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1992.06.25 :  National Center for Injury Prevention

Contact: CDC Press Office  404-639-3286 
June 25, 1992
                              
       HHS Secretary Louis W. Sullivan, M.D., today announced
that a National Center for Injury Prevention and Control will be
created at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta "to
reemphasize that violence and injury are not just matters for
crime and punishment but for public health prevention."
       Secretary Sullivan said, "This action recognizes the
magnitude of violence and injury in the United States and
demonstrates our public health commitment to reducing their
tragic costs to individuals and to American families."
       James Mason, M.D., assistant secretary for health and head
of the U.S. Public Health Service, said, "While the center was
being planned before the riot in Los Angeles, it is designed to
face the underlying causes of violent acts there and in every big
city and village.  
       "Although the greatest cost is in human terms -- a senior
citizen disabled in a mugging or a child shot in crossfire -- the
costs of violence run in the billions.  Violence is one of the
leading preventable causes of death -- 150,000 a year including
52,000 due to violence, 49,000 related to motor vehicles, and
some 48,000 from such causes as fires, drowning and accidental
poisoning."
     These injuries particularly impact children, minorities and
the elderly.
       The new center will plan, direct and coordinate a national
program designed to prevent premature death and disability and
reduce human suffering and medical costs caused by
nonoccupational injury, addressing both intentional injuries that
result from violent and abusive behavior and unintentional
injuries.
       Injury study and control has been a part of the CDC's
National Center for Environmental Health and Injury Control,
which now becomes the National Center for Environmental Health.
       CDC's director, William Roper, M.D., said the
reorganization will focus greater attention on violence and
injury control as public health issues.  "It will enhance the
leadership we can provide," he said, "and strengthen CDC's
ability to work effectively with the National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration, the Consumer Product Safety Commission and
other federal agencies.  NCIPC will be positioned to assume a
leadership role in responding to the concerns and needs of
various interested parties outside government engaged in injury
prevention and control."
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