Ten lifesaving tips

Ten lifesaving tips

Start the New Year right by creating a safer home and lifestyle for your family. Debra Smiley Holtzman, an internationally recognized safety and health expert and author of the popular new book, The Safe Baby: A Do-it-yourself Guide to Home Safety, offers easy-to-implement home safety tips to make day-to-day living less hazardous and to be ready for emergencies.

1. Purchase Smoke Alarms. Install alarms on every level of the home and in every sleeping area. Change batteries once every year; test them monthly; replace the units every 10 years. Smoke alarms can cut your family's chances of dying in a fire by nearly half. Plan escape routes and conduct fire drills with the entire family. Find two ways out of each room.

2. Purchase battery-operated CO alarms or plug-in CO alarms with battery back-up. Install a CO alarm in the hallway near the bedrooms in each separate sleeping area. In addition, place one at least 15 feet from any fuel-burning appliance. Remember, the proper installation, operation and maintenance of all of fuel-burning appliances is the most important factor in reducing the risk of CO poisoning.

3. Assemble a fully stocked disaster supplies kit. Include non perishable foods, water, prescription and necessary OTC medication, manual can opener, flashlights, radio and batteries. The kit should contain at a minimum, a three day supply. Store kit in easy to carry containers, like duffle bags, near, or as close as possible to the exit door (such as in an entry hall closet). This will enable you to grab it and go in case you need to leave and will save time in an emergency.

4. Assemble a fully stocked first aid kit. Include a first aid manual, non-latex gloves, bandages of several sizes, antiseptic wipes and sharp scissors.

5. Post emergency telephone numbers near every phone in the home. Include the National Poison Hotline (1-800-222-1222), police, pediatrician, dentist, family doctor and fire department. Also include the telephone number of a friend or relative living outside of the emergency area. A caller is more likely to connect with a long-distance number outside the emergency area than with a local number within it.

6. Designate a room in the home that will be the safe room. A big closet or interior room would be ideal. A hallway or bathroom will serve as well. Try to use a room with no outside walls or only one outside wall and small, if any, windows.

7. Install a hard-wired telephone in the safe room. Regular phones that plug into a standard phone jack get their power from the phone company (which has emergency generators to power the telephone network), not from the power in your home. So if the power goes out, the phone will probably still work. Portable phones and cell phones are not reliable during a power outage and after major disasters.

8. Always use a food thermometer to be sure foods are safely cooked. Food-borne illness causes approximately 5,000 deaths each year in the U.S.

9. Set the water heater to 120 degree F. Scalding water kills about 100 people in our country each year. Water with 140 degrees F will produce a third-degree burn on a child in just three seconds. Always check the water temperature before giving a small child a bath.

10. Purchase multi-purpose fire extinguishers. Install in the kitchen, basement and workshop area. Take the time to learn how to use before an emergency strikes. Use the extinguisher for only small, confined fires. While you are extinguishing a small fire, have other family members exit the home and telephone the fire department.

In addition, everyone should practice responding to emergencies. And adults and teens should enroll in a first aid and CPR class.