Health committee  I would like to see a comprehensive four-sided pool fencing bylaw across the country. We have sporadic bylaws, municipal and provincial, at this point, but I would like something that's comprehensive and standard across the country. Certainly, education around the priority that drowning is one of the leading causes of death....

Health committee  I think it's part of that comprehensive approach. I think both parents and children should know how to swim. Parents should actively supervise the fences, obviously, which is a big intervention that works. Also, knowing how to get emergency care if something occurs.... We call it layers of protection, so you have a number of these different mechanisms in place to reduce drowning.

Health committee  Most bylaws or provincial laws are for only three-sided.... It's not four-sided pool fencing. When you look at the legislation, it actually is the pool enclosure, but the house can form the fourth side of that enclosure.

Health committee  The leading causes of death to children and youth in Canada.... We're talking about under 14 years with this data set. Drowning is the leading cause, then motor vehicle crashes, followed by suffocation. And they're fairly close: drowning, 15%; motor vehicle, 14%; and suffocation, 13%.

Health committee  For drowning, you have to look at the different age groups for very young children. Bathtubs are the location where we see a lot of the drownings happening, so it's supervision and educating parents that not even for a second can they leave the room to answer a phone or grab a towel.

Health committee  Thank you for the opportunity to speak today and to share Safe Kids Canada's views on injury prevention, focusing on our area of expertise: children and youth. We're extremely pleased to see that the committee on health is undertaking a study on this important public health issue.

Health committee  According to the stats we have on emergency room visits, 14,000 a year are related to children under ten. It's a fairly significant portion of the injuries that we see to young children especially. I think what this bill will do for those injuries is get the product off the market more quickly than is currently possible and allow parents access to the information they need to make a good decision about the products they are purchasing.

Health committee  Yes. We work very closely with Health Canada, with consumer product safety staff and with the public agency staff, in letting them know what we're hearing in terms of parents who are concerned about children and their safety and the products they're using. We have been consulted and we have been pleased to be able to provide the type of expertise and the information that we can contribute to make this bill as robust as possible.

Health committee  Cadmium is something we consult about with our toxicologists at the Hospital for Sick Children as a poisoning kind of injury, for certain. I don't have technical expertise on the actual substance, but certainly the quicker that products get off the market that are causing injury or have the potential to cause serious injury to children, the better for us.

Health committee  Thank you for the opportunity to speak today and share Safe Kids Canada's views on the importance of passing Bill C-36, the consumer product safety act. Safe Kids Canada is a national leader in preventable injuries. We work to advance the safety and reduce the burden of injury to Canadian children and youth.

Status of Women committee  I agree with Dr. Snowdon about incorporating injury prevention into that comprehensive approach. If you want to achieve results in children's mortality worldwide, injury prevention has to be a piece of that solution.

Status of Women committee  No, this is outside of my scope of expertise, for sure. Certainly we focus on the child side.

Status of Women committee  The topic is completely outside of my scope of expertise.

Status of Women committee  I would agree with Dr. Snowdon. It needs to be part of a comprehensive plan because of the high burden that it has in terms of deaths and hospitalizations. Again, the one-size-fits-all approach does not work, but there are certainly similarities across interventions. One example that has been quite successful is in Vietnam.

Status of Women committee  The leading cause of death worldwide is motor vehicle collisions. But certainly in the developing and middle-income countries, that needs to be looked at under the broader umbrella of road traffic safety, in terms of pedestrians interacting with traffic, cyclists, as well as motor vehicles.