Every Halloween, potentially flammable costumes and improperly used decorations contribute to a significant increase in burn related injuries, home fires and accidents. Good Morning America went to UL Labs in Northbrook, IL to test a variety of costumes and to learn how to help keep children safe this Halloween. Read more here.

According www.homefoodsafety.org:

During power outages, food spoilage can be a serious problem when refrigerators and freezers lose power. Consumers can help avoid spoilage and foodborne illness in their homes by making sure foods stay properly refrigerated during a power outage.

Be Prepared

Make sure – before an outage – that the refrigerator is set below 40 degrees. Stock up on non-perishable foods that don’t require refrigeration, and choose single-serve sizes if available to avoid the need for refrigeration of unused portions. Consider these easy, healthy, shelf-stable foods:

• Breads/Grains: single-serving boxes of cereal, trail mix, energy bars, granola bars, cereal bars, bagels, muffins, crackers, popcorn and chips.
• Fruits and Vegetables: carrot and celery sticks and other cut-up raw vegetables, grapes, single-serve applesauce, whole fruit (apples, peaches, bananas), dried fruit mix and juice boxes.
• Dairy Alternatives: single-serve milk or soy beverage boxes and non-refrigerated pudding cups.
• Protein Sources: cans of tuna, peanut butter (for sandwiches or with celery and apples), nuts and single-serve packages of peanut butter and crackers.

When the Power Goes Out:

During a power outage, keep the refrigerator and freezer doors closed and open them only when necessary.

If power is restored within four hours, items in the refrigerator should be safe to eat. A full freezer will stay at freezing temperatures for two days if the door remains closed. A half-full freezer will stay at freezing temperatures for one day if the door remains closed.

Once the Power is Restored:

When power is restored, check the temperature inside of your refrigerator and freezer. If it has risen to 45 degrees Fahrenheit or higher, discard any potentially spoiled foods. Such foods include meat, poultry, fish, dairy and egg products, soft cheese, cooked beans, cooked rice, cooked potatoes, cooked pasta, potato salad, custard and pudding.

Allow time for the refrigerator to reach below 40 degrees Fahrenheit before restocking.

And of course, when in doubt, throw it out.

Have you been battling power outages and spoiled food this season?

While many baby and kid items get beaten to a pulp by the time we’re done with them, plenty are perfectly usable when they are simply too small. And a floor gym for an infant? No one wears that out.

A bunch of smart folks have figured all this out and now marketplaces abound for the swapping and upgrading of used children’s products. After all, one kiddo’s twice-worn dress shoes will do just fine as shoes for my son to wear to one single wedding before he outgrows them.

Is all this swapping safe? In most cases, yes. But here’s a short list of things you should not buy used, via Consumer Reports:

1)    Cribs. Safety standards changed in 2011, make sure you’re not buying a drop-side crib.

2)    Bicycle helmets. Sunlight and time can degrade the plastic. If you are browsing at a yard sale, you really don’t know what the helmet has been through. Your kid’s brain is worth the splurge on a new one, isn’t it?

3)    Child safety seats. Like helmets, the materials can degrade over time, and like cribs, safety standards have changed. Craig’s List, eBay, and garage sales are not good sources for carseats.

4)    Children’s outerwear with drawstrings. Check jackets, sweatshirts and rain apparel closely before you purchase at a consignment store. Drawstrings are now recognized as a strangulation hazard and should not be part of the construction of kid’s accessories.

5)    Toys and jewelry . Older toys may have lead paint levels beyond acceptable. If you cannot tell if the playthings were produced after 2009, it’s best to avoid them.

Are you an eBay junkie or yard sale addict? What is the best hand-me-down you’ve scored for your child(ren)?

The newest fear that has crossed my radar is food dyes. You know, the stuff that makes blue yogurt possible.  When I told my husband about what I had read, that food dyes may be more responsible for erratic behavior in children than sugar. He agreed that we should avoid them – and I felt a weight lifted. I try not to be a nit picking spouse, daughter, or daughter-in-law, so when one of my children’s other caregivers offers a food that I wouldn’t myself buy, I just let it go. But this food dye thing is important to me in my own house, and I thought it would not be hard for my husband, who only does about 10% of the grocery shopping to avoid.

Learn more about food dye here.

When I read the lovely Gina Rau’s summary of a safe food Twitter conversation on her blog Feed Our Families, I was glad to hear that other people feel this is all so overwhelming. One lightbulb for me was that much like the relief I felt from getting my husband’s support on this is that I could enlist my children as well. One of them is old enough to read labels and is learning about nutrition at school. I had never thought of showing him how I check ingredients to help me decide if buying a product is a good choice for our family. Why not recruit him for my team instead of fighting against his desire for amazing rainbow-colored food products he sees in stores or in his friend’s lunchboxes?

I am grateful that our school system is dedicated to providing healthy, organic food for the kids. I don’t always think the snack they dole out is one that I’d allow in my house, but I know they are doing the best they can within the budget constraints that they have. I have not spotted any artificially colored cookies or snacks in the lunchroom. I thank them for sharing this responsibility with me.

Do you feel like you have other people on your team – or are you alone in your struggle to pick healthy foods? Or maybe you think I worry too much! We’d love to hear your two cents.

Why not protect your family by ordering a set of UL-listed CO detectors today? If you are a renter, make sure that your landlord is providing the right number of devices for your living space.

From the folks at First Alert, one manufacturer of a UL-listed smoke and carbon monoxide detector:

Carbon monoxide is an invisible, odorless poison that can only be detected with an alarm. With proper alarm coverage (the National Fire Protection Associate recommends one in every bedroom and sleeping area), CO poisoning is a completely avoidable incident.

