The importance of injury prevention.

It was so encouraging to read the Editor's Choice, "The Solution Is Injury Prevention," in the April 2004 issue of the Journal. Those of us working to prevent injuries often encounter the erroneous sentiment Benjamin so eloquently challenges-that injuries are just accidents and do not represent a critical public health problem. Injuries result in more deaths than all other causes combined for people aged 5 to 44 years, yet despite the severity and magnitude of the problem, we continue to work under severe funding constraints with relatively little political will to address the problem and with critical public misunderstanding. Nonetheless, the field has a defensible body of research that supports the effectiveness of policies, technologies, and environmental solutions for preventing both unintentional and intentional injuries.