Safety at Home

By Whitney

When I read through the tips that evolved out of the Safest Cities study, I felt proud that Heather and I have blogged about almost all of them.

Have a look at some of our tips and stories from the past.

1. See what your child sees. Get down at his level.
2. Make sure furniture is stable on its own. Especially if you have lots of people over to watch tv!
3. Prevent poisoning with careful storage of medications.
4. Set your water heater to 120 degrees or less.
5. Beware of candles – they are a leading cause of home fires.
6. Create a fire escape plan.
7. Be diligent around swimming pools. There is no such thing as too careful when it comes to preventing drowning.
8. Stay abreast of product recalls. Toys are frequently on the lists.
9. Improve your home’s air quality.
10. Always wear a bike helmet.

We’ve been blogging here for two years and we learn something new every week. Thanks for joining us!

By Whitney

When we think about the best places to live, each family probably uses different criteria.

Where can I earn a good living? How does the city rate for walkability? Are there cultural events I will enjoy? Is there a population of people who speak my native language? Are the schools good?

Here’s one that should matter to everyone: How safe is the city?

UL rated cities on criteria related to safety – accident prevention, accessibility to hospitals, laws and regulations that address smoking, helmet wearing and other safe behaviors.  The list of Top Ten SAFEST Cities for families with young children is here:

• Boston
• Columbus, Ohio
• Louisville, Ky.
• Minneapolis, Minn.
• New York
• Portland, Ore.
• San Francisco
• Seattle
• Tampa, Fla.
• Virginia Beach, Va.

Want to do more to make your community safer? Visit http://www.safecommunitiesamerica.org/ to learn about safety promotion and injury prevention.

By Whitney

My house sits on a tree-lined street, albeit one that is too busy for the children to play near. On the weekends, you’ll find my neighbors pulling weeds and sweeping their steps. My son’s guitar teacher lives in a neighborhood that is, well, different from mine. The windows have bars, the lawns are all dead, and pretty much everything could use a fresh coat of paint, from the cars to the houses.

I usually hang out on the couch during my son’s lesson, which takes place in his teacher’s living room.  But on a recent hot day, I told them I was going to walk down to the liquor store to get cold lemonade.

“Are you sure?” Guitar Man asked.

“Shouldn’t I?” I asked. “It’s broad daylight.” I had my 3-year old with me.

“Nobody’s gonna mess with you,” he said, sounding like he was reassuring himself more than me.

“I’m sure it’s fine,” I said, heading out the door and thinking that I can’t possibly surrender now and concede that the neighborhood is too sketchy to allow for a mid-afternoon lemonade run.

Frankly, the clientele at the store was less than desirable, but I wasn’t there to chit chat.  We bought a drink and arrived back at the guitar lesson without incident.

For the rest of the week, I kept thinking about the situation. I considered Guitar Man’s concern. He shouldn’t feel responsible or apologetic for the people out on his street, but it seems that he does.

Do you ever worry for your guests’ safety?

By Whitney

Next week we plan to take everything out of our garage, install new shelves, and put it all back again. This time, with less junk on the floor. I will probably embarrass myself by asking friends to come admire our garage when the project is complete. I can’t wait.

Of what safety concerns should I be mindful as we plan our garage makeover?

Here’s what’s on my mind:

• A well-lit space. The lighting in our garage is insufficient. The odds that I will trip as I walk in the door are are high. I plan to have an overhead light installed.
• Proper electrical grounding.  We have a mini-fridge but don’t yet have a GFCI outlet for it. Another to-do on the electrician’s list.
• Earthquake-friendly wall installations. Some of our new shelves will be free standing. We’ll have to find a way to brace them to the wall. An earthquake is inevitable here in the Bay Area.
• Water-tight storage for electronics. We’ll be moving everything that is currently in cardboard boxes into labeled plastic tubs. (What? We’ve only lived here eight years; I haven’t had time to unpack yet!)
• Position handles in easy-to-reach positions. If I can grab a cooler, suitcase, or shovel by it’s handle rather than from the corner of the item, I will be able to pull it down from the shelf more safely.

