Safety at Home

By Whitney

When I was a young marketing manager, I had the job of managing my company’s list of warranty card names. You know, those forms that are tucked inside every product you buy, from electronic baby monitors to plastic dollhouses. I understood that it was a marketing strategy that would allow us to send “special offers” to folks who had bought from our brand in the past year. I was delighted, but mystified, by the sheer number of folks who sent in the product registration cards.  We hadn’t even paid the postage for them.

But I wasn’t a parent back then.

Now, I get it.

While a company’s ability to re-market to you is certainly enhanced when they know what you have bought in the past, so is their ability to notify you if there is a problem with your product.

The folks at SafetyBook.org, a website dedicated to keeping consumers abreast of product recalls, more than 11 million consumer products were recalled already in 2011. Examples include:

• 1.7 million video baby monitors by Summer Infant Inc. (February 2011 recall)
• 500,000 bassinets by Burlington Basket Company (February 2011 recall)
• 337,000 single and double strollers by B.O.B. Trailers Inc. (February 2011 recall)
• 169,000 pogo sticks by Bravo Sports (March 2011 recall)
• 79,000 beaded door curtains by FAB/Starpoint LLC (March 2011 recall)
• 67,000 remote-controlled toy tanks by Family Dollar Stores, Inc. (January 2011 recall)
• 58,000 rechargeable batteries sold with Slim and Secure video baby monitors by Summer Infant Inc. (February 2011 recall)
• 57,000 holiday rattle baby slippers by Atico International USA Inc. (March 2011 recall)
• 37,000 refreshing rings, infant theethers/rattles by Sassy Inc. (January 2011 recall)
• 22,000 jogging strollers by phil&teds USA Inc. (January 2011 recall)

Wow!

If you don’t register your products either with a mail-in warranty card or by registering on the company’s website, it’s more difficult to discover if they’ve been recalled. Simply opt-out of the offers and discounts email when you sign up if you only want to hear about recalls.

Am I telling you something you already know? Do you make a habit of sending in warranty cards?

By Heather

Wow. Did you see the news about the Southwest Airlines airplane that became a convertible mid-flight? It reminds me of a life-size version of my kids’ toy airplane in which the roof comes off to view the little people inside.

But scary stuff in real life.

As passengers, are there any safety lessons we can learn? The primary lesson is to keep your seat belt buckled at all times, even while sleeping! The same thing goes for any children you are traveling with.

{image from: http://www.dnj.com}

Related: some humorous takes on the incident.

By Heather

Airlines long have struggled to get frequent flyers to pay attention during their safety briefings.  Those messages about sitting, buckling, and being calm during an emergency are important.

Well, no more. Richard Simmons stars in Air New Zealand’s latest attempt at humor, their in-flight safety demo.

Air New Zealand has embarked on a controversial, but funny, series of in-flight commercials to get passengers paying attention and putting on their own oxygen masks first.

Read more: http://news.travel.aol.com/2011/03/28/richard-simmons-air-new-zealand-safety-demo/#ixzz1HvD2Pz9O

By Heather

How many UL marks can you find in your home in the next ten minutes? I bet I could find easily a dozen.

The UL mark on a product is the manufacturer’s declaration  that a product has been thoroughly tested for important safety issues such as electrical shock, fire hazards, EMC and even performance and that it is produced as it was tested; it appears on thousands and thousands of products in the stores and in our homes. Remember the simple symbol as a marker for quality and security when you’re shopping.

Around your house, look for it on big appliances (washers, dryers, dishwashers, water heaters, etc.) and small ones (baby monitors, toys, household fans, slow cooker, etc.). Ok, now go find some UL symbols and report back. Ready. Set. Go.

By Heather

I’ve written about carbon monoxide poisoning before but still have a hard time wrapping my brain around it.  Luckily, I have detectors installed and fresh batteries in place so my family doesn’t have to rely on my safety expertise to find any problems.

Unfortunately, carbon monoxide poisoning is a very real household and ongoing household thread.

