All Weather Whistle's Safety Blog

Yet Another Brand-Spanking New Episode of "Dr. Wright Breaks It Down for You!"

2012-01-31T14:23:00.000-08:00

I know, I know. I'm supposed to put out a new episode of "Dr. Wright Breaks It Down for You" WEEKLY, not once a month or so. But boy, I really had a hard time editing together the video to go along with this particular podcast (entitled "Help! I Have a Canker Sore!). I mean, I could really only look at videos of people with canker sores for, like, two seconds before I started feeling a little queasy.

I finally resorted to just animating a lot of the podcast (using, of course, my trusty animation program: Microsoft Paint 97).

So enjoy our newest episode, featuring, as always, Storm Whistle inventor Dr. Wright!

New Episode of "Dr. Wright Breaks It Down for You!"

2012-01-18T20:26:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year, everyone! And what better way to start off the New Year than a brand, spanking-new episode of "Dr. Wright Breaks It Down for You"?

This particular episode deals with fluoride, specifically how the chemical is used in toothpastes. Fluoride can do some very powerful, very helpful things to teeth, but you should always be careful when interacting with chemicals. Be sure not to swallow too much fluoridated toothpaste, and children under the age of two should not use fluoridated toothpaste unless recommended to do so by a dental professional.

But enough with the serious side of things. The above video podcast features a seal getting its teeth brushed! And it's adorable! Check it out!

Fireplace Safety!

2011-11-21T15:28:00.000-08:00

It’s starting to get colder and colder here in the Midwest, and we’re all looking at ways to get our homes even toastier. My husband and I just moved into a new apartment that features a FIREPLACE, and we’re pretty excited. Though between visions of chestnuts roasting over the aforementioned open fire, one question still nags at me.

How do I start a fire in my fireplace without burning down the house or getting carbon monoxide poisoning?

Good question.

I vaguely remember something called a “flue” being important, but googling “flue” gets you a list of sites from the Center of Disease Control. Hm.

I try googling "starting a fire in a fireplace.” There we go!

After reading several articles—WikiHow has a good one here—it’s clear that there are really two important words one needs to be familiar with when trying to safely start a fire in one’s own home:

Damper
Draft

The DAMPER is a sheet of metal, basically, that blocks the chimney, or FLUE (there’s that word!) when it’s not in use, therefore preventing cold air from flowing into the house. You will want to open this BEFORE you start, or else the smoke won’t be able to escape out the chimney.

Aside from the general unpleasantness of having a smoke-filled living room, you’ll want to open the damper before you start the fire beCAUSE the damper lever is located inside the chimney. A difficult place to reach if you have to maneuver past a small fire.

After you open the damper, make life easier for yourself and make sure the smoke is actually going upwards by lighting a match. If the smoke isn’t going upwards, then you’ve got to deal with the draft.

The dreaded draft. This is the tricky part, because sometimes, you can do everything right, you can open the damper and STILL, STILL the smoke will refuse to go up the chimney, preferring instead to float around your home.

This happens, according to WikiHow, because the upper part of the fireplace is too cold. You’ll have to warm it up, which is a bit of a trial.

WikiHow suggests that you use one of those “commercial wax logs” (a la Duraflame), which will be relatively smokeless—important as you’ll have to start this one out with the damper CLOSED.

You then

“Put the [lighted Duraflame or whatever] on the back of the fireplace shovel, light it and place it up inside the fireplace near the flue opening. What you are trying to do is to heat the upper part of the fireplace. When you have heated it (you will need to use trial and error to determine how long this process is) slowly open the damper and with luck and skill you will find that the heat and fire from your little block will force the air up the chimney. When the draft has fully reversed (you will hear the air sucking the fire and heat from the starter block), then you can light your fire.”

It stands to be repeated that you should NOT hold the lit Duraflame in your hand. This is an awful idea. Use a tool like the fireplace shovel or the fireplace tongs.

Tim Ferriss agrees with this, saying on his blog,

“One tip for a smoke free start is to light the end of a rolled up newspaper hold it up the chimney for 10 or 15 seconds before lighting the fire to get the airflow moving and avoid any back draft.”

