Safety -

No matter where you go or what you do for Memorial Day, you absolutely must make sure that you’re ensuring safety at every turn.  Whether you’re traveling or inviting guests into your home for a get-together, you could certainly benefit from some of the safety tips included in a new report.

Let’s start with the precautions to take if you’re taking a road trip over the long weekend.  Although many people will be imbibing cocktails at barbeques and other Memorial Day parties, you absolutely should not drink if you’re going to be driving.  You might say you’re going to just have a couple beers, but as the party goes on, it’s easy to lose track of your alcohol consumption.

If you do insist on drinking at a party, you must have a designated driver on hand.  Otherwise, you imperil yourself and your fellow travelers, and with police presence ratcheted up this weekend, you could find yourself on the wrong side of the law.

The other place alcohol has no place?  On a boat.  Many people will take to California’s beautiful oceans and lakes this weekend for a little sun, but if you drink alcohol out on the water, your chances of drowning increase dramatically.  You also shouldn’t be controlling the boat in the first place if you’re inexperienced in that regard.  You ought to have a group of people with you anytime you head out on the water, whether in a boat or just to take a dip, and it’s imperative to make sure you put on a life jacket every time you get on a boat.

When you are traveling to your destination, eliminate distractions, and always have your seatbelt in place.  No matter where you travel, you should have some idea where to go to seek emergency care if someone gets hurt badly.  You don’t want to waste precious time looking up directions.

But maybe you’re hosting a party.  If that’s the case, you still can’t let safety lapse.  With guests entering your home, you take on a host of responsibilities that shouldn’t get short shrift.  For one thing, know how to handle a grill if that’s your cooking weapon of choice.  Keep it far from an area where a fire hazard becomes a possibility, and make sure you know the proper way to prepare food.

When you do prepare food, you ought to know how to eliminate the threat of foodborne illness.  The last thing you want is to be held liable for a group of guests that become incredibly sick.  Meat should immediately be slapped onto the grill rather than being left outside in the sun, and you should cook the meat completely.  A guest might want a piece of meat as rare as possible, but you ought to insist that they let you heat it a bit longer.

Last month found the California Highway Patrol and more than 250 other law enforcement organizations cracking down on distracted driving.  Now, just in time for Memorial Day weekend, we finally have an idea of how successful the operation was as a whole.

All in all, 57,000 motor vehicle operators were cited for using their cellphones in some manner at the wheel.  When you take into account the other types of distracting behaviors that drew the ire of the CHP and various local officers, a total of 60,500 citations were issued.  A typical month in California brings about 36,000 tickets for distraction.

Although that’s certainly a lot of distraction on our roadways, the good news is that the number of drivers who appear to be using their cellphones is actually on the decline.  Last year, it was estimated that 10.8% of drivers used their cellphone at any given time along the road, but that number decreased dramatically to 7.4% this year.  And the number of people who had their phones placed to their ear dropped by nearly a third.

To make sure that these trends continue and that the CHP doesn’t have to issue tens of thousands of tickets every month, officials ask that a cellphone be stowed someplace that it won’t pose a temptation.  If a call must be made, a vehicle should be parked.

Are you hosting a get-together for friends and loved ones this Memorial Day?  If so, then your porch might be overly stressed by the number of people who gather for the festivities.  This can create a serious hazard, especially if your deck is older or if the entire structure suffers from shoddy craftsmanship.

To make sure that your guests are protected and you thus aren’t held liable for the injuries which can occur should a deck collapse, you might want to look to the safety tips offered in a new report out of Chicago.  That city suffered from nearly 1,300 complaints in regards to a potentially hazardous porch last year, which is actually a significant drop from 2006, when over 2,300 porches were reported.

Ensure that your deck hasn’t accumulated excessive rot or damage, often incurred when the unit has taken on water.  Sometimes, this type of hazard might not be visible to the naked eye, and you thus want to conduct a once-over of the structure to see if there are any weaknesses or other flaws.  Excessive wobbling when simply walking along the deck could be indicative of a potential threat.

Make sure the deck is anchored and bolted properly to the ground as well as to your residence, and make note of any planks and guardrails that jostle when stepped on or pressed against.  If you notice danger, take the party inside, and call the appropriate local officials to obtain an inspection of the structure.

Safety advocates and lawmakers have grown concerned about a potential loophole in the law that leaves a grey zone in the regulation of compounding pharmacies.  Last year, over 700 people became ill and 50 died because they were exposed to contaminated steroid injections from a compounder.  To make sure such an incident never happens again, a bill was drafted that would bolster the Food and Drug Administration’s ability to oversee such institutions.  Now, that measure has received the unanimous approval of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pension Committee.  As the bill currently stands, compounders would have to register and report adversity to the FDA.  They would also be privy to inspections, the costs of which would be offset with a fee paid by the compounder itself.

For more about this initial approval, click here.

Insolroll Roller Shades that are both rechargeable and solar-powered are being recalled by the Louisville, Colorado-based Insolroll Window Shading Systems.  The shades utilize a lithium battery and can be activated by way of a switch or a remote control.  An estimated 1,500 shades are impacted by the recall, and each would have been available across the country between last June and this past March.  In the midst of a charge, the aforementioned batteries are in danger of heating to an unsafe degree, an issue that could create a hazard.  Although no one has reportedly been injured by this defect, one person has reported a fire.  The chargers should be unplugged and a dealer should be contacted for those looking to receive a new motor.

