struggle. When we reflect upon it, it seems as though we have been engaged in tills same struggle for the past thirty odd years. You recall that we fought the first World War believing sincerely that we were mak ing that great effort in order to preserve freedom in the world. We believed that this war would end all wars and bring peace to the world. After the first war, however, we did not assume the position of leadersliip in the world that destiny had placed upon us. We decided that events in other sections of the world were no concern of ours. We with drew into a shell of isolationism; refused to join the world court or the league of nations. This negative attitude of ours contributed toward the second World War. We did not realize our mistake until Pearl Harbor. We were thrown into another world conflict and only after a great sacrifice did we emerge victorious. But we finally learned our lesson. We matured, we realized after the second war that if we were to be secure in our freedom and if ever we were to have peace in the world, we must concern ourselves with the affairs of other nations; we must assume our position of leadership in the world. Because of this attitude we have been able to check the advance of the commu nists, and thus far at least we have been able to avert a third World War. But this struggle in which we are en gaged will last for many years. VVe will no doubt have to fight many limited wars and be prepared at all times for an all-out conflict To carry on this stiuggle costs American lives and billions of American dollars. This is a fight that cannot be left just ;gle in h/" 1 oil. i e it or nen in i comdeterinstit will izalion in die of the ms as s same rs. World makreserve d tint bring lid not in the is. We of die : withiiscd to tations. rilnited did not tr. We ICf' CHL t. We td war reedotn in the itli die assume rid. e been en able xe cnfe win i wars all-out t costs oerican ft just Our Children Can Have a Safe Community 27 to the soldiers and sailors and marines. This is a fight in which every individual must participate. What greater contribution could you and I make than to eliminate the drain that negligence and indifference make upon our manpower and upon our treasury? The saving of billions of dollars each year, the prevention of hundreds of thou sands of casualties each year, by accident prevention, migth conceivably make the dif ference in this "no quarter" conflict in which we are engaged. As educators, public offi cials and engineers; as citizens we are chal lenged to do a job that will not only save money and human suffering, but will con tribute in large measure to our ultimate victory over our communist foes. When we win this fight, -and if we will continue our support of the United Nations, someday we will have peace in the world. It is apparent that, though accident pre vention may appear to be a routine and run of the mill job, the consequences of a successful safety program will be far reach ing. So like good soldiers, let us meet the challenge and do the joh. It's Everybody's Business--Together By JOSEPH M. KAPLAN " Mgr., Greater Los Angeles Chapter, National Safety Council Can we have a safe community for our still being tost and many fine, healthy young children? Of course we can if we our bodies forever incapacitated, because you selves come of age and fully assume the and I weren't really convinced an accident- responsibility for making it so. The com free community could be achieved. So mon denominator is found in the Biblical somewhere along the way, with too little injunction about bring your brother's keeper. faith, our steps began to falter, and finally, The touchstone to success is in two key let's admit it, in too many cases came to a words--identification and participation. The stop. catalyst is in the community safety council. Apropos is the old Chinese proverb that says "die longest journey begins with the first step." And that first step is a most important one. Not only the taldng of it but the direction in which we strike out, the goal we strive for, the preparation and planning that go into making that goal attainable, and probably most essential, the dogged determination and stick-to-it-iveness that keeps us on the road until we get where we're going. We must make up our minds here today that our long journey to safer communities has begun with the big step we are taldng by having this meeting. Now then, with our common objective determined and the first advance made; our real problem is how-to best reach that target and not be pushed back. If this seems rather ele mentary, I simply remind you that records in this business of accident prevention prove we have other strayed from the funda mental approach that ultimately brings suc What is our objective---a safe community cess in any endeavor--or we have never for our children. Is it possible of accomplish really discovered the A which leads to the ment? More important do you believe that Z in stopping the criminal carnage that is it is? Quite a worthwhile objective, isn't our accident history. it? The toll in young lives lost in acci dents is far too compelling to ignore. The life of your youngster or mine alone is worth all the effort. So 1 want to search with you today for the touchstone on which we can stand and see a whole new vista in safety, with our reward at the end of the long winding road Let us determine today, then, that we a safe community for our children, and want a safe community for our children so the rest of US. badly that we will dedicate ourselves to eventually having