Once you get the draft moving in the right direction, it’s a question of how to position the firewood inside the fireplace. If you don’t have any of those fancy Duraflame logs hanging around, or would just like to do it cowboy-style with real wood, then I’d look at Martha Stewart’s Step-by-Step Guide for Starting a Fire.

She gives an especially good tip on Step 5:

Don't overfeed the fire, which can smother the fire or cause it to blaze out of control.

Yes! Please don’t let your fire blaze out of control. Oh my goodness, that would be bad. It’s better to err on the side of less wood rather than more wood when adding fuel to your fire. It’s easy to add MORE wood, but not so easy to take wood AWAY.

Once your fire has burned down to ashes, Martha suggests that you leave them to cool for a day or so. Once they have cooled, she writes (in true Martha Stewart fashion) :

“Ashes can be deposited onto flowerbeds around the garden, since they benefit roses and other flowers."

Lovely!

I’ll let you all know how starting a fire works for me, though after reading through all of these how-tos cautioning against fires blazing out of control, I may be too scared to try it. Yet winter is no place for cowards! Onward!

Storm Whistle Featured on Fox 2 News St. Louis!

2011-11-11T08:51:00.000-08:00

There's been a lot of press over the last few days about Storm whistle inventor Dr. Howard Wright's newest product: Vortex Toothpaste. But it's rekindled interest in Dr. Wright's first invention: the Storm whistle!

The kind folks over at Fox 2 News St. Louis did a feature on Dr. Wright, and dedicated a whole segment to the Storm whistle. Check it out HERE!

Thanks Fox 2 News St. Louis!

Our Video Podcasts Have Been Viewed over One Thousand Times! YAAAAY!

2011-10-13T10:58:00.000-07:00

As some of you may know, Storm Whistle inventor Dr. Wright and I have been putting together science podcasts for the last few months, called "Dr. Wright Breaks It Down for You." They've been pretty much a blast to record them, though the viewcounts aren't nearly as high as, let's say, the Siberian Husky saying "I love you." Which is a little disheartening.

BUT, I logged onto Youtube the other day to check our lifetime viewcounts of the video podcasts, as we're at 1,015! That's quadruple digits! Not too shabby.

To everyone who's tuned in, thank you so, SO much for your support. We hope to make science easier for everyone to understand, one Microsoft Paint animation at a time.

Here's the newest one, if anyone's interested:

In this week's episode, Dr. Wright and I discuss how exactly all those glow-in-the-dark frisbees, yo-yos, and Glowstorm Whistles work. I jump to the conclusion that these items clearly must be emitting nuclear radiation, and have to be reminded about the Law of Conservation of Energy. Oops.

Finally, the Wheels Are Turning

2011-09-21T09:16:00.000-07:00

Dr. Howard Wright did a pretty good job inventing the Storm and Windstorm whistles, right? They've saved over a dozen lives, work underwater, and look darn stylish . Some of you might even be wondering, "Hey, did Dr. Wright ever invent anything else?"

Well, the answer is officially a resounding yes.

Dr. Wright's been working on Vortex Color-Changing Toothpaste for about ten years right now, and everyone over at All Weather Whistle is super-excited that the product is finally coming to market this November. Pre-ordering will start around mid-October, and the toothpaste tubes should start shipping to customers by mid-November (!!!!!!!!!!!!).

So exciting.

Press release below for those interested:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

RETIRED DENTIST INVENTS COLOR-CHANGING TOOTHPASTE

After a ten year struggle, retired dentist and inventor Dr. Howard Wright will successfully release his color-changing toothpaste this November

Dr. Howard Wright’s smile seems brighter these days—blame it on the toothpaste. After a ten year struggle, the retired dentist will finally see his color-changing toothpaste, called Vortex, hit the market this November. Vortex Toothpaste, designed to help children brush their teeth longer and more vigorously through changing color, has become “a labor of love,” says Dr. Wright. “Ten years is a long time to spend fighting for your product. But if you truly believe in your invention, the fight is exhilarating.”

