ACC home safety campaign moves into new phase

ACC's attention-grabbing slips, trips and falls television ads are starting again, as the campaign to reduce injuries at home moves into a new phase.

The TV ads depicting people falling off ladders, tripping down stairs and crashing through glass top coffee tables aim to show that slips, trips and falls in the home are a serious problem, said ACC General Manager of Injury Prevention, Darrin Goulding.

"Now we’ve got people's attention, we want to show them what they can do to make their homes safer," he said.

ACC is also pleased to be working in partnership with PlaceMakers in highlighting types of products that can eliminate these hazards in people's homes. Next month ACC will distribute a Home Safety Kit to all households nationwide that will also have Placemakers' discount coupons inside.

The kits will outline safety tips ranging from using non-slip bathmats to cleaning mossy paths and marking step edges with white paint to increase visibility.

"Most safety measures are easy to implement. It can require as little as keeping electrical cords out of the way, securing rugs and mats with velcro or mopping up water on floors to avoid slip hazards," Mr Goulding said.

Around 25,000 people are moderately or seriously injured at home each year.

While it's commonly thought older people and children are most at risk of injury at home, nearly half of those moderately or seriously injured are adults aged between 25 and 54.

"Slips, trips and falls in the home are the largest cause of injuries in New Zealand homes," Mr Goulding said.

"They can be very serious and they can happen to you. The good news is that prevention is not all that difficult."

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>