it Well, we have decided Key Principles and Some Ifs to take die first step--oh, we have all done The two key words or principles with that much many times before, in various which we must begin if we are to step out ways and directions. But many lives are on the right foot, are identification and 28 Home Safety participation--identification personally with the problem and participation or alliance personally in a never-wavering effort to solve it. All of ns--as businessmen, indus trialists, educators, governmental representa tives, or just plain citizens--arc inseparably and naturally linked with not just die phases of safety that affect us directly as individual groups (such as traffic, withinthe-plant, fleet, home and school, farm, etc.) but also with entire, overall, commu nity-wide safety. For the actual fact is that an accident, any accident, which could have been prevented has both a moral and prac tical implication affecting all of ns in the community. We have failed, each one of ns personally and professionally--particularly those in the full-time badness of promoting safety-- every time a youngster is lolled in a home accident, or when some father is taken from his family by a traffic or industrial accident. Any organization, agency, institution or group--as a member of our community-- has failed if it does not participate with its services and/or finances in a community safety program. If your community, or mine, is unable because of lade of funds to support a complete public safety program that gets down to the grass roots; part of the responsibility for onr appalling acci dent statistics should cause that commu nity's non-participants some sleepless nights. A community safety organization has failed if we have not sold the community generally on being identified with its acci dent problem to the extent of actually doing something about it collectively and individ ually. And we fail most miserably if we let ourselves become complacent; content to just hold the fine, or if we do anything short of militantly seeking ways and means to prevent all accidents. safe driving, it still costs you to replace one of your workers killed in a traffic acci dent by the employee of a firm where traf fic safety education is non-existent, or by someone in a community where there's no such thing as an accident prevention pro gram. The Best Approach How do we achieve this identification and participation which determine how safe onr communities are? Can the police depart ment do it? Can businessmen do it? The educator? Yes you can, partly. But how cm we get the total community identifica tion and participation essential to making our towns and our country safe for our children? ft is obtainable. I think, only through our community safety councils. The main func tion and service of such an organization is that of the catalyst, the unifying force to bring all phases of accident prevention closely together in a comprehensive, continu ous program so they can help each other and jointly create a safety climate in die community as a whole. When you have an effective safety oragnization for the entire community--and it is your responsibility to make it so--one that is representative of all dements and interests there--you have a potential that properly employed can bring about the safe community that is our ob jective. If we are reasonable in expecting a safe community for our children, we should ex pect it to be safe in every way through teamwork of an resources. The educator plays a part individually, as does the in dustrialist and tiie enforcement agency, but we cannot secure community safety in seg ments, only as a unit If one ride of the fine falls down the whole team suffers. Let's look at traffic safety, for example. If you and your company or- group still haven't accepted the thesis that calls on you to `Contribute to a traffic safety program which embraces the entire community, and are satisfied to work only within the bounds of your own organization, cooridcr die prac tical side of the matter. Insurance rates on cars in your community are not based on the traffic safety record of your own em ployees or members, but on the record of die community as a whole. No matter bow well you may instruct your own group in How does a community safety council work toward this so-much-to-be-desired goal? First of all, it tries to unite all forces in the comunity which have a rightful re sponsibility to the public When you, die industrialist, the educator, the public official, the private citizen, and group member really join up in this cause and in so doing, make a safety council possible, the prune step has been taken. This unified, active and potent force; in the community's name and because it is a community welfare effort, with no axe to grind but public safety, can accom- replace <k J res no a pro- on and tie oar depart* ? The it how ntifica- or oar ;gb our i fhneitibu is jrce to ventkn ontinui other m the ave an entire ility to i of all have a i bring nr ch ild exhroogh locator the incy, but in segof the TS. council desired forces fnl te xt, the r really ; make tep has potent nth no acoom* Our Children Can Have a Safe Community 29 ptish the safe community we are seeking for oar children. It can launch safety pro grams that will receive community support such .as no single agency, commercial or civic organization might expect As a spe cialized public service and educational asso ciation whose motives are above reproach, it can enlist financial backing and active cooperation for accident reduction impossi ble