Equally important at the time, injury research by John Langley and colleagues was instrumental in ensuring thermostats were introduced into hot water cylinders in New Zealand to reduce the risk of scalds and burns among children [83–88]. His group also highlighted the importance of practical injury prevention strategies in the playground [84, 89–93]. The ubiquitous safety mats seen under playground equipment today resulted from early work and assiduous advocacy by the Dunedin Study injury researchers. Even the length of electric jug cords, with longer leads providing greater opportunity for child injury were investigated, resulting in real-world changes reducing innumerable scalds and accidents in the kitchen, via reduction in the length of the cords [94].
