Category Archives: Home safety

Mar 19 2 comments
Home safety

First Aid

It has been a rough week, and it’s not even over.  Earlier in the week, I whacked my knee on a pipe, the result is a big purple bruise.  Then, I burned my arm with scalding water and today I got bit by a dog.  The dog bite was a good one, four puncture marks in my left buttock.  Fortunately I know the people who own the dog (they are extremely mortified and have been calling me every two hours to check on my well being).  All of the dog’s shots are up to date.  My Tetanus is also up to date.  I cleaned out the puncture wounds with hydrogen peroxide and will keep an eye on it for the next few days for signs of infection.

All of this is hopefully over with and I am looking forward to a good day tomorrow.

This brings up the subject of first aid and treating “ordinary” DIY wounds.  For this, I fall back to my Navy training.  First aid is, for the most part, common sense.  It is always a good idea to have a complete first aid kit available.  You can make one yourself for less than $10.00.  Minimum Items needed:

  1. Sterile Gauze pads, large and medium 1 box each
  2. Q-tips (sterile if you can find them)
  3. Medical tape
  4. Miscellaneous band aids
  5. Topical antibiotic ointment (A&D, Ozonal, etc)
  6. An old belt
  7. Hydrogen Peroxide 1/2 liter
  8. Sterile water, 1 liter bottle
  9. latex gloves

And some type of box or bag to keep all this in.

Here are a few basic guidelines:

  1. First, stop the bleeding.  This can be done by putting a sterile gauze pad on the wound and appling direct pressure.  Elevating the wounded part above the level of the heart also helps.  If you cannot stop the bleeding, call an ambulance!
  2. For minor wounds, clean and remove all dirt and debris, irrigate thoroughly with water, use sterile water if available.  If the wound will not stay closed, stitches may be required.  Otherwise bandage and keep dry.
  3. For burns, cool the area with water ASAP.  Apply ice if available.  If the area is blistered or charred seek medical attention as secondary infection is likely in these situations.
  4. For fractures, immobilize the fracture with a splint.  Do not try to move it into the proper position if it is not.  Seek medical attention ASAP.
  5. For amputations, retrieve the body part if possible and pack in ice.  Bring it with you to the emergency room.  Large limb amputations may require a tourniquet (and an ambulance).
  6. For impalement, do not remove the offending object.  Secure it in place as best as possible and get thee to the hospital.

One other thing that should alwasy be handy is the number to the poison control center (800) 222-1222.  They are very knowlegeable and helpful.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Dec 13 10 comments
Electrical, Home safety

Power is out

And has been since Thursday, courtesy of the North East Ice Storm, V. 2008. At the height of the storm, my neighbor’s willow tree fell on his service entrance, taking out his power and tripping the circuit breaker on the utility pole for our power. The rest of the street, they are just fine. In fact, the surrounding area, there are no outages, just us.

Tree on electric service entrance

Tree on electric service entrance

So, you would think this relatively easy repair would be a snap for Central Hudson Gas and Electric. No, apparently we are a low priority in the grand scheme of things. We’ve called and they are very apologetic, “Yes, we are sorry… We know that it is inconvenient… We’ll try to get it back on as soon as possible.”

In the mean time, I was able to borrow a generator to run some of the things in the house; heat, refirgerator, sump pumps, TV and computer.  We’ve been running it two hours on two hours off to save gas.  The only thing we are lacking is running water.  You don’t understand what running water means until you don’t have it.  I had to go to the nieghbor’s pond and break the ice so I could get buckets of water to flush the toilets.

emergency backup power

emergency backup power

So, as soon as possible, I’ll be going ahead with the solar powered backup system.  More on that later.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Mar 21 8 comments
Environment, Home safety

Pick your poison; Mercury from Compact Fluorescent Light bulbs

CFLI wrote about this last year and it seems that the news media has finally caught on, at least some of them. All Fluorescent lights, compact or otherwise, contain small amounts of Mercury, which is toxic if released into the environment.

Most manufactures have agreed to reduce the amount of Mercury contained in compact fluorescent lights (CFL) to 5 mg or less per bulb. Even so, a broken CFL can release enough Mercury vapor to become toxic, especially to small children. Here are some of the symptoms of Mercury Poisoning:

  1. Red Cheeks, nose and lips
  2. Loss of hair, teeth and nails
  3. Profuse sweating
  4. Persistently faster-than-normal heart beat
  5. High blood pressure
  6. Memory impairment
  7. Emotional liability
  8. Insomnia

Clean up of broken CFL’s

  1. Do NOT vacuum up broken glass! This will vaporize and distribute all the Mercury that was in the light bulb creating a much bigger problem.
  2. Ventilate the room BEFORE you start cleanup. Mercury vaporizes readily at room temperature. Make sure that the room is isolated (doors closed, heating/AC system turned off) from the rest of the structure. Open all windows and leave the room, do not track through breakage area. Let it air out for at least 15 minutes or longer.
  3. Use rubber or latex gloves while cleaning up!
  4. Carefully sweep all the big pieces up and place in a large sealable freezer bag.
  5. Use the sticky side of duct tape to clean up all the small pieces, place in freezer bag.
  6. Wipe the area down with a damp paper towel, place used paper towels in freezer bag
  7. Remove rubber gloves and place in freezer bag. Seal up the bag and bring it to a recycling or hazardous waist disposal facility.
  8. Wash your hands and arms throughly!

Disposal of burned out CFL’s

  1. Never throw burned out CFL’s in ordinary waste. This is a sure way to contaminate the environment and in many areas it is against the law.
  2. Collect burned out CFL’s and take them to a recycling facility or hazardous waste disposal facility.
  3. For a disposal center near you, check the US EPA web site on Mercury-Containing Light Bulb Recycling.

