Letters
Environmental health
Volume 195 - Issue 10

Use of routine health data to complement monitoring of consumer product-related injuries

Authors:  Kirsten McKenzie, Ruth A Barker, Deborah A Scott and Dave A Strachan

Med J Aust 2011; 195 (10): 580-581. || doi: 10.5694/mja11.11095
Published online: 21 November 2011
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To the Editor: Health data can have an important role in alerting product safety regulators to consumer product-related injuries. Such injuries are a significant public health concern, with an estimated 173 000 incidents occurring each year in Australia, many of which require medical treatment.1

The new Australian Consumer Law (ACL; http://www.consumerlaw. gov.au), enacted in January 2011, increases safety requirements and recognises that industry members have an important injury prevention role. The ACL requires suppliers to report to the Australian Government when they become aware of serious injuries, illnesses or deaths associated with products they supply.2,3 Monitoring product safety issues under the ACL therefore relies on systematic reporting of injuries by consumers to suppliers, and by suppliers to safety regulators, although the extent of compliance is unknown.

Given that medical treatment is an indicator of injuries serious enough to warrant mandatory reporting, monitoring of products involved in injuries that require treatment in hospital emergency departments is a logical place to focus initial attention. Australia currently has an array of injury data, such as emergency department data, morbidity and mortality data and specialised injury surveillance collections, that could be used for this purpose, without the need for new, expensive data collections. We conducted a pilot study of product-related injuries in children in Queensland, which identified significant potential for using existing injury data more effectively in product safety surveillance.4 A comprehensive national evaluation of routinely collected health data would enable product safety regulators to better understand and use these data.

With a lack of exposure to the ACL in the health sector, clinical staff and injured parties may not be aware of reasons for and mechanisms of reporting product-related injuries. It is important that medical professionals are made aware of the law and informed about actions they can take to support this system. Engaging emergency department staff could be a first step for product safety regulators. This could be as simple as a well publicised free-call number or a dedicated email address that clinicians can use to access information or report injuries quickly, without the need to complete large amounts of paperwork.

There are substantial opportunities for strengthening product safety surveillance in Australia using existing routine health information systems and timely reporting of clinically significant incidents. This is critical for ensuring a more strategic approach to emerging product safety issues, prioritising efforts and evaluating the efficacy of product safety initiatives, to reduce preventable injuries and deaths related to unsafe consumer products.

Authors

  • Kirsten McKenzie1
  • Ruth A Barker2
  • Deborah A Scott1
  • Dave A Strachan3
  • 1. National Centre for Health Information Research and Training, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD.
  • 2. Queensland Injury Surveillance Unit, Mater Health Services, Brisbane, QLD.
  • 3. Office of Fair Trading, Department of Justice and Attorney-General, Brisbane, QLD.

Correspondence: k.mckenzie@qut.edu.au

Competing interests

No relevant disclosures.

Acknowledgements

Our work was supported by a Queensland Injury Prevention Council grant, with in-kind industry partner support from the Queensland Office of Fair Trading Product Safety Unit.

References

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