for more general and limited groups to accomplish. As the recognized voice of safety in a community and with the pres tige of a national organization behind it, it can approach and utilize to the fullest extent die public information media which are indispensable in providing the promo tional impact necessary to safety. The things we do as community safety councils are so well known to most of you --like radio and* television broadcasts; news releases, pictures, cartoons, editorials; in dustrial, fleet, home and school safety pro grams, contests; and so on--that I'm not going to take time here to enumerate further or discuss them specifically. How ever. all of us working together through such an organization can, I believe, reach any goal in accident prevention we set for ourselves. We are flouted only by our imagination; ingenuity, capacity for work without let-up, and our 'ability to de velop that kmg-sooght-for formula which spells safety in such positive, acceptable and personal terms to the individual that he, at long best, takes heed and acts. In view of our past records, like almost a million traf fic fatalities since the turn of the century, the holiday holocausts, the home and child accident toll year after year, we must sur mount oar limitations with all-oat effort The Challenge and Answer I'm afraid we've all been remiss--die community safety councils who have been either unable or lax to sell the need for such an organization to the business com munity. and the latter which in turn has not seen the need or realized the benefits to the community possible from an effective public safety program.' So community safety went begging. Tins, ladies and gentlemen,, can not continue, if we really mean it when we say we want a safe community for our children. And I believe it is squarely up to us-we here in this rbom this afternoon --to develop the selling campaign which has the biggest potential return imaginable --inestimable value in lives, happiness and dollars. The problem and the answer are synony mous with the individual. But until we think constantly in terms of self-identifica tion and self-participation we are going to continue scattering our shot and seldom, if ever, hitting the bulls-eye. If you and I are not first of all sold on the idea that we can make our communities safe for our children, then of course we never will. If we are not convinced that by all working together through a community safety or ganization of some description, we can accoirijpfish any objective we establish for our selves, then we will never do much more than hold the line. There can be no really safe communities as we envision them unless we have the faith that moves mountains, and also are willing to work unceasingly toward realization of the miracle. Do we have that hath, that determination? Until we have honestly examined ourselves and can answer emphatically and sincerely in the affirmative, we will not have safe communi ties for our children or anyone else. We cannot emphasize that point too strongly, because a first step halfheartedly taken is likely to result only in excuses about "irre ducible minimums" behind which we can hide our inadequacies. The first step is to prepare the mind and dedicate the spirit. Let me ask--do you as an individual be lieve that by being aware of the accident menace and taking proper preventive action you can reach your normal life expectancy before* bring wiped out or incapacitated by an accident? Yes, you say, I believe I can --but how about the other fellow? Well, are you willing as educators, public officials, business men, industrialists, professional safety men, and private citizens to assume the job of bring your brother's keeper? Are we ait ready to identify ourselves with and actively participate in solving the acci dent problem? Are we going to shoulder fully the responsibility involved in saying yes to these challenges--and how rise in the name of humanity can they be answered? If so, we have taken several important first steps here together through this, the first national public safety meeting. We have set a common goal, we have identified ourselves with the problem individually and as groups and have derided to work together to solve it as communities, counties; states, and as a nation. 30 Home Safety We are on the road to safe communities for our children, and we will get there when and if we fully and effectively employ the capacity that is ours. As delegates to this great 39th National Safety Congress, all participants in the national crusade to re duce accidents, we must pledge ourselves to return to our respective communities and intensify our search for the educational key to that all-important factor--the beginning and the end of our problem--the individual. What has been done already was effective but it simply hasn't been near enough, or rather we have not invested enough in this cause -to find the really effective approach to people themselves, who are the problem and its answer. But the most important requisite is that we believe in our cause--for those who be lieve, achieve. Starting from that solid base all working and working together by plan toward specific objectives, we can have safe communities for our children. It's up to us! It's everybody's business--together! mough, or igb in this : r oath ie . ilem ite is that ie who be* solid base. t by plan have safe i op to ns! iher! Officers of the HOME SAFETY CONFERENCE NATIONAL SAFETY COUNCIL 1951-52 National Safety Comal Vice-President far Homes--TYLER S. ROGERS, Assistant to the Executive