By Amy Van Veen (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: February 20, 2013
Check yourself before you wreck yourself.
This is what the BC government wants to impart on its residents in order to make our little West Coast sanctuary the safest province in all of Canada.
Preventable.ca is a campaign that picked up last summer from where SafeBC left off. Their goal is to inform members of the public via social networking, television and mass media, “guerilla activity” a.k.a. billboards and corporate partnerships of the same message every mother tells her moronic child who is not yet aware of the consequences of their own actions – think before you act.
Perhaps, for example, as a child it was not wise of me to put two classroom size chalkboards on my basement staircase turning it into a giant slide without informing my mother. But now the BC government is telling me that as an adult, I really, really, really need to not do that.
As plausible as Dr. Seuss makes it seem that in lieu of a ladder I can stack a bookcase on top of a chair on top of an umbrella to reach the rooftop, it’s not exactly safe.
Even though helmets look dopey, they do save your life by reducing the risk of a head injury by 88 per cent, according to Preventable.ca.
These are some of the injuries Preventable hopes to cut down on.
While it seems like an inane message to hammer into the public’s mind, it seems to be one worth presenting. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), over 2000 children die every day from injuries that are accidental or unintentional – also known as entirely preventable.
But the BC Public Health Association campaign isn’t looking at strictly children’s injuries and/or deaths. They’re looking at those sustained by all ages, especially adults. It’s easy to think that only tragedy happens to other people. That other people get their heads smashed in while cycling or other people get hit by cars while jaywalking or other people are dumb enough to stretch their arm out to take down Christmas lights instead of getting down from the ladder and moving it over a foot, but hospital visits prove otherwise.
In BC alone, preventable injuries account for 400,000 injuries and 1200 deaths per year – at a cost to the healthcare system of $4.5 to $5 billion. That makes it the third largest drain on our healthcare system.
From cooking in the kitchen to falling at work, from sitting around a campfire to driving through a parking lot, this not-for-profit initiative wants to remind the public to think first and act later. Their goal is to move from the education of small preventable injuries like these to larger issues like obesity, climate change, homelessness and drinking and driving in the next few decades.
As tempting as it is to see the commercials or guerilla advertising and roll one’s eyes, it might be worth it to follow the advice of Ice Cube and “check yo’ self.”
