I’ve been obsessing over buying a TV set. I missed buying one for cheap last Boxing Day, so now I annoy my better half by announcing the latest deals I find every day on various internet sites and newspaper flyers. Whilst leafing through the TV issue of the very informative Consumer Reports magazine (March 2009), I came across an interesting survey they did on Americans’ risky behaviour.

Amongst percentages of Americans that don’t tighten their seatbelts (24%) and eat raw cookie dough (39%--I don’t believe it’s this low for a second!), two other stats made me think about my own level of safety awareness:

21% of Americans surveyed change the batteries in smoke alarm regularly.

18% of Americans change the lint trap in their dryer after each use.

These numbers are significant in terms of fire safety. Just the other day my smoke detector went off in the middle of the night, signaling a possible fire in our building. It turned out to be a false alarm, but I was glad it worked anyway. What if I only had a regular fire alarm with batteries? If it didn’t beep when it was time to change the batteries (as the directions say it will), I’m sure I’d leave my AA’s in there long enough to corrode.

I only know about the importance of cleaning the lint trap because the salesman who sold me my current clothes dryer told me he’s dealt with more than a few dryer fires over the years. The dryer vent gets clogged with flammable lint, the heat gets more intense because it can’t ventilate, and boom! You’ve got yourself a fire in your dryer. If you infer that Canadian statistics are similar to U.S. ones, that means that 88% of people out there with dryers might be at risk of starting a fire in their homes.

When was the last time you cleaned out the lint trap in your dryer or checked and replaced the batteries in your fire detector?

Tags: Preventable Injuries, Fire Alarms, Batteries, Dryer Fires, Consumers Report, At Home, Fire

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