With a background in chemistry and biology from the University of California, San Diego, and a doctorate in dentistry, Dr. Howard Wright knew exactly what he wanted in Vortex: a safe, palatable toothpaste with minimal chemicals. The color-changing phenomenon itself is refreshingly simple: Vortex is dispensed as twin streams of red and blue toothpaste onto the toothbrush and, as the child starts to brush, the colors are mixed into a vivid purple. “By brushing vigorously, kids delight in watching the toothpaste change color,” says Dr. Wright, “which is accomplished not through a chemical reaction, but by simple optics.”

Vortex Toothpaste also has an emphasis on natural ingredients, and contains no sodium-lauryl-sulfate or SLS, a common foaming agent. “When brushing with conventional toothpaste,” says Dr. Wright, “children find that the heavy foaming makes breathing through the mouth difficult, making the experience frightening. Remove the SLS, make it change color, and you have kids wanting to brush their teeth.” Likewise, Dr. Wright discovered a study by the University of Oslo determining that SLS was directly linked to the development of canker sores, making the elimination of that foaming agent a priority to him.

While the chemical side of Vortex came together swiftly, the toothpaste tubes themselves proved to be nearly impossible to manufacture. To prevent the colors prematurely mixing, the Vortex Toothpaste tube must have an interior barrier to separate the red and blue colors. “Every plastics manufacturer I spoke with told me it couldn’t be done—that no one had ever made a toothpaste tube like that before,” says Dr. Wright. “I had pretty much given up hope, and was ready to let my patent lapse when I decided to call one last manufacturer. And they had the perfect tube.”

This is not Dr. Wright’s first innovative invention. Twenty years ago, the retired dentist and scuba-diving enthusiast patented the Storm safety whistle, which can be heard up to fifty feet underwater and is the loudest whistle in the world. Over the years, Dr. Wright’s All Weather Safety Whistle Company has sold millions of Storm whistles in over thirty countries around the world. “The easiest way to deal with someone who says your idea is impossible,” says Dr. Wright, “is to deal with someone else.”

Vortex Color Changing Toothpaste retails for $6.95, and is proudly manufactured in Muskegon, Michigan. For purchasing information, please visit www.vortextoothpaste.com.

ABOUT: Invented by Dr. Howard Wright, DDS, Vortex Color-Changing Toothpaste is a brand-new, patented toothpaste intended to solve children’s poor brushing habits. Simple physics make the red and blue toothpaste combine together to form a vivid purple; by brushing vigorously, kids delight in watching the toothpaste change color. Kids also start to truly enjoy the brushing experience with Vortex Color-Changing Toothpaste, as Vortex contains no choking foaming agent. Recent field testing for Vortex has been overwhelmingly positive—kids love the color-changing element, and parents love the virtual absence of artificial ingredients. Vortex Color Changing Toothpaste is proudly manufactured and packaged in the USA, and has recently become FDA approved.

CONTACT:

Jessica Wright, Marketing Director

vortex ( at ) vortextoothpaste dot com

###

Why Aren’t There Any Seatbelts on School Buses, Again?

2011-09-14T12:57:00.000-07:00

I had honestly never really thought about this question, despite having ridden on the yellow behemoths countless times over the years. I rode a school bus every day to (and from!) kindergarten, and I can’t remember much about it. Except how much I liked bouncing on the springy seats.

I never thought about why there weren’t seatbelts on school buses while I was riding them—I always assumed that the school buses on which I had the pleasure of being a passenger were as old as dirt, and had just been grandfathered in to the seat belt law. But I never assumed that NEW school buses also didn’t have seatbelts, and I sure didn’t think that there were people who defended a lack of passenger restraints.

But this is, APPARENTLY, a pretty controversial topic.

The argument against seatbelts in buses is given mainly by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), and the school bus drivers themselves.

The NHTSA claims that:

“School age children transported in school buses are safer than children transported in motor vehicles of any other type. Large school buses provide protection because of their size and weight. Further, they must meet minimum Federal motor vehicle safety standards (FMVSSs) mandating compartmentalized seating, improved emergency exits, stronger roof structures and fuel systems, and better bus body joint strength.”

