Free smoke alarm programmes are failing

Providing and installing free smoke alarms to poor urban households may be a waste of resources. DiGuiseppi and colleagues (p 995) found that giving out free smoke alarms in a deprived, multiethnic, urban community did not reduce fire related injuries or fires attended by the fire brigade. Few alarms had been installed or were maintained. On page 998 Rowland and colleagues report that only half of smoke alarms installed in local authority housing were still working 15 months later. Ionising smoke alarms with long life lithium batteries were most likely to remain functioning.

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    StumbleUpon    Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Articles

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]

Prevalence of working smoke alarms in local authority inner city housing: randomised controlled trial

Diane Rowland, Carolyn DiGuiseppi, Ian Roberts, Katherine Curtis, Helen Roberts, Laura Ginnelly, Mark Sculpher, and Angela Wade
BMJ 2002 325: 998-1001. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]