Hi,

What is it going to take for the government and leaders of this great country to truly carry out the roles that, we, the people, put them in office to do; protect us, inform us, educate us and most importantly be honest with us? We now have another health crisis among us, a bacterial infection that since the last two years and continuing has killed more people in the United States than the HIV virus, emphysema and murder. If you ask 1 in 10 people if they know what it is, you will get “no”, as an answer. Does this not anger you? Should we as a people that live in a democracy not expect the government to warn of these health issues before they become crises? How many more people, particularly the elderly and children that are dying at the highest percentage due to this infection, have to die? Please send us your comments by simply clicking the “comment” button below. We want to hear from you!

Additionally, in respect to our commitment to offering you as much as we can about safety, we have posted an article on our site that has important statistical and scientific information about MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphyloccus aureus). Click here to read it: Bacterial Infection More Deadly than AIDS.

The purpose of this blog will be more to directly address and initiate your comments about school safety in the aftermath of another child dying due to this infection.

On October 17, 2007, Ashton Bond, a senior high school student in Virginia died of MRSA. The Superintendent of Bedford County, the county in Virginia which housed the school Ashton attended, immediately closed all 21 schools within the county. Was it a little bit too late? Clearly for Ashton it was. Why, because MRSA is a cleanliness issue. Why did the superintendent close down the schools? To have a commercial cleaning company come into each school in the county and “clean it.” Are you kidding me? Does not our taxpayer money pay for a school cleaning staff at every school in the nation? Let me answer that for you, yes.

Most importantly, where does this leave the safety of our children in school? According to The Associated Press:
“Staph infections, including the serious MRSA strain, have spread through schools nationwide in recent weeks, according to health and education officials. Several students have been hospitalized. At least three MRSA cases have been reported in Bedford. Many of the infections are being spread in gyms and locker rooms, where athletes, perhaps suffering from cuts or abrasions, share sports equipment.”

Guess what readers, Ashton, 17, played football last year but was not playing this season.

As parents, relatives and friends of children in schools, what can we do to help prevent MRSA coming into contact with our children? Educate them, as the vast majority of school districts have done across the country. Tell them to wash their hands, provide them with pocket size instant hand disinfectant, requiring no water; that they can carry in their pocket with them to school. Don’t rely on the cleaning crew of your child’s school. The infection is currently too widespread to not take action as a parent or guardian of a child in school.

Maybe we can trust our school districts to change the errors that caused this from ever occurring in the first place, but maybe we can’t. For your child’s safety, provide them with the tools they need to keep their hands clean, any open wounds covered and their clothes clean. We are here for your safety and urge you to be there as well.

Since life has no reset button…tune into this blog and to our website daily. Safe living, Yovette Mumford

To those who choose to participate in the holiday; safety issues is the biggest, rightfully so, issue. This is a huge holiday where, unfortunately in this country today, parent(s) as well as children of all ages, need to be especially mindful of their personal safety and well-being. We here at www.safetyissues.com, take this topic extremely seriously and are going to address what we believe to be the most important thoughts to keep in mind as Halloween comes upon us further into our blog. As you read them, they might strike you as pure common sense, and many of them are, but as we all know, on holidays we all tend to “let down our guard”, especially children, leading us to horrific consequences that can occur as the result of one overlooked act.

Because of some of these accidents and tragedies that have occurred in the past, some cities throughout the country have actually put into place laws to insure the safety of its citizens. In Port Washington North, New York, an affluent suburb of Long Island known as the Gold Coast, for 20 years now, curfew begins for anyone under the age of 19, at 7 p.m. on October 30th and 31st and does not end until 6 am on November 1st. If anyone this law applies to is found breaking it, they are taken into custody, parent(s) are called and they face a penalty of up to $250 and/or 15 days in jail.

Since this enactment 20 years ago, many, many cities across the country have adopted a similar curfew for anyone under the age of 19.

There is, however, another “side”, if you will, to this issue. Immense denunciation of these curfews by civil right advocates; advocating these laws violate the First Amendment right to free expression, which includes, “the right to travel around freely” is becoming increasingly louder. Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, states, “In general, curfews are antithetical to the founding principles of free society, where the freedom to travel about is protected. That also protects children. It is up to parents whether Junior can go out, not the town fathers, any more than town fathers would determine a child’s bedtime.”

The curfew supporters, however, have the lure of the tradition of Halloween on their side. Historically, Halloween mischief, egg throwing, tree toilet paper rolling, shaving cream on cars and teenage mobs rampaging through streets, has given way to include, razors in distributed candy, rapes, kidnappings, poisoned treats and severe property damage. Halloween continues to evoke an allure of danger while at the same time, presenting an innocent holiday for children to dress up and go and retrieve candy, all for the sake of fun.

