'Take Action Today, Put Them Away' comes to Scotland

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) has partnered with the Scottish Borders and East Ayrshire councils to help prevent accidental poisonings among small children through the ‘Take Action Today, Put Them Away’  campaign . This is the latest phase of the Take Action Today campaign, a UK wide initiative which has already rolled-out across Northern England, The Midlands and Northern Ireland. 

The aim of the campaign, which is supported by United Kingdom Cleaning Products Industry, is to enable parents to keep young children safe from the dangers posed by household chemicals, such as liquid laundry capsules, by giving them relevant tools and tips.

As part of the campaign, 6,000 handy magnetic notepads – featuring key safety advice – have been handed out to families by home safety officers, health visitors, children’s centres and parent and toddler groups across East Ayrshire and the Borders area.

Every year in the UK, more than 6,000 people die in accidents in the home, and 2.7million turn up at accident and emergency departments seeking treatment.

In 2017/18, poisoning was the second most common injury in hospital admissions for 0-4-year-olds in Scotland, accounting for 503 admissions; and this is only for those children who spent a night in hospital – the number doesn’t reflect those who visited A&E but were sent home, or the large number of calls received by NHS 24.

The Scottish Borders and East Ayrshire were both chosen for the campaign, as each has a higher than average number of attendances for children under-five.

Douglas Whitson, a community safety officer at Scottish Borders council said: 'When I was approached by RoSPA about this campaign I was really shocked to learn that Scottish Borders area had higher than average hospital admissions for under-fives due to poisonings in the home. There was no hesitation in becoming involved and we have now distributed almost 3,000 safety message notepads across the Scottish Borders, which will hopefully help to reduce these types of hospital admissions.'

David Doran, Health and Safety Manager, East Ayrshire Council said 'East Ayrshire Council were delighted to work in partnership with RoSPA on their “Take Action Today, Put Them Away” campaign, which seeks to raise awareness around the risks to children from chemical products commonly found in the home. In supporting this campaign, the Council organises an annual play day event each August, which brings in families from all over East Ayrshire and beyond and we used this event to communicate this important message, which was very well received on the day. We also distributed hundreds of magnetic pads containing safety advice through our early years establishments to parents.

The feedback received from parents and carers was universally supportive of the campaign aims and I am sure as a result of our collaborative work with RoSPA that we were able to further raise awareness of the risks and encourage the safe storage of household chemicals.'

Take action today, put them away advice to parents includes:

• Store household cleaning products out of reach of children, preferably in a locked cupboard
• Always store chemicals in their original containers
• Never pierce or break laundry capsules or tablets
• Always close the lid of any product
• In the event of an incident, follow advice on the product pack and seek medical attention.

Carlene McAvoy, community safety development manager at RoSPA Scotland

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