Fire-related deaths in India are a major public-health problem and a leading cause of death in young women requiring urgent intervention. These are the conclusions of an Article to be published Online First and in an upcoming edition of The Lancet.
The authors say that their estimate of overall fire-related deaths in India is almost 50% higher than the estimated number of maternal deaths, and among women the estimates are similar.
Hospital-based studies have suggested that domestic fire-related deaths might be a neglected public-health issue in India. In addition, previous local studies have suggested that a large proportion of the victims are young women whose injuries are the result of kitchen accidents, attempted suicides, and domestic violence. However, there are no national data on these deaths and the only official source of information about incidence is from often incomplete and inaccurate police reports.
To provide further evidence on the incidence of fire deaths, Prachi Sanghavi and colleagues, estimated national fire-related deaths in India for 2001, using data from a national hospital registry for urban areas and a nationally representative survey of causes of death for rural populations.
Findings showed that there were over 163 000 fire-related deaths in India in 2001, about 2% of all deaths. About 106 000 (65%) of these deaths occurred in women, of which 57% happened in women between the ages of 15 and 34 years. These figures are six times higher than that reported by the police.
The authors point out that such a high frequency of deaths in young women suggests that these deaths have common causes involving kitchen accidents, self-immolation, and different forms of domestic violence which may include dowry harassment that leads to death, as identified in previous studies.
The authors say: "these deaths are preventable with effective policy measures" and call for immediate action to identify populations at risk and to understand the causes of the high number of fatal cases, so that urgent interventions can be implemented.
They conclude: "The experiences of high-income countries in altering the injury environment to make it safer for both intentional (eg, blister packaging for painkillers, removal of carbon monoxide from domestic gas) and unintentional injuries (eg, seat belts for road safety, fabric flammability standards for children's sleepwear) indicate that similar gains are possible for fire-related deaths in India."
Ms Prachi Sanghavi, Independent researcher, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. T) +1 954 881 9296 E) prachi.sanghavi@gmail.com
For full Article see: http://press.thelancet.com/FIRE INDIA.pdf
Journal
The Lancet