Two recent stories made the news of the silent killer this winter. In Los Angeles, a mother and daughter both died from carbon monoxide given off by a gas oven door they’d left open to stay warm. A week later, 11 students in Vermont were hospitalized for carbon monoxide poisoning that occurred as a result of a faulty furnace.

The very best way to prevent exposure to carbon monoxide (CO) fumes is to install a detection alarm. Since it is a colorless odorless gas undetectable to the human senses, there is no other way to know if you’re being exposed.

Products that are typically involved in CO poisonings include malfunctioning fuel-burning appliances such as furnaces, ranges, water heaters and room heaters; engine-powered equipment such as portable generators; fireplaces; and charcoal that is burned in homes and other enclosed areas.

Symptoms range from headache, fatigue, shortness of breath, nausea, dizziness to confusion, vomiting, loss of muscular coordination and loss of consciousness.

Carbon monoxide poisoning can be of slow or swift onset depending on circumstances. But it is deadly. California Poison Control, in an effort to raise public awareness, has issued the following 10 Tips to Prevent Carbon Monoxide Poisoning. With proper prevention, this “silent killer” can be stopped in its tracks.

If your CO alarm sounds, treat it as a real danger and leave your home until it can be inspected and cleared by professionals.

Related:

If the CO alarm sounds, what next?

Test your CO IQ

CO: 3 steps to prevent danger

By Whitney

My husband and I are planning a tenth anniversary trip right now. My parents have offered to keep the kids with them for eight days. Our top criterion for picking a destination is primarily to ask ourselves “What don’t we want to do or can’t we do with the children in tow?”  For example, we don’t want to go to Hawaii, as that is a family-friendly vacation. We decided we should do something physical.

Our sights are currently set on hiking the Inca Trail in Peru, which I’m comfortable with… I think.  It’s just walking after all – at a really high altitude.

When I think about river rafting, mountain biking, rock climbing, and other adventure vacations, I do get a little twitchy. What if something happens to me while I’m rafting in Costa Rica? What if I’m on a sail boat and can’t get off? Is that an experience worth risking?  Well, the other side of my brain might say, I did river raft in Costa Rica before I had children, and nothing happened to me, so why not?

I’m sure that statistically the risks of all the things I do at home are greater. Driving, for example. But somehow, being far far away from home makes it feel worse.  I certainly have friends who never leave their children, much less to be separated by a continent. And I have friends who travel internationally for business on a regular basis.

Where is your comfort level? Does just thinking about flying away from your kids make you feel anxious or feel gleefully liberated? Or both?!

By Heather

Not to scare you or anything, but do you have a plan for what happens in the event of a big disaster in your hometown? What if something really bad (earthquake, tornado, fire) happens while you’re at work and your kids are at school? Do you have a plan to meet up again that everyone knows?

I established an emergency plan about two years ago and a whole lot has changed since then. For example, my four year old no longer requires diapers or just-in-case rations of formula. Also my two sons don’t go to the same school anymore.

Create your own family disaster plan and then communicate it well to those you love. For example, discuss locations and details with your spouse and then save it to a location where you can both access it – we use Google Docs. Print out a tiny copy of pertinent details for your child’s backpack and let them and their teacher know about it. Finally, let your out-of-state emergency contact know what their role might be in the event of a disaster in your area.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some work to do! What about you? Is your plan current (and communicated)?

More instructions on creating a disaster plan from my first go.

By Heather

Younghouselove.com is a popular website chronicling a young couple’s remodel challenges and triumphs.

Recently, they shared some reader emails about house fires that stopped me in my tracks. This photograph is from Melanie, a person who spent painstaking effort upgrading her home only to have it go up in flames.

After losing everything in this tragedy, Melanie offers several lessons learned the hard way to putting the pieces back together after a catastrophic house fire, including:

1. Subscribe to an online data backup service (my external back up drive sat right next to my laptop in my office)

2. Keep passports in a safe deposit box

Read the rest of Melanie’s lessons and tips at Young House Love.