"Preventing Injuries in Europe - From international collaboration to local implementation"

The Report was presented in the European Parliament on 17 March 2010. Mr Miroslav Mikolasik, EPP MEP and Ms Frieda Brepoels, Greens/EFA MEP, co-chaired the event at which Dr Negret Emiroglu, Director of the Health Programmes Division of the WHO and Michael Hübel, Head of the Health Determinants Unit of the European Commission were speakers.

After Mr Mikolasik presented the history of the partnership between the WHO and the Commission, from their common “note” - according to which injuries are unacceptable because preventable - to the launch of the report itself. WHO representative Dr Emiroglu, delivered the Report’s findings:

 Every year, 800 000 persons die from injuries, which constitutes the leading cause of death among people aged from 5 to 44 years old. However, large inequalities can be observed between and within the WHO European Region countries.
 The existing framework for action, constituted by the WHO resolution EUR/RC55/R9 and the Council Recommendation on the prevention of injury and the promotion of safety (COM2006/329) encourages Member States to develop and/or reinforce legislation by putting violence and injury prevention higher on the political agendas.
 60% of countries possess national policies preventing injuries and 46% have policies preventing violence.
 Within national policies preventing injuries, 95% of them are on road safety, 71% on child maltreatment, 52.5% on the prevention of falls and 45% on the prevention of fire. The data gathered by Member States permitted to observe progress regarding policies on road safety, falls, and drowning, but a worsening of fire policies.
 Within national policies preventing violence, 76% focus on preventing intimate partner violence, 64% on preventing sexual violence and 62% on preventing youth violence. Progress has been made on youth violence where policies almost doubled, on self-directed violence, and on sexual violence in particular.
 Alcohol and socio-economic factors were highlighted during the interventions as risk factors for injuries in 80% of the cases, and in 87% of cases involving violence.

Beyond the provision of the framework for national action, the WHO is also developing a number of actions such as the TEACH VIP (Training, Education, Advancing Collaboration in Health on Violence and Injury Prevention) and biennial collaborative agreements.

In her conclusion, Dr Emiroglu highlighted the positive collaboration between the WHO and the European Commission and reminded participants of persisting gaps: the need for more political commitment (and therefore policy development), the implementation of more evidence-based programmes, the improvement of surveillance and mainstreaming systems , further development of good practice exchanges and cross-sectoral collaboration. Socio-economic determinants and alcohol were finally pointed out as key factors to work on in the field of injury and violence prevention.

Michael Hübel presented EU developments in the field of injury prevention and expressed his satisfaction with the work achieved so far, only three years following the Council Recommendation.

For further information:

Read the full report PREVENTING INJURIES IN EUROPE - From international collaboration to local implementation

European Commission Injury prevention page

WHO Violence and Injury prevention page

EPHA related articles:

First European Conference on Child Home Safety

European injury prevention network issues "Alcohol and Injuries" statement

Injuries and Violence in Europe - A Publication of WHO Europe