Three reminders for keeping your kids safe over the holidays

1. Skip the candles & set fireplace standards for visitors.  December is the peak month for candle fires; Christmas is the peak day. Cooking fires might happen more this time of year, but they are far less likely to be deadly. The deadly fires are from candles and heating sources. Of the top five days for home candle fires, THREE are around Christmas: Christmas day, Christmas Eve, and December 23. (The other two are New Year’s Day and Halloween).[i] Check that you have BOTH kinds of working fire detectors (photoelectric and ionization detectors), and if you have a toddler, consider the recordable-voice ones. And if you have a fireplace, make sure everyone knows how to properly dispose of embers (see story below for a painful reminder). 

Fireplace Embers Moved by Visitors Cause Fire

In Stamford, Connecticut, on December 25, 2011, three children and grandparents died in a fire as their mother, an accomplished ad executive, screamed for help. The grandfather, retired from work that included overseeing building safety and now enjoying his retirement by playing Santa at Saks, was trying to help the children escape when they perished. The cause of the fire was determined to be fireplace embers that were placed as trash just outside or perhaps inside the house. Fire alarms may not have been working.[ii]

2. Have your teen support the family in ways OTHER THAN driving.  Teen drivers account for more deaths than all other motor vehicle accident deaths birth to 19 combined. Most of these occur in the first six months to a year after the teen gets her license. ANY extra distraction, including others in the car, cell phones, or weather, can cause teens to drive significantly worse as they are easily cognitively overloaded. Make sure your teen gets LOTS of practice, but the holiday festivities is probably not the best time.

3. Keep those infants in CPSC-approved cribs or bassinets for sleep.  It might be tempting to co-sleep or cat-nap on the couch (likely even worse) while at grandma's, but resist the temptation. Keep the infant in s separate sleep area cleaned of any potential suffocation or strangulation hazards (e.g., monitor cords, light cords, or plastic covering objects or windows).  

And enjoy! One of the best protective factors for your child is YOUR relationship!

Happy Holidays!

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[i] US Fire Administration, accessed January 2010, http://www.usfa.fema.gov/citizens/home_fire_prev/candle.shtm, based on National Fire Protection Association “Candle Fires” (2007).

[ii] “Man Died Trying to Save Granddaughter in Connecticut Fire: Fireplace Ashes Caused Christmas Morning Blaze That Killed Five,” MSNBC.com, December 28, 2011, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45787994/ns/us_news-life/t/man-died-trying-save-granddaughter-conn-fire/.

Teen Homicide and Suicide by Demographics: Do Blacks and Whites Differ in Gun Use?

While giving a presentation at AIR this evening (thanks to Larry Condelli, Dahlia Shaewitz, and Stephanie Cronen!), a good question came up about race/ethnicity and use of guns. I provide some data below (note: Hispanic was not a sub-category option). The summary is that while Blacks show greater gun use in homicide deaths, Whites demonstrate a higher use in suicide. SES was not an available option; I will look into other data sets.

The FBI’s supplementary homicide reports[i] tell us a little about the perpetrators and victims of teen homicide. The majority of homicides are within race: more than 80 percent of whites were killed by other whites, and 92 percent of blacks were killed by other blacks (see table). 

	Perpetrator same race	Perpetrator same race	Perpetrator different race	Perpetrator different race	Totals
Victim Race	#	%	#	%	#
White	1,654	84%	322	16%	1,976
Black	2,093	92%	177	8%	2,270
Amer. Indian/ Alaskan Native	17	52%	16	48%	33
Asian/Native Hawaiian/PI	53	60%	36	40%	89
Total	3,817	87%	551	13%	4,368

Here's an analysis by weapon (data 2002-2011, same data source, victims 12-17 yrs old). It's clear that Black victims are disproportionately affected by gun-related homicide.

Homicide weapon	Victim White	Victim Black
Firearm	72%	86%
Knife	12%	8%
Blunt object	3%	1%
Personal	4%	2%
Other/unknown	10%	4%
Total	100%	100%

However, when it comes to suicide, the trend reverses (this is true only in youth; data for 2011 from CDC WISQARS, ages 0-19). Of those who committed suicide, 68% of whites used a firearm and only 52% of Blacks did so. 

	Non-firearm	Firearm	Total
White	943	648	69%
Black	129	67	52%
Am Indian/ AK Native	62	22	35%
Asian/Pac Islander	50	12	24%
Total	1,184	749	63%

Great to see everyone tonight! Thanks for the warm welcome back and the good questions!

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[i] C. Puzzanchera, G. Chamberlin, and W. Kang, “Easy Access to the FBI’s Supplementary Homicide Reports: 1980–2010” (2012), http://www.ojjdp.gov/ojstatbb/ezashr/. Data were for 1999–2007 to keep consistent with the CDC data presented.

What should parents and caregivers worry about?
People keep asking me to summarize some of the key things I found surprising while writing The Worry Clock, so here are a handful of the major causes of death that stood out for me, paired with causes I was expecting to find as major, but didn't.

Motor vehicle accidents when the driver is a teen account for more than half of ALL the motor vehicle deaths birth to 19, and make the number of deaths from falls seem minuscule. Take a look a the other comparisons and let me know what you think.

One in Six: Why You Should Consider Being a Single Issue Voter This Election

One of the most shocking findings to me in the writing of my book was that out of ALL the preventable deaths to our kids from birth to 19, one in every six was due to a gun (1999-2007).  Let me say that again, because it is so shocking, it may take a minute to absorb. Of all the ways our kids die in accidental or preventable events (e.g., car accidents, drowning, homicide), they die by a gun 17% of the time. One out of every six deaths we can do something about is from a gun.

Most of those deaths are from homicide (see pie chart), when firearms turn out to be the weapon of choice by teen years (turns out it is much harder to kill someone using a knife, who knew?). Suicide also becomes more deadly in later teen years when youth switch from other methods to guns, which are going to be lethal nine out of ten times.

The only cause of death that even compares is motor vehicle accidents, and most of those are teen drivers (see bar chart). Drowning, fires, suffocation all come in at less than half the numbers of gun deaths.

With several important elections in VA this month highlighting the gun debates, consider what issues are more important than one in six.