The Industrious Hygienist's Favorite Holiday Safety Tips: FEMA and USFA

So far we've covered general holiday safety from CDC/NIOSH and holiday stress management from CDC and Mayo Clinic. Now let's get down to the exciting stuff - fire safety.

FEMA and the NFPA have partnered this year to create the following infographic for their "Put a Freeze on Winter Holiday Fires" campaign:

NFPA and FEMA infographic for the "Put a Freeze on Winter Holiday Fires" campaign.

The Industrious Hygienist would also like to share the following HolidayFire Safety video from FEMA (although I'm still learning how to embed videos, so click the hyperlink if you want to watch it). 

The Industrious Hygienist decided to take the NFPA "Put a Freeze on Winter Fires Quiz" and test her knowledge of winter fire safety.

Result?

Fail. Eeek!

So I feel I should defend myself on some of the wrongly answered questions. See below.

Lit candles should be extinguished when you leave the room.

The place where the Industrious Hygienist currently lives (we don't feel it is right to call it a house) has a "great room" that consists of the entry, family/living room, dining area, and kitchen all encompassed, with a hallway leading down to the bedroom. So if we light a candle, it is usually in the "great room" and therefore extinguished before we walk out the door and leave the home. Semantics. But probably useful information if you have a larger space to live in and lots of candles.

The leading cause of home fires is failure to clean heating equipment and chimneys before use.

I've lived in Phoenix, AZ or Orange County, CA for most of her life and only recently moved to Prescott in beautiful Northern Arizona. So my exposure to cold weather has been limited - I've never lived anywhere with a chimney and never used a space heater before. Now I know that if I happen to move somewhere with a chimney, I should have preventative maintenance done on it. We never used our heater in Phoenix. I did have the furnace checked here in Prescott before it was turned on. Yay for me!

Carbon monoxide alarms should be installed on every level of the home and outside each sleeping space.

Again, with the size of the place we live, we just have one CO monitor in a central location, equidistant from the gas-fired kitchen appliances, laundry room, and bedroom. This whole idea of a multi-level home is intriguing - I should try it sometime. :) Makes sense to have to CO monitor outside the bedrooms, since you'd want to know what the CO concentration is before it is in your sleeping space and you are susceptible to it. 

Just this week, a family in Breckenridge was exposed to high levels of CO and some of the family members were hospitalized. See news story here. 

Before placing a real cut tree ion the stand, cut 2" from the base of the trunk.

I've never had a real Christmas tree before, we always had an artificial one. Since we got our Alaskan Malamute (Shadow), we haven't bothered to put up a tree the last three years. He likes to try and eat the ornaments. So I'll keep this in mind if I decide to ever use a real cut tree (not likely) for the holidays.

Keep your eyes peeled (that's a weird/gross phrase I should never use again) for the Industrious Hygienist Holiday Card and end of year blog post!

The Industrious Hygienist's Favorite Holiday Safety Tips: Mayo Clinic and CDC

The Industrious Hygienist's post yesterday shared holiday safety tips from CDC/NIOSH.

Today, let's discuss stress. 

Taking part in last-minute holiday shopping blitzes is sort of par for the course for many Americans. The Industrious Hygienist and spouse will be braving a few key merchandisers today to wrap up the holiday shopping. Planning the gift-buying extravaganza can be very stressful. Traveling to and from various family engagements, work functions, and parties with friends can lead to even more heightened stress levels. Finding out how to manage your schedule, pets, family, and work commitments within a ridiculously short time frame is, well, bonkers.

Luckily, with the advent of Spore Consulting, the Industrious Hygienist is able to manage her own schedule and take time off as needed, but few people have that luxury. We gave ourselves memberships to Massage Envy and Lumosity for Christmas and our anniversary in June.

The CDC discussed managing stress in the "12 Ways to Health Holiday Song" and provided the following general recommendations for managing stress. 

• "Avoid drugs and alcohol. They may seem to be a temporary fix to feel better, but in the long run they can create more problems and add to your stress�instead of take it away.
• Find support. Seek help from a partner, family member, friend, counselor, doctor, or clergyperson. Having a sympathetic, listening ear and sharing about your problems and stress really can lighten the burden.
• Connect socially. After a stressful event, it is easy isolate yourself. Make sure that you are spending time with loved ones. Consider planning fun activities with your partner, children, or friends.
• Take care of yourself. Eat well, exercise, get plenty of sleep, give yourself a break, and maintain a normal routine.
• Stay active. You can take your mind off your problems by giving�helping a neighbor, volunteering in the community, even taking the dog on a long walk. These can be positive ways to channel your feelings."

Ways this goes horribly wrong in holiday events? See below.

