Prevention of Burn Injuries

Burn prevention, like all injury prevention models, is based on the assumption that there are no random accidents. This underlying philosophy makes it possible to view all traumatic injuries as preventable and hence devise strategies to intervene prior to the event. These strategies are based on a scientific method that includes epidemiology, engineering, enforcement, education, and evaluation. Developing techniques such as geographic information systems are then applied to identify populations at risk, in order to target these populations for both passive and active interventions. These targeted populations are then evaluated and the results used to direct further efforts. The focus of this chapter is the application of this method to burn injury in the United States; however a brief review of global burn prevention is also included.