MMWR. Morbidity and mortality weekly report
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MMWR Morb. Mortal. Wkly. Rep. · Jun 1992
Case ReportsUnintentional firearm-related fatalities among children and teenagers--United States, 1982-1988.
In 1988, gunshot wounds were the eighth leading cause of unintentional injury deaths among persons in all age groups in the United States and the third leading cause of such deaths among children and teenagers aged 10-19 years (1). From 1982 through 1988, 3607 children and teenagers aged 0-19 years died from unintentional firearm-related injuries, constituting 32% of all unintentional firearm-related deaths. Of those, 81% occurred among 10-19-year-olds. This article describes a case report of an unintentional firearm-related death of a teenager and summarizes an analysis of demographic and regional differences in unintentional firearm-related mortality among children and teenagers from 1982 through 1988.
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MMWR Morb. Mortal. Wkly. Rep. · Jun 1992
Role of alcohol in forensic deaths--Westchester County, New York, 1989.
In the United States, 58% of all adults consume alcohol, and death rates for most injuries and some diseases increase directly in relation to levels of consumption (1-3). Forensic deaths (i.e., deaths certified under the medical examiner system) include a substantial proportion of cases for which alcohol use may have contributed to the death; in many cases, this system provides detailed medical information on causes of death because of autopsies and blood alcohol level testing. To further characterize alcohol-related deaths in Westchester County (4,5), the New York Medical College (NYMC) and the Westchester County Department of Laboratories and Research (WCDLR) estimated the total alcohol-related mortality (ARM) and years of potential life lost before age 65 (YPLL) for all deaths certified by the medical examiner for Westchester County, New York, during 1989. This report summarizes the findings and addresses public health applications for estimating ARM employing this method.
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From 1980 to 1990, safety-belt use among passenger-vehicle drivers in the United States increased from 11% to 49%; in 1990, use of safety belts prevented approximately 4800 deaths and 120,000 serious injuries among front-seat occupants (1). The increased use of safety belts from 1984 through 1990 was associated primarily with the enactment of state laws (Figure 1). ⋯ To increase safety-belt and child passenger restraint use in the United States, in February 1991, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) initiated the "70% by '92" program to increase safety-belt use to 70% by the end of 1992 through emphasis on enforcement efforts combined with public awareness campaigns. This report summarizes an assessment of the impact of the program through 1991.
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During 1990, an estimated 4,350,000 adults--2.4% of the total U. S. adult population--were under correctional supervision* in the United States, a 75% increase since 1983 (1). From 1983 through 1989, the number of juveniles (aged 10-17 years) in custody increased 25%, from 80,091 to 99,846 (U. ⋯ S. Department of Justice, unpublished data, 1991); these totals include both cases of AIDS reported among persons before their incarceration as well as those reported by prison systems. This report characterizes efforts to prevent human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) transmission within correctional systems.