This all makes sense, but still doesn’t answer the question about why no seat belts. Do soldiers riding in tanks get to wear seatbelts? I feel like that's a legitimate question…

I found the perspective of several bus drivers in the comments section of a DotMom's blogpost, a cooperative parenting blog. Each one of the school bus drivers argued AGAINST having seatbelts, with one saying:

“[Imagine if] the bus [DID] have seat belts. A drunk driver cuts the way of the bus driver and in trying to avoid the impact the bus rollovers. The fuel tank is leaking and now we have 55 students trapped on the bus. There's a very high chance that the bus will catch fire. How do We take all those kids out of the bus? What if they went to a river or lake?”

From another bus driver:

"The school district I work for has harnesses for pre-school aged children. If an accident was to occur and we have to evacuate quickly, I would be in trouble! They have four clasps that attach behind the student and it takes a huge amount of precious time to undo them in an emergency. We are told to cut the straps with a razor knife if these situations occur. Although, it is illegal to have a knife on the bus, so where am I supposed to get one? How is a bus driver expected to get 72 children out of a bus safely in an accident"

(Wait, how many children are being crammed onto these buses? Is there really a discrepancy of TWENTY kids between the two bus drivers? Though I guess that’s not really the point…)

The solution, according to one of the bus drivers, is that the “…money should be spent to increase vigilance for drivers that do not respect[...] passing school buses.”

So the arguments against seat belts are that they may make rescue difficult in case of a fiery crash, and that school buses are so incredibly safe, that it would be silly to have them. And that the money that WOULD have been spent on seatbelts should go to other safety measures, such as educating the public that school buses, in fact, carry children. And that you should be really careful around them.

Hm.

The counterargument is given by the American Society of Pediatrics, the National Coalition for School Bus Safety , and, quite strangely, the very group that argues vehemently AGAINST seatbelts, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (again, NHTSA).

The argument that the NHTSA gives FOR having seatbelts in buses is contained in its“Guideline for the Safe Transportation of Pre-school Age Children in School Buses,” which recommends having a child safety restraints for use of any child “who weighs less than fifty pounds.”

This policy is, apparently, very secretive, as I've never heard anything about it. DotMoms pointed out this very fact in the aforementioned blog post, also wondering, “if a bus has no seat belts, what does one use to strap in the preschooler’s car seat?”

I would like to point out, however, that according to the Center of Disease Control’s Age/Body Weight chart, some girls won’t reach fifty pounds until they’re nine and a half years old, which is around the third or fourth grade. Not exactly pre-school.

All right. Obviously, something’s pretty screwy here. It’s almost as though the NHTSA is just trying to cover all of its legal bases, and doesn’t really care to think critically about the issue. I mean, I don’t even know where you would go about buying one of these “child safety restraint systems” designed specifically for school buses. The internet tells me I can buy it from this company , but they don’t even have prices on the website. Which means they’re probably pretty expensive.

For now? I suppose I’d recommend just holding your nose and riding the bus, unless your child is under fifty pounds. Then, per the NHTSA, I’d reconsider the school bus.

Need a Great Halloween Safety Product? Try the GLOWSTORM!

2011-09-06T14:43:00.000-07:00

There are some pretty horrifying statistics out there regarding the safety of trick-or-treaters on Halloween. Everyone here at All Weather Whistle recognizes this, and so are more than thrilled to introduce our newest product, aimed at keeping all the little ghosts, goblins, and ne-er-do-wells SAFE on Halloween: the Glowstorm!

Pretty cool, right? I've been carrying around a prototype of the Glowstorm for a few years now, and it makes finding your keys in the bottom of your purse incredibly easy. And I just always thought glow-in-the-dark things were totally neat-o.

The press release is below, if anyone's interested. You can buy it both through Amazon OR through our website!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

AMERICAN INVENTOR ILLUMINATES HALLOWEEN SAFETY

Dr. Howard Wright Launches a New Glow-in-the-Dark Whistle in time for Halloween

St. Louis, Missouri: To children, Halloween means dark and scary costumes, free candy, and the one night in the year when they’re encouraged to ring the doorbells of strangers. But to their parents, Halloween is a much scarier time. As the father of three children, inventor Dr. Howard Wright also knows the anxiety of Halloween, and has just released a brand-new product to alleviate those fears: a glow-in-the-dark safety whistle. “As a father, I remember the anxiety I felt watching my children scurry out of the house on Halloween night. I wanted something to help me both visibly and audibly help keep track of my children. That’s when the idea of the Glowstorm came to mind.”