For more about the recall, follow this link.

The Saddle Brook, New Jersey-based Nourison Industries has announced the recall of polyester shag area rugs from the I-CANDI collection.  The rugs were available in San Diego, San Francisco, and select other markets this past September, making for a total of around 1,400 recalled items.  These rugs apparently fail to conform to flammability requirements imposed by the federal government, and thus they would create a potential fire threat if exposed to something like an open flame.  No incidents of such have been reported at this time, and to ensure that remains the case, owners should store the rugs and get in touch with Nourison to obtain a new product.

Click here for more about the recall.

Many Californians will be hitting the road this Memorial Day weekend, but with more vehicles on the road, there’s more of a chance of an accident.  This is especially the case when drivers are in unfamiliar environs whose rules they’re not accustomed to.  To make sure that you’re safe, you might consider heeding the advice of those who have remained accident-free for decades.

The United States Postal Service seeks to honor those mail carriers who have driven one million miles without getting in an accident.  Such a distinction isn’t easy to achieve.  But of the estimated 300,000 mail carriers who are on the road at any given time, 9,385 have reached that milestone since 2005.  Their tips are certainly worth listening to.

First, taking a defensive stance on the road is important, especially when you’re traveling far from home.  In such situations, you don’t know what might be upcoming, and your aggressive maneuver in unfamiliar surroundings could cause a crash.  Instead, respect the rights of other drivers.  Make sure you switch lanes smoothly, and utilize your turn signal when both switching lanes and making a turn.  You always want others to know your intentions.  If a road sign says to do something, make sure you do it so that you know you’re not in violation of local laws.

You also want to keep ample space between yourself and vehicles in front of you.  Go in with the mindset that the leading driver might have to slam on their brakes at some point.  That should keep you at least one car length behind them for every ten miles per hour you drive.

You’re also going to want to have some type of plan of action in place should hazardous circumstances present themselves.  Constantly gauging your surroundings is essential to such a plan.  If someone cuts you off, you absolutely must be aware of any vehicles to either side or behind you.  Your options dwindle the heavier the traffic, but you should always have some idea of what you can do to avoid a disaster.

Keeping this kind of focus on the road means that you can’t let distraction imperil your driving ability.  Although a phone can act as a lifeline on a cross-country or upstate Memorial Day trip, it can also be a deterrent to safety.  Keep your phone out of reach, and if you do need to send some type of communication, whether voice or text-based, have a passenger be the one who dials or chats.

Other tips include making sure your vehicle is in tiptop shape before you head out and taking extra precautions in those areas that you know generate a lot of traffic.  Using signals in parking lots is also a good idea, as doing so lets drivers and pedestrians alike know of your intentions.

The entire country has been watching coverage of the tornado that tore through Oklahoma a couple days ago, and the hearts of citizens across the nation go out to those who were impacted by that storm.  Although tornados in California are a little less common than they are in Oklahoma, they can happen, and a new report looks at the phenomenon in greater depth.

First, realize that tornados are more common in Southern California locales such as the San Joaquin Valley and Los Angeles than they are in the northern part of the state.  In fact, only 400 tornados can be confirmed for Northern California in more than 60 years, a far cry from Oklahoma’s tally of nearly 3,500 in that same timeframe.

When tornados do impact Northern California, they typically clock in at the EF-0 or EF-1 level, whereas some Southern California tornados have reached EF-3 status.  Damage is typically more limited the lower the level of the tornado.

Still, it is always possible that a tornado will move through your area, or that you’re going to be traveling somewhere when a twister hits.  You thus need to know what to do in those circumstances.  Most California residences don’t have basements, but if you happen to be somewhere that does, go there to wait out the tornado.  Otherwise, head toward the center of the structure and get to a room without doors or windows.  Bathrooms might be your best bet if you have one in the center of the home.

If you’re like many Californians, you’re going to take advantage of this Memorial Day to cook some food for guests.  But when you do so, it’s imperative that you not make those same guests ill.  To eliminate the threat of foodborne illness, you might thus consider some of the valuable prevention tips included in a new report.

First, make sure that every surface you cook and prepare food on has been scrubbed adequately with soap and hot water.  This step should also apply to your own hands.  And once you move something like raw meat from a given surface, you should wash it anew so that cross-contamination isn’t possible.

You don’t want ready-made food to make contact with raw food, as this can allow the former to become contaminated.  You also shouldn’t use the same preparatory utensils for each.

When you cook, a meat thermometer should be available at all times.  Most meat has to be heated to at least 145 degrees, but many times, the temperature has to be even hotter.  Ground beef needs to be over 160, and chicken and hot dogs need to reach 165 before being served.

Finally, if food gets left out for quite some time, which is always a possibility at a Memorial Day cookout, make sure to chill that food quickly so that foodborne contaminants can’t set in.

Today, the Food and Drug Administration will convene an expert panel to offer recommendations about a new insomnia drug from Merck.  The company is seeking the approval of suvorexant, which is designed to help people suffering from insomnia fall asleep.  In preparation for today’s meeting, the FDA has made their concerns about the drug known to the public.  They worry about studies which have shown inconsistent results with the drug, as well as the potential for the medication’s effects to linger long after they should have worn off.  This can lead to instances of daytime sleepiness that have the potential to compromise driving ability.  These factors, combined with concerns about the appearance of suicidal thoughts among users, may prompt the FDA to only approve lower doses of suvorexant.

For more about the pending approval, click here.