What else have you got for me? Have you ever transformed a garage from a heap of rarely-used items to a walk-in closet-type storage solution? Will it change my life as much as I’m hoping?

Photo credit: mathowie on Flickr

By Heather

I live in the Bay Area where electric vehicles are already silently prowling our streets. But how safe are they? And how prepared is the electric power grid needed to sustain them? And when can I get one?

I just read that the folks at UL are beginning a new initiative to further the development and installation of electric vehicle charging equipment.

How cool is that?

With President Obama’s call for at least 1 million electric vehicles in the United States by 2015, several major automakers are poised to offer various models of fully electric (as opposed to gas-electric hybrid) vehicles to American consumers.  To support the anticipated demand for electric vehicles, the race is on to develop, manufacture and install a large enough network of charging stations so that mass-market adoption of electric vehicles can become a reality.

Read more about it at ul.com and www.ul.com/electricvehicle.

I’m excited to learn that the world leader in safety testing and certification is taking the electric vehicle future seriously and is paving the way. Safely.

By Heather

Babyproofing experts say the best way to identify hazards around the house is to get down on the floor. Examine the area from a crawling baby or toddler’s perspective. What can you see? What can you reach? What looks interesting? What could hurt you?

“If you make your home safe for children, chances are you’re making it safe for adults and the elderly, too,” said John Drengenberg, consumer affairs manager for UL. “In many cases, there’s little cost or time involved, but the benefits – preventing injury or even death – are immeasurable.”

When my children were babies, I felt comfortable in my single-story home with our array of safety latches and gates. We used a barrier gate mostly for convenience to keep the babies (later curious toddlers) out of the kitchen unless supervised.

At my mom’s house, it was a totally different playing field. Grammy’s house has knickknacks a plenty and stairs of doom that are too wide for most gates. Because my sons were infrequent visitors, there was no reason to add permanent hardware to her walls. We adjusted our level of vigilance around the stairwells accordingly and traveled with a makeshift kit of other safety devices.

But the summer cabin in the woods… oh, that place was a nightmare to babyproof! In addition to scary wooden stairs, there is a loft with a partial wall made of curving tree branches. The branches leave huge gaps open over the floor below.

Whenever you install safety gates at the top of stairs, use extra caution to ensure proper fit and operation.

• You want a tight enough seal that a running toddler couldn’t push it over.
• You want an easy enough opening so that a parent carrying laundry (and maybe a baby!) could safely open it.

On Rookie Moms, we recommend having a more seasoned mom, or her wild toddler, come over to find your baby proofing trouble spots quickly.

By Heather

Before the freezing rains turn into snow, think about how to weather-proof your home for the cold. Then actually do it.

Some repairs are easy to do yourself and others require making an appointment with an expert (or person who is unafraid of climbing onto your roof).

This video series on the Safety At Home YouTube channel shows a few important tasks that can save you headaches and money this winter:

1.     Clean your gutters

2.     Check your weather-stripping

3.     Replace the batteries in your smoke detector

I’m a huge fan of taking care of these pesky tasks before they become a problem.

By Heather

Whitney and I had a great time at the BlogHer conference in New York. Read my photo-filled wrap-up here. We were also quite lucky to attend UL’s Safe n Swanky rooftop cocktail party. Wait a second… rooftop and cocktails… that doesn’t sound SAFE!

Fear not, the railings were high and the cocktails I enjoyed were limited to sparkling water because of the extreme heat. Also flowing freely were safety tips! Here are a few of the juicy tidbits I picked up from the chitchat at the party:

• Always follow the 10-20 rule in the pool
• Charcoal from a grill is 1000 degrees. Cool with a garden hose or in the grill before you dump it and a child runs through it bare foot.
• UL tests not only the appliances in your home, but the shingles on your roof (as discovered via Kristin from ourordinarylife.com)
• The most important safety tip for moms? Always keep your eye on your kid! Children are fast. They get faster every month.

Love that last tip, but gosh it sounds impossible!