Dr. Wright successfully took his patented, award-winning Windstorm whistle design and constructed it in high-impact, phosphorescent plastic, complete with a safety coil to secure the whistle conveniently to the child’s wrist. The glow-in-the-dark whistles are made from a phosphorescence plastic that is completely non-toxic and non-flammable, and are able to safely glow in the dark due to simple physics: energy in the form of visible light is absorbed by the phosphorescent material, and is then released very slowly.

The Glowstorm retains all of the qualities of the Windstorm, including easy-to-grasp ridges, a size small enough to easily fit in a child’s hand, and a maximum volume of 110 decibels. The Glowstorm can also be heard up to fifty feet underwater, just like every whistle manufactured by All Weather Safety Whistle Company.

While Halloween is an incredibly exciting time for a child, it can also be a dangerous one. With the Glowstorm whistle, your child will not only have a safety device at hand should he need to attract attention, but will also be more visible at night with a Glowstorm whistle hanging from their wrist. “Halloween should be an exciting and frightening time for children, but never for their parents. My Glowstorm whistle is the perfect Halloween safety device—children love carrying the Glowstorm, and parents love the peace of mind.

Glowstorm whistles can be purchased exclusively from the All Weather Whistle Company, either through their website (www.stormwhistles.com), or through a search on Amazon.com

ABOUT: The All Weather Safety Whistle Company was founded in 1988 by Dr. Howard Wright as the manufacturers of the Storm Whistle, the loudest whistle in the world. The smaller, Windstorm whistle is compact enough to be easily gripped, has a maximum volume of 110 decibels, and can be heard up to fifty feet underwater. They are manufactured from high-impact plastic at Koller-Craft Industries in St. Louis, Missouri, and packaged at Lafayette Industries, a local, non-profit affirmative industry. For more information, please visit www.stormwhistles.com.

Contact: Jessica Wright, Marketing Director

jwright (at) stormwhistles dot com

Senior Dog Safety

2011-08-19T14:22:00.000-07:00

This is a bit of a random post, but a Storm Whistle customer brought this article to my attention earlier today:

Has Your Senior Dog Started to Lose His Hearing?: Five Things to Do When Your Dog Starts Losing His Hearing

I never thought about how perilous the loss of this sense was to dogs. In the article, Ms. Miller discusses how older dogs should be carefully monitored, as interactions with busy streets, bicycles, and even other dogs can turn dangerous very quickly.

And (hooray!), Ms. Miller also mentions the Storm Whistle as a good tool for people wanting to communicate with their hard-of-hearing dogs.

Thanks, Whole Dog Journal!

And What About Zapping Food in Plastic?

2011-08-16T15:37:00.000-07:00

Just like storing leftover food in its tin can, I have always felt somewhat leery about microwaving food in plastic containers. I don’t know what combination of disapproving parental glances and vague newspaper headlines prompted this feeling, but I honestly hesitate before microwaving something in plastic. But, why? What’s with the hesitation? Am I subconsciously afraid it’ll give me cancer? Or just afraid it’ll make the food taste a little strange?

Let’s figure this out.

While doing my research on BPA last week, I saw this cautionary note:

Consumer Reports is advising those who are concerned that they might be able to reduce, though not necessarily eliminate, their dietary exposure to BPA by taking the following steps:
Choose fresh food whenever possible.

Consider alternatives to canned food, beverages, juices, and infant formula.

Use glass containers when heating food in microwave ovens.

In my last blogpost, I concluded that BPA from the liner is indeed able to leach into the food inside canned goods, given enough time. But is it possible for BPA to be quickly transferred into foods when heated?

Good Housekeeping disagrees. In their November 2008 issue, Good Housekeeping commissioned a study on this very question, publishing their results in the article “Is It Safe to Heat Foods in Plastic?” The scientists ultimately concluded that, despite the presence of BPA in some of the plastic products, “[n]o detectable BPA or phthalates migrated from the products into the simulants.”

