It’s daylight savings time yet again.  Normally that just means we lose an hour, but for those in the know it means we gain an opportunity to check up on our family’s safety.  We do this by using the twice-a-year time change as a reminder to review the parts of our family emergency plans or gear that might need to be updated.

Here’s a quick list of but a few things to look at:

1. Change your smoke alarm and carbon monoxide detector batteries.
2. Check the batteries in your emergency gear (you should always write the dates of purchase on them).
3. Expiration dates of medications (including over-the-counter stuff and meds for your pets).
4. Conduct a fire drill along with a seasonal / regional drill such as a tornado or hurricane drill.
5. Check the expiration dates on important documents and policies (and list all dates in a calendar program).
6. Check the dates on any stored water you’ve put away.
7. Review maintenance needs for your vehicles.
8. Rotate and/or use any food in the pantry that is approaching its expiration date.
9. Look at the purchase or inspection dates on your fire extinguishers (do this when conducting your fire drill).
10. Change your password and run an anti-virus and anti-spyware scan and backup your computer.
11. Put any stored gasoline in your vehicles and refill the spare cans with fresh gas.
12. Health improvement: review your exercise plan or get a medical / dental checkup.
13. Update your emergency contact information.
14. Log on to www.disasterprep101.com for additional how-to articles.
15. Log on to www.1800prepare.com to find updated gear for your safety.

Again, these are but a few of many ideas.  Once you start with these, more opportunities that are unique to you and your family will present themselves.

Feel free to pass this list along to others!  (Provided all portions stay intact that is; Copyright 2010 – Paul Purcell.)

FEMA’s Individual & Community Preparedness Division is excited to announce the fifth webinar in the Community Preparedness Webinar Series:  American Red Cross Month-Partnership in Preparedness.  The Community Preparedness Webinar Series provides up-to-date information on community preparedness topics and resources available to citizens, community organizations, and Citizen Corps Councils. This LIVE webinar is scheduled for Wednesday, March 17^th at 2:00 EST and will provide information on the American Red Cross, presented by American Red Cross Preparedness and Health and Safety Services.  Webinar login will begin 15 minutes prior to the start of the webinar and registration is not required. A question and answer period will follow the presentation.

Live Webinar: American Red Cross Month:  Partnership in Preparedness– March 17@ 2:00 pm EST.

March is American Red Cross Month.  For more than 128 years, the mission of the American Red Cross has been to help people prevent, prepare for, and respond to emergencies. A humanitarian organization led by volunteers, guided by its Congressional Charter and the Fundamental Principles of the International Red Cross Movement, the Red Cross is woven into the fabric of our communities with more than 700 chapters nationwide. The American Red Cross has been a Citizen Corps Affiliate since 2003, offering state and local Citizen Corps Councils resources for education, outreach, training, and volunteer service opportunities to support first responders and disaster relief activities.  Joscelyn Silsby, from American Red Cross Preparedness and Health and Safety Services, will highlight ways to work in partnership with local American Red Cross Chapters and learn about resources to better promote community preparedness.

The Community Preparedness Webinar Series features new community preparedness topics several times each month and is free to the public. Each webinar will accommodate the first 500 visitors that enter the website at the time of the webinar. In addition to airing live, the webinar will be recorded and viewable at your convenience on the Citizen Corps website (www.citizencorps.gov) usually within 24 hours after the live webcast.  To join the webinar live simply go to http://www.citizencorps.gov/news/webcasts/redcrossmonth.shtm and click on the button on the upper right side of the page that says “Join the Webinar”.  Sign in as a guest.

If you need special accommodations or require additional assistance to view or listen to this webinar, please email us at citizencorps@dhs.gov no later than 5pm EST on Monday, March 15^th and we will provide you with additional resources so you may participate.

More details on this webinar and upcoming webinars in the Community Preparedness Webinar Series are available at www.citizencorps.gov.

Sincerely,

The National Office of Citizen Corps

Safety with Medicine; Avoiding Tragedy

In recent months we’ve seen the loss of Heath Ledger, Brittany Murphy, and now Corey Haim; all reported to have had some sort of prescription medication associated with their death.

These are by no means isolated incidents.

The statistics on medicine-related deaths vary since some cases are intentional overdose, some accidental overdose, and sometimes death is the result of unexpected side effects of single drugs or unintended interactions between drugs.  The bottom line, all official numbers aside, is the fact that medicine, while being extremely useful, can be dangerous if misused.

Here are a few general safety tips to keep you and your family safe.

1. Childproof everything.  If you have offspring under 21 years of age living with you, lock up your prescription meds, especially pain killers.  Many trips to the emergency room have been the result of teenagers pilfering their parents’ prescription medications for everything from recreational use to illicit drug sales.  Don’t think that childproofing only applies to babies and toddlers.
2. Separate your medications.  Some accidental overdoses or unintended drug interactions have occurred when the wrong bottle was picked up and therefore the wrong pill taken.  Keep the more dangerous pharmaceuticals either in a separate place or at least on a different shelf in the medicine cabinet.  Another hint is to put a rubber band around those particular pill bottles so you’ll know the difference by feel.  This is helpful if you get up in the middle of the night to take what you think is an aspirin for a headache.
3. Discard what you don’t need.  If you’re taking meds for a temporary condition and you have doses left over after the condition has cleared, dispose of the rest if your doctor says it’s okay.  The more dangerous or controlled the medicine the more important it might be to take the remainder back to your doctor’s office for disposal.  This way you have witnesses to the fact the medicine was disposed of.    Hint:  If you find leftover pills and you’re not sure what they are, try looking them up at either www.medhelp.org or http://www.drugs.com/imprints.php.
4. Ration your doses.  If memory is an issue, then have someone lay out your daily doses for you.  Many accidental overdoses happen when people forget that they just took their pill and then take another.  Plastic pill boxes that help you organize daily doses –even going so far as to have boxes for meals or hourly times – are easy to find at most any drug or department store.
5. Save the drug info.  Most prescriptions come with a data sheet tucked in the box or placed in the bag by your pharmacist.  If you don’t get one ask for one.  On these sheets are dosage instructions, known interactions and cautions, and other useful information.  As long as you are taking the medication, keep these sheets from your different meds together and inside your medicine cabinet, or in another obvious location so if something happens, emergency rescue personnel can quickly find the information they need.  If you routinely keep backup medicine in your emergency or “bugout kit” (and you should), be sure to keep a photocopy of these drug information sheets in your kit as well.
6. Know the interactions.  It’s a sad commentary on the state of today’s medical / pharmaceutical industry, but many times we must be educated patients and know enough to check out information for ourselves.  Regarding the information sheets mentioned above, it’s up to you to know the interactions of the various medications you might be on.  If you need to look up potential adverse side-effects, you can log on to www.drugs.com, www.rxlist.com, or http://healthtools.aarp.org/drug-directory.
7. Don’t self-medicate.  If something’s wrong, go see the doctor.  Other trips to the emergency room have resulted from taking the wrong medication for the wrong condition.  Remember… our health and safety are the foundation for all else we do.  Safeguard yours.

About the author:  Paul Purcell is an Atlanta-based security analyst and preparedness consultant with over twenty years risk management and preparedness experience.  He’s also the author of Disaster Prep 101, and he’s a partner / advisor to 1-800-PREPARE.  Copyright 2010, Paul Purcell.

(Permission granted to reprint this article and share it with others provided all portions remain intact.)