You can look at the map of smoke detector legislation to find out if it’s a law in your state.

Related: Are your detectors and batteries fresh?

Are we there yet? Not even close.

Sarah K. Robinson, a test driver for Michelin, has some tips for tire safety. They’re good reminders for those of us who are loading up our ‘wagons in the coming weeks.

• Check your tire pressure – Check your tire pressure at least once a month — and before and after a long trip.  Tires can lose 1-2 psi per month.
• Examine your treads – Always make sure your tires have at least 2/32” of tread depth (use the penny trick shown below). Examine the wear patterns; the wear patterns can tell you whether your tires are over or under inflated and if your alignment is off.
• Avoid hydroplaning – Simple adjustments to driving, including reducing your speed and avoiding wet spots, especially standing water, can reduce your risk of hydroplaning.
• Rotate – Tires should be rotated every 6,000-8,000 miles.
• Keep deepest treads in the rear – Make sure when replacing just two tires that you put the two tires with the deepest treads on the rear axle regardless, whether you have front-wheel, rear-wheel or all-wheel drive.

Don’t know the penny trick to check your treads?

Here’s a little video demo I found on YouTube.

About Sarah K. Robinson – Her responsibilities as a test driver include evaluating tire performance in both objective (e.g., wet braking) and subjective tests (e.g., wet and dry handling, noise) then delivering her results to Michelin’s designers and engineers to ensure the best possible tire is brought to market.

These high temperatures not only threaten our comfort and the power grid but also our health. Overheating can make heart and lung problems worse.  Thomas Farley, the New York City Health Commissioner, says, “There are more deaths from heat-related illness in the country as a whole than there are from all other natural disasters combined so we need to take this very seriously.”

Here are a few simple ideas to beat the heat:

• Play outside only at the shady times of day. Late afternoon may still be blazing but at least the risk of sun exposure is waning.
• Take advantage of municipal cooling spots. Cooling stations are open in many toasty towns right now. Google your city’s name and “cooling station” or “cooling spot”.
• Run a sprinkler or create an indoor water play zone for kids.
• Hit the movies, the mall, or the library – your unofficial cooling stations.
• Carry a sun hat and water misting bottle. You might need to keep adding ice cubes to keep the spritz refreshing.
• Hydrate well!
• Use your air conditioning wisely. Obey guidelines from city officials to prevent power outages. The mayor of New York recently suggested setting thermostats to 79 or higher (still a little sticky but better than a power outage!).

I’d love to hear more suggestions in the comments. What are you doing to keep your family cool?

I wanted to serve a big bowl of berries alongside our DIY burrito bar, and oh was I tempted by those grocery store clamshell packages of the huge red strawberries.  I know their impressive size and vibrant color comes from a little more science than nature (read: pesticides), so I skipped them in favor of the organic variety, a combination of a farmer’s market purchase and a bowlful of the ones grown in my own garden. After all, I had advertised this party as an eco-friendly shower – how could I buy chemically-enhanced fruit when I have some growing in my own soil!

But everything in my backyard is not risk-free.  For one, the rose bushes will snag your clothing if you try to sneak past them a little too closely. For those with sensitive skin, rolling in the manicured grass will produce a rash of red welts (my daughter and husband). And for the very young, it may be hard to distinguish between the produce that we encourage them to snack on and the other foliage which is not edible in the least.

Do you have any natural-born enemies hiding in an otherwise inviting backyard? Test your Backyard Safety IQ with the UL Backyard Safety Explorer.

Jaime Hill is the mom of two daughters, age five and six, and she works at an electrical and pool safety supply manufacturer called NSi Industries. With her worker hat on, she told me, “We have found that most people are not aware of all of the dangers surrounding pools and spas, such as suction entrapment and evisceration.  Furthermore, they aren’t aware that there are laws such as the Pool & Spa Safety Act that requires certain safety devices on pools to protect against these dangers.”

To prevent drowning and other terrible accidents, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, CPSC, strongly recommends that all residential pools have a 4-foot barrier, such as a fence with self-closing and self-latching gates. Scary fact:  the suction from a pool or spa’s drain can be so powerful it can trap an adult underwater. To avoid entrapments, do not use a pool or spa if there are broken or missing drain covers.

There is also no replacement for close adult supervision and life-saving skills.

If you have a pool, or a friend with a pool, spread the word and pool safely!

Related articles:

• Pool & Spa safety for families (a government-sponsored site)
• Kids corner of pool safely (videos, coloring sheets, and more)
• Follow the 10-20 rule in the pool
• Swimming pools and wild toddlers
• Water safety comes to life (with coloring pages)

National Night Out is all about safety. Not only is it a chance to find out whose dog is having trouble walking and what vacations your neighbors will be on at the end of the summer, but the local authorities get involved as well.

Held every year since 1984, National Night Out has grown to involve over 34 million people in more than 10,000 communities in efforts to strengthen police-community relations, prevent crime and drugs, and encourage neighborhood camaraderie.

Activities can range from a block party to a flashlight walk or a parade. Learn more at the official National Night Out website. You’ll find a map of registered events, a National Night Out superstore with banners for your ‘hood, and the opportunity to register your event and get supplies to support it.

Tip: Provide sidewalk chalk, water and paintbrushes for the kids!

At my block’s event, local officials, police and firefighters will stop by to say hello. National Night Out is Tuesday, August 2, 2011.

Related post: The value of neighbors