So, while some plastic containers DO contain BPA, the heating process itself won’t transfer BPA to the food—but if the plastic container in question actually melts while in the microwave, thereby mixing IN WITH THE FOOD and contaminating it, then you’ve got another problem entirely.

The United States Department of Agriculture says:

Plastic storage containers such as margarine tubs, take-out containers, whipped topping bowls, and other one-time use containers should not be used in microwave ovens. These containers can warp or melt, possibly causing harmful chemicals to migrate into the food.

The USDA concludes, therefore, that if have a plastic container that doesn’t warp or melt, then it’s safe to use in the microwave.

I don’t know if I believe it, though. I mean, sure. Maybe BPA and phthalates aren’t getting into our food. But what if some strange, unknown chemical IS successfully leaching its way into the food—a chemical that we don’t yet have the technology to identify?

Not to get all paranoid on everyone. But for myself personally, I might try to stick with containers made from inert materials like glass.

Though I suppose one really can’t get too caught up in the thought that our modern technology is slowly but surely giving us cancer. It’s one thing if the evidence is there (a la our canned goods BPA conversation). But if the evidence honestly isn’t there, then that’s that. Sure, in fifty years we’ll probably find out that every time we microwaved plastic, we created an evil space-gremlin—but for now, unless the plastic is actually melting into our food, we’re probably fine.

Some BPA With Your Soup?

2011-08-03T13:47:00.000-07:00

I was researching lead poisoning for a potential blogpost topic earlier this week, and I came across this pamphlet from April 2009: Lead Prevention by the Illinois Department of Public Health’s Illinois Lead Program. It gave plenty of tips for preventing lead poisoning in children—many of them I’ve heard before. But there was one tip that gave me pause:

“Do not store food in open cans or pottery.”

What?

That’s it. I have to get down to the bottom of this. I’ve heard varying rumors both for and against storing food in metal cans. I know this isn’t the most pressing topic, but, come on. We’ve all wondered. We’ve all stood in front of the fridge, a half-full can of beans in hand, contemplating the risks.

The United States Department of Agriculture has the answer, and they settle the question about storing opened canned food in the fridge for once and for all:

After opening canned foods, is it safe to refrigerate the unused food in the can?
Yes. Unused portions of canned food may be refrigerated in the can, but to preserve optimum quality and flavor, place the unused portion in a glass or plastic storage container.

This “optimum quality and flavor” is addressed further down the page:

Then there's can corrosion. In all foods, but especially in high-acid foods like canned tomatoes, natural chemicals in the food continually react with the container. Over several years, this can cause taste and texture changes, and eventually lower the nutritional value of the food.

This explains the metallic taste that acidic foods (tomatoes, pineapple) will acquire after sitting in an open can.

A metallic taste is one thing, but lead poisoning is another entirely. So, DOES canned food carry a risk of lead poisoning? The USDA says no:

Do cans contain lead?
The canned food industry in the United States stopped using lead-soldered cans in 1991. In 1995, the Food and Drug Administration issued a final rule prohibiting the use of lead solder in all food cans, including imported products. Metal cans, which are made of sheet steel — sometimes with a coating of tin — are now welded closed at the seams. The inside of the can may also have an enamel or vinyl protective coating.

So, there’s that. No lead in canned goods. And as an added bonus, it appears that the canned goods corporations have solved the problem of metallic-tasting pineapples: this magical protective coating!

Yet this “magical protective coating” often contains something pretty terrifying. In late 2009, consumer watch-dog organization Consumer Report stated that over 92% of canned goods in the United States contained BPA.

Yeah. BPA. The chemical that “… mimics human hormones and has been classified as an endocrine disruptor," and “linked to reproductive abnormalities and a heightened risk of breast and prostate cancers, diabetes, and heart disease.”

China, Malaysia, Canada, and the European Union have all banned BPA from being used in baby bottles, and while the United States has taken no federal steps regarding BPA, multiple states and municipalities have outlawed it in infant products or food packaging as well. Inspired by the ban, many people are seeking out BPA-free baby bottles and water bottles, but are unaware of the prevalence of BPA in products such as canned food.

