BEIJING - Parents should keep a closer eye on their children to help lower the alarmingly high number of accidental deaths, Beijing health experts told China Daily.

Accidents have become the biggest killers of minors under 14 in China, studies show, with the most common being drowning or fire-related tragedies.

Medics say many of the victims are the offspring of migrant workers, prompting calls for more efforts to educate and support rural and low-income families.

Roughly half of all patients at the burns unit of the First Affiliated Hospital of the People's Liberation Army General Hospital's are children under 14, most aged 1 to 5, said the unit's deputy director Shen Chuan'an. "Children from rural households are prone to fire-related accidents, as their parents and extended family have less awareness (than urbanites) of how to protect children from hidden risks," he said.

His unit once treated a 13-year-old boy from Zhangjiakou, Hebei province, who suffered severe burns when a quilt he was lying on set on fire. His mother is said to have fallen unconscious due to carbon monoxide poisoning.

Qian Xiaofeng at Save the Children China, a charity organization promoting the development of child welfare, said the country's massive population flow from the countryside to the cities has been a contributing factor to the number of preventable child injuries.

According to a joint report released in June by Beijing Normal University and UNICEF found that more than 200,000 children under 14 die every year in accidents. The number is 2.5 times that of the United States and 1.5 times that of South Korea, the report said.

Compared with statistics presented at a 2008 national symposium on the prevention of child injuries in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, the annual death rate has risen by about 140,000 during the last three years.

An effective social network offering support and child care services is needed to raise parents' awareness on safety and to better educate children, Qian added.

China Daily

(China Daily 07/08/2011 page7)