The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines unintentional injury as “Injury or poisoning that is not inflicted by deliberate means. Includes those injuries and poisonings described as unintended or "accidental", regardless of whether the injury was inflicted by oneself or by another person.” Some common mechanisms or causes of unintentional injuries are motor vehicle accidents, falls and fire/burn. (WISQARS™)

Fire Safety: Know How to Get Out -- Fast

Why is it so important to plan, and practice, several fire escape routes from your home? In a real fire, it's vital to start moving the moment the smoke detector goes off and there may be no time to hesitate or find an alternate route if your most obvious escape path is blocked. How much time do you have? It varies but click here to read a story that illustrates just how quickly the situation can become deadly.

American Academy of Pediatrics

The American Academy of Pediatrics’ TIPP (The Injury Prevention Program) age related safety sheets provide safety and unintentional injury prevention information pertinent to each developmental stage. TIPP also has webpages devoted to fire safety in the home. See especially the safety section of the site’s You & Your Family page.

American Association of Poison Control Centers

The Association’s Poison Prevention and Education web pages offer brochures, poisoning fact sheets and prevention tips and resources.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – National Center for Injury Prevention and Control

The CDC's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC) works to reduce morbidity, disability, mortality, and costs associated with injuries.

WISQARS™ (Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System) is the Injury Center's interactive, online database that provides customized injury-related mortality data and nonfatal injury data useful for research and for making informed public health decisions. WISQARS can provide customized reports based on user specified age groups and geographic information.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – Health Topic: Infants & Children

Visit this section of the CDC’s website for an A-Z listing of health topics. Select the Infants and Children page to find a great deal of information about health and safety issues related to infants and children.

Chicago Public Schools – Virtual Pre-K

Virtual Pre-K, developed by Chicago Public Schools offers video lessons in English and Spanish and companion activities on the Virtual Pre-K website. The “Taking Care of Me” video includes lessons related to preschoolers’ nutrition, health and safety. The videos can be previewed online and the website has lessons preschoolers can complete at school and at home including “Fire Smart,” “Safe at Home” and “Safe Outside.” The Virtual Pre-K site also has an idea exchange, a success chart and links to other resources.

Children's Defense Fund

Publications offered by the Children’s Defense Fund include reports with information about the youth jobless rate, census information related to children, crime and violence, and education and health. See especially the site’s section on lead poisoning.

Consumer Product Safety Commission

The CPSC's website offers numerous publications available for free download. General topics include bicycle safety, child safety (childproofing your home, baby and child safety checklists, guidelines for babysitters, product warnings), holiday safety, playground safety and several others.

The Consumer Product Safety Review: This quarterly journal offers an in-depth look at the latest hazards associated with home and recreational products, as well as significant current product recalls. You can also order a hardcopy subscription.

Head Start Information and Publication Center - Health, Safety & Nutrition for Young Children

This site's health, safety and nutrition information resources page is a comprehensive listing of links prepared by the Head Start Information and Publication Center. Their list includes links to over thirty sites that present information about health guidelines, child care, parenting, disease prevention, nutrition and safety.

National Fire Protection Association's (NFPA) Fire Prevention Week Survey - Fall 2004

The NFPA commissioned Harris Interactive to conduct this telephone survey of 1,000 adults living in private households in the U.S. to explore their experiences with and knowledge of smoke alarms, experiences with fires in their homes and awareness of potential fire hazards, safety measures, and fire risks. Respondents reported feeling that fire was the disaster for which they felt most prepared, however only one third had practiced a fire escape plan.

National Safety Council - Injury Facts®, 2004 Edition

Injury Facts is the National Safety Council’s annual statistical report on unintentional injuries, their characteristics and related costs. Visit their site for information about how to order this and other NSC books, manuals and reports and to access many resources offered free of charge.

The National SAFE KIDS Campaign

The National SAFE KIDS Campaign’s mission is “Protecting Children From Their Number One Killer…Unintentional Injury.” Take special notice of the site’s safety tips addressing top causes of unintentional injury in young children including fire & burn, with printable checklists in English and Spanish. SAFE KIDS also offers resources designed specifically for teachers including an activity book and pedestrian safety kit.

Sesame Street Workshop

The Sesame Workshop develops educational content for all forms of media. Their work is grounded in research on children's developmental needs and the ways in which children perceive messages in the media. You may be especially interested in the following pages, both of which emphasize prevention, offer suggestions about ways to keep children safe and provide examples of effective ways to teach children safety lessons through skill building and without the use of threats and warnings:

Safe at Home - Surefire Strategies for Household Safety & I'm a Big Kid - Nurturing Independence in Your Young Children .

United States Fire Administration (USFA) - Risk Reports

These reports were developed by the USFA's National Fire Data Center and report factors that influence fire risk based on 2001 data from the Nation Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS), the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), and the U.S. Census Bureau.  Fire Risk for Older Adults and Fire Risk for Children show that young children and the elderly are the populations in this country most at risk.