[A national campaign for the prevention of hand accidents]

The objective of this article is to propose the launch of a prevention campaign against hand-related accidents. This effort is motivated by: epidemiological studies which, despite their disparate and inhomogeneous character, show that hand and wrist accidents are the primary cause of traumatic lesions. They occur two-third of the time during daily activities. For the work-related accidents, they are also the primary cause of work stoppages as well as permanent invalidities. current legal and regulatory prevention measures have reached their efficacy limits. These can not be applied to errors of individuals by inattention, negligence or a lack of information. Sensibilization efforts in public education, professional training programs or direct to the public are still much too limited in scope and are never included in a global strategy. The objective of the prevention campaign will be to increase public awarenesses as a function of one's milieu (school, workplace, leisure, household) to identify the risks of hand injuries and to provide advice on how to avoid them. In this context, the operationalization of the campaign will pass, at the level of each region, by the coordination of each traditional agencies (public health, local government, corporations), of new partners (insurers, renters or sellers of handiwork and gardening equipment, etc.), as well as FESUM centres.