Generally, I write on the base of the burned out CFL “BAD” and put it in a small box. Once a year our town has a clean up day when they accept hazardous waste free of charge. I take the box in and get rid of them on that day. They last so long, usually I only have one or two burned out bulbs per year.

In New York State, improper disposal of mercury lamps is AGAINST THE LAW. Violators will be subject to civil and criminal penalties and may be held liable for contaminated waste sites. Also, employees may be exposed to unsafe mercury levels from mismanaged waste lamps. See the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation web site for more information.

Mercury from CFL’s Vs. Mercury from Coal Fired power plants

With all the scary stuff about Mercury noted above, perhaps a valid question would be – Why use CFL’s at all? In general, CFL’s use much less electricity than their incandescent equivalents. They also last several times longer. However, does that mitigate their environmental impact?

It is estimated that coal fired power plants in the US release about 48 tons of Mercury into the atmosphere every year. That is a lot and it needs to be drastically reduced. By comparison, a CFL contains about 5 mg of Mercury. It is estimated that 150 million CFL’s were sold in the US in 2007. Thus the amount of Mercury sold in CFL’s is 5 mg x 150,000,000 or 750,000,000 mg of Mercury. Sounds like a lot. Roughly 2 percent of all CFL’s are recycled, which means that 712,500,000 mg of Mercury were improperly disposed. Converted to tons it equals 0.785 tons of Mercury.

The argument is that by using CFL’s we will reduce the amount of coal used to generate electricity, and thus reduce the Mercury emissions from coal fired power plants. I have yet to see a study that supports this position. In fact, in spite of wide spread use of CFL’s the electrical demand in this country continues to grow, prompting more coal fired power plants to be built. Further more, most power companies use coal fired plants as their base line generation facilities, meaning they run all the time. They do this because coal is cheaper. They use natural gas and oil fired facilities for peak demand periods because it is easier to switch those plants on and off line.

I would say that the 2 percent recycling rate for CFL’s is a dismal failure and shows that most people are not concerned about the environment or their impact at all. Perhaps the Pope was right in revising the seven deadly sins to include environmental pollution. By the way, are those new sins in addition to the original seven deadly sins? Does that mean there are now fourteen deadly sins? I am a little confused on this issue. Anyway…

The jury is still out on the CFL issue. Do they save electricity? Yes. Do they reduce the overall all electrical load, thus reduce pollution, or do they increase pollution due to improper disposal? Maybe yes, maybe no. What is clear is if we are going to use Mercury bearing CFL’s,  better education is needed.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Mar 06 15 comments
Home safety

Wired vs. Battery powered smoke and CO detectors

Something that I always wondered about, at least a little bit, is what is the advantage to having a wired smoke and/or CO (Carbon Monoxide) detector? I asked our Homeowner’s insurance company, since they give a modest discount if the home has wired detectors. What it comes down to is changing the batteries. Too many times people forget to change the batteries in a smoke detector making it useless when a fire breaks out.

Another advantage is wired smoke detectors can be installed so that if any one unit goes off, they all do. This is especially helpful in larger homes where a basement smoke alarm my not be heard on the second floor.

Wired smoke detectors are considered more reliable. Most wired systems will continue to work for several hours on a back up battery if the power goes out. In addition, wired units can be connected to a central alarm monitoring company and they can be different types, e.g. heat detector, photo electric detector or ionized particle detector. Battery types are almost always ionized particle detectors.

Does anyone know what happens this weekend? Yep, daylight savings time! And, according to the local fire department, time to change those smoke detector batteries!

One more thing about CO detectors. If you burn anything for heating, hot water, cooking, etc, you need to have a CO detector in your house. Carbon Monoxide (CO) is a by product of incomplete combustion and can be created by any malfunctioning furnace, hot water heater, clothes dryer, wood stove, pellet stove, etc. It is a deadly, odorless, colorless gas that essentially steals oxygen from your red blood cells and kill in a matter of minutes. CO detectors are inexpensive, they are often combined with smoke detectors, and work the same way. They are a good way to ensure that you and your family are safe.

The long and short, both types work well. Wired units are more expensive to purchase and install but are more reliable. Battery units are less expensive and easier to install.  You should test your battery powered smoke detectors often to ensure that they are working properly.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Jan 30 3 comments
General, Home safety

Is somebody stealing my garbage?

This is a rather disturbing development.  Last night, after supper, I threw a big bag of kitchen garbage into the garbage pail outside.  This morning, I my way out to the truck, I noticed it was gone.

My wife said she heard something on the deck in the middle of the night, I slept right through it.

We do have a large variety of animals around here, as I have written about before.  Normally, when say a raccoon or a bear gets in the garbage, they will rip the bag open and scatter it all over the place while they eat the bits they want.  I have never seen a whole bag of garbage simply disappear.

Further still, we have snow cover.  I walked around in the yard looking for bear tracks or perhaps drag marks from the heavy bag of wet garbage and saw none.  The only conclusion I can come to is a two legged animal sneaked up our driveway and removed the bag of garbage to another location.

Why?

Fortunately it was kitchen garbage.   I do occasionally throw junk mail in the kitchen garbage.  Last year, I managed to stop all of the credit card offers that we were receiving by opting out (I also did that with the catalogs).  Basically our junk mail is pretty dull, unless you like the sales at the local food market.

I picture this person sitting some where going though our old food wrappers looking for a social security number, or a date of birth.  There is no personal information in that garbage bag, of that I am sure.

Perhaps now would be a good time to mention the Catskillhouse arms locker.  Without revealing too much, I will say we have guns, ammo, and knowledge of operation.  Caution is advised.

Popularity: 3% [?]