If you choose to celebrate this traditional American holiday, please pay head to the Halloween Safety Tips listed below:

For Trick-or-Treaters:

• Carry a flashlight
• Stay on sidewalks
• Obey traffic signals
• Walk, don’t run
• Don’t cut across yards or driveways
• Stay in familiar neighborhoods
• Make sure costumes don’t drag on the ground
• Shoes should fit, whether they go with the costume or not
• Avoid wearing masks
• Carry only flexible knives, swords or other props
• If there is no sidewalk, walk on the left side of the road facing traffic
• Wear clothing with reflective markings
• Go only to houses that are lit
• Stay away from any animals you do not know

For Parents:

• Make sure your child eats dinner before heading out
• Children should have either cell phones or coins to use on a pay phone to call home
• Young children should be accompanied by an adult
• If your children go out on their own, make sure they wear a watch that they can see
• If they are wearing a costume, make sure it is flame-retardant and has reflective markings on it
• Older children must know when to be home and how to reach you
• Know where your older children are going
• Tell your children to bring all candy and treats received home before eating
• Any candy that is not wrapped or any that looks suspect, throw it out

For Homeowners:

• Make sure your yard is clear of obstacles and all pets are inside
• Pets get frightened on Halloween. Protect them
• Battery powered pumpkins are preferable to real flame
• If you do use real candles, make sure the pumpkin is well away from where trick-or-treaters will be walking or standing
• Healthy treats are a great alternative to candy. Items such as crackers, single serve packages of cereal, packaged fruit rolls and mini boxes of raisins are just a few examples.

Yet still the question remains; do curfews violate the Constitution of this country? Is personal safety an issue that the government, seemingly becoming more and more in control of, should have the right to have control of? Is it not a matter of individual choice how and to what degree we may or may not want to celebrate our holidays, including Halloween?

What is your stance on this issue? Irregardless, we want to hear from you! Simply click our comment tab to leave your thoughts, feelings or any other comments you may have and wish to share on this topic.

Safe Living,

Yovette Mumford

P.S.  The best way to have fun this Halloween is to be safe! Halloween costumes can really be scary if they don’t fit properly, so always make sure your childrens costumes are comfortable and properly sized. Make this Halloween the best ever by reviewing the great safety rules addressed on safteyissues.com, then go out and have a blast Trick or Treating! Happy Halloween!

Hi,

“I’m from the government and I’m here to help you!” Instead of reassuring us of the many ways our government is helping to keep us safe from internal and external threats, these words strike fear in the hearts and minds of most Americans who are experiencing and/or reading about just how woefully unprepared our government agencies are to aid us. Our government officials need to tell us specifically what is being done to protect us by providing concrete details we can see, touch, and feel instead of giving us the same regurgitated rhetoric and hyperbole. Our safety isn’t about winning votes or saving face – it’s about saving lives. A good place to start is in the area of information sharing. Perhaps a course in risk communications should become a necessary requirement for all politicians.

All heads of protective agencies should be able to tell us who is responsible for the various aspects of our safety and how the funding formulas are devised, implemented, and carried out. Too often our safety is handled – or mishandled – disproportionately based on whether it is a republican or democratic issue. As Americans we don’t care who gets the credit or the blame; we want to feel safe and be safe, and know that funding decisions are responsibly being made based on sound policy thinking, and not on whether it’s a red or a blue state, or whether the political leadership is willing to “play ball” on some other unrelated issue.

Our government tells us we need to be prepared for catastrophes or terrorist attacks, but doesn’t provide clear and easily understandable instruction in what can or should be done. Organizational charts and policies aren’t enough if we don’t know what they are or what is involved, or who is responsible for carrying out the instructions. In order to get safely to its destination, an airplane needs a crew to pilot the plane, but it also requires air traffic controllers to help route it, as well as others to perform vital jobs ensuring a safe flight. Failing to perform just one vital step can prove to be catastrophic. Right now we have an airplane hurtling through the air at 350 miles per hour with no pilot or crew.

Someone needs to step up and give us information we can use that is accessible by the average citizen. Communicating risks to the citizens isn’t being adequately done because there is no budget item that specifically addresses this issue. Giving local communities the proper tools to adequately protect their citizens is a start. Providing adequate funding for advertising and safety drills would be better. A best case scenario would be mandatory pullout sections in every telephone directory in America that has an easily usable guide to personal safety, complete with guidelines, instructions, organizational charts, and telephone numbers. What good does it do to have a list of telephone numbers to call after the fact? That’s sort of like implementing a multi-billion dollar fire prevention program and expecting the national death rate from fires to go down based exclusively upon the availability of a toll free telephone number one can call in the event of a fire.

As citizens we have every right to know what our government is doing to protect us. We don’t have to know every detail of sensitive national security information. But there does need to be an equitable balance that at least provides us with understandable disaster plans and organizational charts. If we don’t know who’s running the show, how are we to know with any degree of certainty that anyone is in charge? And if no one is in charge and we are fending for ourselves, what exactly are we spending all this money on, anyway?

Your comments are welcome!

Since life has no reset button….tune into this blog and to our website daily. Safe Living, Yovette Mumford