• Avoid alcohol? Although many workplaces have "no alcohol" policies at holiday parties, there's plenty of ways to imbibe at after-parties, impromptu gatherings, industry events, etc. Things get said that shouldn't be discussed in polite company, behavior is sometimes less than professional, and you end up spending more money than you have on expensive drinks. Try to rein yourself in and remember that somebody always has a camera.
• Find support? Everyone's going through the same thing as you. If you reach out to someone, they're likely to talk your ear off about the problems they are having rather than listening. Sometimes this is helpful because you realize your problems are paltry compared to those around you. Be the listener, be the friend and support person. It will make you feel better than just venting to everyone around you.
• Connect socially? No, they're not talking about sharing your entire life on social media. They're talking about in-person socialization. Put down your phone, stop texting and tweeting, and really listen and connect with someone. Watch their face and learn their personality quirks. Try to remember all the conversations you've had with them. Spouse and I use the drive between family/social events to decompress and vent and listen to music (never Christmas music though).
• Take care of yourself? Ha. If your family is anything like mine, eating healthy during the holidays is super tricky. My father makes handmade chocolate truffles and fudge, and my grandma sends me a box full of handmade cookies and treats every year. There is no normal routine during the holidays.
• Stay active? Thanks to the Industrious Hygienist's parents, this is pretty easy. Rather than a gift, they want an act of service (photos and documentation required) for their Christmas gift. Could be a donation to a charity, could be a volunteer event, could be anything that requires us to go out and serve our fellow humans.

This year's act of service was with our local ASSE Arizona Chapter, preparing a community garden at a local elementary school through the USGBC Green Apple Day of Service.

Proof:

Spouse and the Industrious Hygienist weeding the playground with ASSE Arizona Chapter during the Green Apple Day of Service on 9-28-2013.

We even brought Shadow (nope, that's not our kid), who was tantalized by the little girl's water bottle and watched us work.

The Mayo Clinic also has holiday-specific tips for stress management. The Industrious Hygienist has a few favorites:

• "Be realistic. The holidays don't have to be perfect or just like last year. As families change and grow, traditions and rituals often change as well. Choose a few to hold on to, and be open to creating new ones. For example, if your adult children can't come to your house, find new ways to celebrate together, such as sharing pictures, emails or videos.
• Set aside differences. Try to accept family members and friends as they are, even if they don't live up to all of your expectations. Set aside grievances until a more appropriate time for discussion. And be understanding if others get upset or distressed when something goes awry. Chances are they're feeling the effects of holiday stress and depression, too.
• Learn to say no. Saying yes when you should say no can leave you feeling resentful and overwhelmed. Friends and colleagues will understand if you can't participate in every project or activity. If it's not possible to say no when your boss asks you to work overtime, try to remove something else from your agenda to make up for the lost time."

Wish us luck in our last-minute shopping. Gaah. I'll be singing Broadway musicals in my head to drown out the holiday music. 

A molasses spill in Hawaii? I hearken back to 1919 in Boston.

I was intrigued to see the following news story from Hawaii about the molasses spill that occurred in Honolulu Harbor (or was first noticed, accounts differ) on Monday. According to the article, approximately 224,000 gallons of molasses spilled into the harbor and the United States Environmental Protection Agency is sending two spill experts to help the state characterize the damage and work towards a sustainable solution.

This article from Hawaii News Now explains that the responsible party, Matson Navigation Company, released more than a ton of molasses into the harbor. An investigation was done by Hawaii Department of Health when dead fish started showing throughout the harbor on Monday, about "three days after a faulty Matson pipe discharged 233,000 gallons of molasses into the water, resulting in a mass kill."

According to Reuters, the release was first noticed on Monday after a ship pulled out to sea, loaded with molasses. On Tuesday, Matson discovered a leak in the pipeline used to fill the ship. The Reuters article contained a statement from the Department of Health that the molasses would likely not harm humans, but it was "polluting the water, causing fish to die and could lead to an increase in predator species such as sharks, barracuda and eels."

CNN already beat me to the punch (or some sort of molasses-based beverage) on making the comparison, but this is not the first time molasses has caused such widespread devastation. Courtesy of Wikipedia, in 1919 Boston, a molasses storage tank burst and approximately 2.3 million gallons of molasses were released from the storage area of the Purity Distilling Company into North End Boston. The "wave" of molasses ranged from 8 to 15 feet high and was estimated to had moved up to 35 miles per hour, sweeping buildings off their foundations, damaging railroad girders, and killing 21 people (150 injured).  

Here's a picture courtesy of the Boston Public Library Flickr account:

Firemen in Boston's North End standing in sometimes knee-deep molasses. (c) Boston Public Library.

The Wikipedia article notes that the "harbor was brown with molasses until summer" (spill happened in January 1919). I couldn't find any information on whether the molasses spill into the Boston harbor also resulted in a large fish and other marine life die-off.

Many news companies ran articles with indirect quotes from a senior executive for Matson stating that Matson had not really planned ahead of time for the possibility of a spill. The Honolulu Star Advertiser ran a story that Matson "did not have a response plan for a molasses spill, even though its vessels export as much as 2,000 tons of the viscous liquid each week to the mainland from a pipeline at Hono�lulu Harbor."

The response plan they're talking about would likely be similar to a Spill Countermeasures and Control Plan (SPCC). An SPCC Plan requires companies with the potential to release oil discharges (and possibly other toxic substances, I am not an SPCC expert) to prepare an SPCC Plan, amend the plan when conditions change, and of course implement the plan, so that prevention of spills is the primary objective. SPCC Plans also cover preparedness activities and response to spills. SPCC is intended to protect navigable waters and their adjoining shorelines. There's probably a maritime equivalent, but the Industrious Hygienist lives in Arizona, so my knowledge of maritime standards is limited.