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Editor’s Note: This is the third in a four-part series of articles designed to generate awareness and provide helpful safety tips during the winter.
JOINT BASE MYER-HENDERSON HALL, Va. - Shoveling snow, checking your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors and keeping track of your health this holiday season may seem trivial but taking the initiative do so may be the difference between life and death.
Adrain Kendrick, chief of Safety and Occupational Health, said there are multiple reasons why unintentional deaths and injuries happen in and outside the home during the winter months. For one, he said people introduce objects into their homes that sometimes aren’t normally there, like space heaters and live Christmas trees, during the winter.
Live Christmas trees are hazardous when they aren’t properly watered as they can become highly flammable, according to James Dansereau, one of three fire inspectors on JBM-HH.
Dansereau wrote in an email that when a live Christmas tree is not watered, it dries out making it vulnerable to heated objects, like light bulbs and space heaters. Home fires, according to the American Red Cross, are a common disaster and many Americans are uninformed about this fact.
“[Live Christmas trees] take a lot of water to keep them moist,” Kendrick explained. “Then of course you have heaters; a lot of folks use heaters [and] a lot of heaters are not certified [to be used]. Some of them have no grounding wires and present a safety hazard in the house. If [it’s] put close to a Christmas tree, it [can] catch on fire.”
“Only run the lights [on the Christmas tree] during the hours that you’re awake,” said Kendrick. “[Residents should] unplug their space heaters before [going] to bed.”
“Follow manufacturers’ recommendations of how many strings of lights can be interconnected,” Dansereau added.
Then there’s the problem of inoperable or faulty smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. Carbon monoxide is an odorless and tasteless gas, which makes detection - and exposure - difficult.
Because of this, symptoms can be mistaken for every day illnesses. Exposure to the gas produces symptoms that are similar to that of the flu, but without the fever, which consists of headache, fatigue, shortness of breath, nausea and dizziness, according a document from the U.S Army Combat Readiness Center.
“The fumes get into your house and it hits people pretty quickly,” Kendrick said.
Dansereau recommends residents replace their detectors older than 10 years, and said there should be a detector on every floor and installed in every bedroom. He also recommends ensuring detectors have working batteries.
But Kendrick is not only concerned about the how to’s of prevention, he said. He’s also concerned about the elderly who shovel their own driveways in the winter.
“Man, that snow can get heavy,” he said. “It can cause your heart rate to go up and over-exertion can cause folks to have heart attacks and strokes.”
To prevent unintended injuries and death at home, Kendrick said the elderly should go see their doctor for a physical examination before shoveling snow. He believes such preventative steps are key to winter safety at home, he said.
“[Death] can be prevented,” said Kendrick. “If [we] can say something or give some information that will help ... that’s what we are about.”
Kendrick and Dansereau offered the following advice for those who want to prepare their homes for the winter:
• Have your heating system professionally serviced to ensure that it is cleaned, working properly and ventilating to the outside.
• Space Heaters need to be plugged directly into an outlet. Do not use multi-plug adapters or extension cords with space heaters.
• Place space heaters on wood floors or tile surfaces and not on rugs or carpets.
• Keep space heaters at least 3 feet from combustible items such as furniture, beds and curtains.
• Choose space heaters with a guard to protect children and pets from the heating source.
• Do not overload circuits with the use of a space heater.
• Try to use environmentally-friendly deicers. Also, make sure to not to buy deicers that will crack drive ways; cracks in a driveway can cause a person to slip and fall.
• When shoveling snow use proper lifting techniques. Lift by bending at the knees, not at the waist. And don’t try to finish the job at one time.
For more winter safety tips, follow us on Twitter: @jbmhh, or visit the U.S. Army Combat Readiness Center online at https://safety.army.mil.
| Date Taken: | 12.09.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 12.09.2015 18:47 |
| Story ID: | 184044 |
| Location: | JOINT BASE MYER-HENDERSON HALL, VIRGINIA, US |
| Web Views: | 45 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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