Abstract
The two WHO Collaborating Centers on Safety Promotion and Injury Prevention, which were based at the Ministry of Health, Quebec, Canada and the WHO Collaborating Centre on Community Safety Promotion at the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden, achieved a consensus on the concepts of safety and safety promotion in 1998. According to the consensus, safety is a state in which hazards and conditions leading to physical, psychological or material harm are controlled in order to preserve the health and well-being of individuals and the community. It is an essential resource for everyday life, needed by individuals and communities to realize their aspirations. Safety promotion can be defined as a process that aims to both ensure the presence of, and to maintain the conditions that are necessary to reach and sustain an optimal level of safety.
Both ideas, safety promotion and health promotion, were proposed in the 1980s from Europe. Safety promotion was derived from injury prevention, whereas health promotion was derived from disease prevention. Though the goals are different, they share common characteristics such as the importance of the cross-sectional approach and of individual assistance and environmental support. It is essential for the people of a community to understand the meaning of safety and to carry out safety promotion in daily life. As a manifestation of specific safety promotion activities in the community, the Safe Community Movement is gradually spreading all over the world.
