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?

 

 

Now that the Cool Sporting Event That Takes Place in British Columbia Between 2009 & 2011 is finished, everyone seems to be talking about the legacy of the games. Money, of course, is at the heart of it. The chatter isn’t all about debt and future funding for sports in Canada. There’s an interesting discourse happening about what the Olympics did for transit in the city.

To many people’s surprise, transit during the past few weeks ran fairly smoothly.

The result of restrictions to roads meant far more people taking public transit. Not only did people leave their cars at home to jump on the bus or trains, they got on bikes and walked a lot more.

The games were such an eye opener for alternatives to the car that city hall is talking about closing the Georgia and Dunsmuir viaducts.

So if we are heading to a future where more people are commuting on foot, bike, and other non-car-based transit, what does this mean for safety in our fair province?

Do more bicycles on the road mean that cyclists and drivers will be forced to share the road, and will this potentially mean more collisions?

And with more pedestrians possibly jamming up our sidewalks and streets, will this mean more or less pedestrian injury and fatalities?
 

What do you think we need to welcome and what to be wary of transit wise when it comes to safety post Olympics?

 

 

Have you ever climbed a mountain before? I haven’t. But I have gone to one of those indoor climbing walls. The way that knobby, craggy surface made my entire body feel has kept me from returning to the sport for, oh, about four years now. I’ve thought about throwing myself onto a real rock face before, but the physical toll and tragic news like this one on Mount St. Helen’s push rock climbing further down on my bucket list. 

This unfortunate news item reminded me of another climber who died unexpectedly in December. Guy Lacelle was famous in the mountain climbing world. The Northern BC resident didn’t just climb mountains, he climbed mountains covered with ice, and he climbed them well. But it only takes one wrong move, your own or an another's, to end a life instantly in this high-stakes sport. 

There’s no denying that people who partake in this extreme sport know the dangers. There's plenty of safety precautions to consider before you take up a sport that could transports you hundreds of feet above the ground. 

I’m interested in knowing when a sport is too dangerous for you to risk injury. Are you like me whose ambition starts and ends at the climbing wall? Or do you push your limits and take on more risks to challenge yourself?