In recent years numerous events in Europe have led to the loss of lives.

From 1998 to 2008 a large number of major disasters, both natural and technological were reported across Europe. They had a very considerable human, economic and environmental impact.

But such disasters are not all that European citizens must deal with: there are also daily risks such as accidents:

· in the home;

· during leisure or sporting activities;

· on the road;

· at the work place.

These accidents are as dangerous as any major disaster and have had a great impact on the European population’s vulnerability. For example, an increase in vehicles not only creates greater risks for Europe’s ever ageing population, but also the ever concentrated urbanisation that swallows chemical plants within the cities increases the various threats that the population must face.

Citizens’ vulnerability towards risk is on the increase and should also be a growing concern for the European authorities.

Certainly not a matter for specialists’ alone, first aid is everybody’s business. Its values and community spirit are of the same material that society is built upon: trust and mutual responsibility.

Community spirit is far from dead. We see it in people coming together to get through a major disaster and rebuild their lives. We remember the pictures of citizens in London and Madrid a few minutes after the explosions helping the wounded out of the stations, or comforting people in shock. In the very first hours of a disaster it is the people themselves who must not only bring first aid to the injured but also take over if any of the emergency services should be put in a state of chaos by the disaster.

Citizens should therefore learn first aid tips that during a disaster will help them act calmly and efficiently in the short time between the disaster’s start and the emergency services’ response.

Even in ordinary, daily risks citizens’ roles are of the utmost importance.

Citizens are the first link of the emergency response chain. They not only can alert the emergency services but also provide first aid. Most deaths in the first hours after injury are the result of blocked airways, respiratory failure or uncontrolled haemorrhaging and all three can be readily treated using basic first aid. Prompt prehospital care also prevents the number of deaths from trauma. Measures can be taken in an emergency’s early phase for preventing death such as caring for wounds and burns, immobilising fractures, supporting oxygenation and blood pressure after the first hours of a traumatic brain injury as well as other measures that reduce the likelihood of complications developing later.