Incidence of fires and related injuries after giving out free smoke alarms: cluster randomised controlled trial.

OBJECTIVE: To measure the effect of giving out free smoke alarms on rates of fires and rates of fire related injury in a deprived multiethnic urban population. DESIGN: Cluster randomised controlled trial. SETTING: Forty electoral wards in two boroughs of inner London, United Kingdom. PARTICIPANTS: Primarily households including elderly people or children and households that are in housing rented from the borough council. INTERVENTION: 20 050 smoke alarms, fittings, and educational brochures distributed free and installed on request. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Rates of fires and related injuries during two years after the distribution; alarm ownership, installation, and function. RESULTS: Giving out free smoke alarms did not reduce injuries related to fire (rate ratio 1.3; 95% confidence interval 0.9 to 1.9), admissions to hospital and deaths (1.3; 0.7 to 2.3), or fires attended by the fire brigade (1.1; 0.96 to 1.3). Similar proportions of intervention and control households had installed alarms (36/119 (30%) v 35/109 (32%); odds ratio 0.9; 95% confidence interval 0.5 to 1.7) and working alarms (19/118 (16%) v 18/108 (17%); 0.9; 0.4 to 1.8). CONCLUSIONS: Giving out free smoke alarms in a deprived, multiethnic, urban community did not reduce injuries related to fire, mostly because few alarms had been installed or were maintained

Exploring the interactions between housing and neighbourhood environments for enhanced child wellbeing : The lived experience of parents living in areas of high child poverty in England, UK

Children’s health can be affected by the interrelated characteristics of the physical and social environment where they live, including housing quality, neighbourhood characteristics and the local community. Following a systems-based approach, this exploratory project sought to understand how the needs and aspirations associated with the home environment can work in synergy with, or be exacerbated by, other aspects of the local area. The study recruited parents of children aged 2–12 years old from two local authorities in England with high levels of child poverty: Tower Hamlets in East London, and Bradford District in West Yorkshire. Thematic analysis of participant interviews highlighted ten themes and opportunities for improvements. The evidence presented in this research emphasises how environmental quality issues within and outside the home, compounded further by delays in repairs and reduction in service standards, as well as affordability issues, are likely to deeply affect the wellbeing of an entire generation of disadvantaged children whose parents can feel disempowered, neglected and often isolated when attempting to tackle various dimensions of inequalities. Interventions which can improve the quality of housing, and access to space and services, are urgently needed, including initiatives to support and empower families and local communities, especially those prioritising opportunities for action

Exploring the Interactions between Housing and Neighbourhood Environments for Enhanced Child Wellbeing: The Lived Experience of Parents Living in Areas of High Child Poverty in England, UK

Children’s health can be affected by the interrelated characteristics of the physical and social environment where they live, including housing quality, neighbourhood characteristics and the local community. Following a systems-based approach, this exploratory project sought to understand how the needs and aspirations associated with the home environment can work in synergy with, or be exacerbated by, other aspects of the local area. The study recruited parents of children aged 2–12 years old from two local authorities in England with high levels of child poverty: Tower Hamlets in East London, and Bradford District in West Yorkshire. Thematic analysis of participant interviews highlighted ten themes and opportunities for improvements. The evidence presented in this research emphasises how environmental quality issues within and outside the home, compounded further by delays in repairs and reduction in service standards, as well as affordability issues, are likely to deeply affect the wellbeing of an entire generation of disadvantaged children whose parents can feel disempowered, neglected and often isolated when attempting to tackle various dimensions of inequalities. Interventions which can improve the quality of housing, and access to space and services, are urgently needed, including initiatives to support and empower families and local communities, especially those prioritising opportunities for action

Responses of the pea (Pisum sativum L.) leaf metabolome to drought stress assessed by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy

While many compounds have been reported to change in laboratory based drought-stress experiments, little is known about how such compounds change, and are significant, under field conditions. The Pisum sativum L. (pea) leaf metabolome has been profiled, using 1D and 2D NMR spectroscopy, to monitor the changes induced by drought-stress, under both glasshouse and simulated field conditions. Significant changes in resonances were attributed to a range of compounds, identified as both primary and secondary metabolites, highlighting metabolic pathways that are stress-responsive. Importantly, these effects were largely consistent among different experiments with highly diverse conditions. The metabolites that were present at significantly higher concentrations in drought-stressed plants under all growth conditions included proline, valine, threonine, homoserine, myoinositol, γ-aminobutyrate (GABA) and trigonelline (nicotinic acid betaine). Metabolites that were altered in relative amounts in different experiments, but not specifically associated with drought-stress, were also identified. These included glutamate, asparagine and malate, with the last being present at up to 5-fold higher concentrations in plants grown in field experiments. Such changes may be expected to impact both on plant performance and crop end-use. © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2008