BMJ 2003;326:165 ( 18 January )

Letters

Free smoke alarms: a fire officer responds

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR---As a professional fire officer I read with interest the article and ongoing debate on the issue of free smoke detectors and the suggested outcomes from the research.1 One element perhaps overlooked in the debate is ownership, which has two components.

The first is the gift of the smoke detector itself. Being given one doesn't bring with it the same sense of ownership as working for and buying one. It would not be appropriate to discuss the relative merits or otherwise of purchasing power, given the socioeconomic elements of the study, but the relative cost of these units through subsidised purchase might help to address concerns.

The second component is the ownership of risk, which is much more difficult to grapple with. In Dorset we have developed a multiagency community safety centre, "Streetwise," in which visitors, mostly children, confront several safety related issues, fire being one.

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Relevant Article

Incidence of fires and related injuries after giving out free smoke alarms: cluster randomised controlled trial
Carolyn DiGuiseppi, Ian Roberts, Angie Wade, Mark Sculpher, Phil Edwards, Catherine Godward, Huiqi Pan, and Suzanne Slater
BMJ 2002 325: 995. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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