Vice-President, Owens-Coraing Fiberglas Corp., Toledo, Ohio. Chairman--TYLER S. ROGERS. Vice-Chairman, Division of Community Service Groups--MRS. FRED KNIGHT, Chair man, Committee on Safety, Nat Congress of Parents & Teachers, Cartersville, Ga. Vice-Chairman, Health & Medical Division--GEORGE M. WHEATLEY, M.D., 3rd Vice-President, Health & Welfare, Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., New York, N. Y. Vice-Chairman, Home Building & Equipment Division--LEONARD HAEGER, Director, Technical Sendees and Research Dept, National Association of Home Builders, Wash ington, D. G Secretary--THOMAS FANSLER, Director, Home Safety Division, National Safety Council, Chicago, 111.' Chairman of Committee on Membership--W. GRAHAM COLE, Assistant Secretary, Safety, Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., New York, N. Y. Conference Representatives on Board of Directors, National Safety Council--ALFRED M. CANTWELL, Director, First Aid, Water Safety and Accident Prevention, Amer ican National Red Cross, Washington, D. G TYLER S. ROGERS GEORGE M. WHEATLEY. M.D. Other Volumes in this Series Users -of this volume will find much value in its companion volumes. Here is the list: TITLE VOLUME No. General Sessions and Detailed Index to all Volumes..................................... ..................... 1 Aeronautical Industries............................................................................................................. Air Transport Industry ............................................................................................................. Automotive and Machine Shop Industries.......................................................... Cement and Quarry Industries.................................. Chemical Industries .................................................................................................................. 2 3 4 5 6 Coal Mining Industry..................................................................... 7 Construction Industry ............................................................................................................... 8 Electrical Equipment Industry.................................................................................................. 9 Farm Safety ....................................................................................... 10 Food Industry (Including Proceedings of Refrigeration Safety Meetings.)....................... 11 Glass and Ceramics Industry.................................................................................................... 12 Home Safefy............................. 13 Industrial Nursing...................................................................................................................... 14 Industrial Subject Sessicns (Sponsored by ASSE)................................................................. 15 Maritime Industries (Marine Section)......................................................................................16 Meat Paddng, Tanning and Leather Industries....................................................................... 17 Metals Industry................................................ -......................... ..............................................18 Mining Industry ........................................ 19 Motor Transportation Industry (Commercial Vehicle Section)........................................ 20 Petroleum Industry' .................................................................................. 21 Power Press and Forging Operations....................................................................................... 22 Printing and Publishing Industry...............................................................................................23 Public Employment (Public Employees Safety Committee).................................................24 Public Utilities Industries.............................................................. 25 Pulp and Paper Industry.......................................................................................... 26 Railroad Industry.......................................................................................................... 27 Rubber Industry ....................................... -...................... ....................................................... 28 School and College Safety..........................................................................................................29 Textile Industry .......................................................................................................................... 30 Traffic Safety .............................................................................................................................. 31 Transit Industry ....................................................................................................... 32 Wood Products Industries '.......... 33 Human Understanding--A. Two-Way Communication (Early Morning Sessions)..........34 PRICES OF EXTRA COPIES OF INDIVIDUAL VOLUMES TO MEMBERS VOLUME SIZE lto9eofies Each 10 to 99 copies Each 100 to 999copies Each 1000or more Each Less than 24 pages-- 24 to 48 pages-- 49 to 96 pages-- Over 96 pages-- $029 25 .46 .69 $023 29 .40 j63 $0.17 23 25 28 $0.17 23 25 .58 Complete set of Transactions (34 vols.)--$6.90 (1 to 9 copies), 6J0 (10 to 99 copies), 570 (100 or more copies). NON-MEMBER prices are double member prices, except volumes 10, 13, 29 and 31. NATIONAL SAFETY COUNCIL 425 NORTH MICHIGAN AVI. CHICAGO II. ILL. Mont U M4. 32 1400--352--WHP