Recently, the CPSC responded to a study conducted by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) that suggests that minority children may have higher rates of preventable injuries and deaths associated with children products. GAO noted that better data collection and assessment of consumer information efforts could help protect minority children. GAO also looked at what actions the CPSC had taken through its public information and education initiatives to minimize the occurrence of these particular injuries and deaths.
In response, the CPSC has implemented and begun to explore a number of ways to improve their data collections efforts including:
- Transforming NEISS data collection software with respect to racial and ethnic classification
- Presenting materials on the importance of collecting standardized race and ethnicity when conducting on-site evaluations and training
- Leveraging data collection efforts of other government agencies to gather consumer product-related death and injury data involving minority children and
- Exploring ways to collect race and ethnicity data from consumer complaints received through their web site and/or hotline.
Furthermore, CPSC will continue its current outreach strategies and has activities planned for 2010 including:
- An outreach tour in major cities with extremely diverse populations to provide safety messaging in large community settings
- A community-based outreach plan to grassroots organizations that target diverse populations
- A public awareness campaign, using bilingual (English and Spanish) messages and materials, to raise awareness of the new public database.
- Drowning prevention campaign, including passing out materials to key Spanish
For more information, read the full report at http://www.cpsc.gov/about/cpsia/GAOminorities.pdf
