Data published by EuroSafe this week in its report on ‘Injuries in the EU’ has once again shown that an adequate injury data system is lacking in Europe. The European data currently available is neither accurate nor complete and therefore does not provide any meaningful conclusions. For example, there is no information about what causes injuries. In the case of toys, the only information available is the percentage of injuries of children up to the age of 14 that involve a toy in some way or another (2.2%). This figure would include instances of tripping over toys that were not tidied away or a child throwing a toy car at another child. In addition, the data regrettably only indicates the number of injuries related to children’s articles (8.8%), which include toys and playground equipment, and does not specify to what extent other product categories were involved in the remaining 91.2% of children’s injuries. Accurate information on all product categories involved in injuries is needed to help manufacturers to adapt their products in order to reduce injuries in the EU.
TIE therefore believes that a properly created, managed and funded pan-European accident and injury system is necessary. Such a system would help to identify the circumstances in which injuries occur, user behaviour at the time of the accident, and whether a product causes or is merely involved in an accident. With this is mind, TIE supports an EU-wide accident and injury database and has teamed up with other European consumer and trade associations to urge the European Commission to set up such a system.
