The professional public have registered and increased incidence of injuries to children caused by chemical substances during the last years. The issue has recently been neither given appropriate publicity in media nor solved sufficiently, however, with respect to the high frequency and seriousness of injuries, it deserves to be given more significant attention. The research study focused on detailed mapping of the causes and circumstances of the occurrence of the respiratory and gastrointestinal tract injuries in children caused by chemical substances. The research sample comprised of children less than 18 years old who suffered injuries caused by a chemical substance in the monitored period, while being hospitalized in connection with such an injury at the Nemocnice České Budějovice, a. s., Nemocnice Most, o. z., and Fakultní nemocnice Motol, Prague, hospitals. The research study included 90 children (out of which 44 girls and 46 boys). The youngest hospitalized child was five months old, the oldest was seventeen. The required data were collected in a prospective manner (May 1, 2008 - October 31, 2008) and in a retrospective manner (January 1, 2006 {--} April 30, 2008). I obtained the research result though the secondary data analysis (medical documentation) and the analysis of products (those that where staded in the medical documentation to have been packed in an original package). The results of the secondary analysis of the medical documentation refer to the fact that 94 per cent of all the injuries caused by chemical substances were induced by children in their domestic environment. Damage to the organism was caused by agents commonly used in Czech households (waste pipe cleaners, dishwasher tablets, cooker cleaners, etc). It is understandable that packals of these products attract children's attention because producers have selected rich colours (yellow, blue, violet, pink) only for their products as a part of their fight-for-customers strategy. Many products have not been fitted with safety cap closures and in combination with unsuitable storing there was nothing left to prevent an injury. The appearance of new detergents, such as for example dishwasher tablets, on the market is accompanied with the risk of occurrence of new injury types that need to be drawn attention to. In my opinion, sufficient public healt educational campaigns should lead to the decreasing of the number of injuries. Information campaign should be organised in a manner addressing the highest possible number of parents and persons taking care of children. I consider efficient to place information leaflets on the websites of organisations and institutions working with children population, to use TV spots and to distribute information leaflets of brochures to paediatric surgeries and nursery schools. The leaflets should contain information not only about proper household storing of such products, but also several pieces of advice in the case when an injury has already been suffered.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:nusl.cz/oai:invenio.nusl.cz:49993 |
| Date | January 2009 |
| Creators | ŠVANCAROVÁ, Alena |
| Source Sets | Czech ETDs |
| Language | Czech |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | info:eu-repo/semantics/masterThesis |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess |
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