While some manufacturers are committed to removing BPA from their packaging, others have tried to downplay the dangers of BPA. The Coca-Cola Company, for example, tries to assuage the fears of consumers, saying in the Fox News article:

A person weighing 135 pounds (61 kg) would need to ingest more than 14,800 12-ounce cans of a beverage in one day to approach the FDA's acceptable daily limit for BPA consumption.

Wait. BPA is in Coke cans?

I think a lawyer telling me that it would take a thousand pounds of their secret, man-made chemical for me to feel the effects doesn’t make me feel any better. I’d prefer to not have any secret, man-made chemicals at all.

So, what to do?

A few months ago, scientists from the Breast Cancer Fund and the Silent Spring Institute performed a study on five families who regularly ingested canned food and other packaged products containing BPA. After abruptly switching each families’ diet to one of strictly fresh, organic food served in glass or stainless steel containers,

“...their BPA levels dropped on average by 60 percent. Reductions were even more pronounced-75 percent-for those with the highest exposures. When families returned to their regular diets, their BPA levels increased back to pre-intervention levels."

So the question isn’t really “is it safe to store open canned food in the refrigerator.” The question is “are canned foods safe." They seem pretty dicey to me. I guess the only solution to this is to try and eat only fresh, organic food. And if you can’t afford organic food (like me!), just be sure to wash off the pesticides before you eat 'em!

FAQ: Who Packages the Whistles?

2011-07-28T14:58:00.000-07:00

This doesn't actually have much to do with safety, but I thought I'd share it anyway...

Earlier today, I was forwarded an email from Lafayette Industries, the company that packages the Storm and Windstorm whistles. It has been almost twenty years and over three million whistles since we first started worked with Lafayette, so they sent over some thank-you cards. They are sincerely heartfelt, really quite touching, and answers the question that’s crossed everyone’s mind at one time or another: who packages the whistle?

Lafayette Industries is a local, non-for-profit “affirmative industry” that is dedicated to providing employment opportunities to those with disabilities. Founded in 1975, Lafayette began with only sixteen employees, and has since expanded to two locations, employing over three hundred and fifty people. Such “affirmative industries” are prevalent in Missouri, and currently employ 7500 people who would not normally be able to enjoy the workplace community. Lafayette Industries is dedicated to fostering this community, and hosts a variety of events through the year, including a Valentine’s Day Dance and a trip to see the Cardinals play at Busch Stadium.

Grants from the government typically only cover ten to twenty percent of the operating budget, so Lafayette Industries is left with the challenging task of generating high-quality products in order to retain their clients, while keeping the workload accessible to as many workers with disabilities as possible. By focusing on training “to increase employee’s skills, knowledge, and versatility,” Lafayette has maintained their high standards of quality, and have proved themselves to be a fiscally-responsible non-profit.

In her note accompanying the photographs, Ms. Van Berkel wrote that the All Weather Whistle Company has “provided countless hours of employment for our employees with disabilities.” Everyone here at All Weather Safety Whistle Company is proud to support non-profits in the St. Louis area, and we look forward to our next three million whistles being packaged by the lovely folks at Lafayette Industries.

Lives Saved by the Storm Whistle: Acacio Edition

2011-07-28T13:29:00.000-07:00

On the afternoon of December 19th 2006, Jose Paulino Acacio was scuba-diving with three friends near the Berlinga Grande island, off the coast of Portugal. Around four pm, the men had surfaced, and began to swim towards the Damoisa, their rented boat. A swift rip current suddenly overtook the divers, pulling them fiercely into the depths. One companion clung to a buoy, and the other managed to scramble aboard the Damoisa. Acacio was pulled under, and did not emerge.

The Damoisa picked its way around the island of Berlinga Grande, hollering for Acacio, to no avail. The Portuguese coast guard (ISN) was called, and Jacino Neves, captain of the nearest ISN vessel, hurried to the island. He and his crew circumnavigated the island for three hours, until low fuel forced them to turn back to the port of Peniche.

Around ten-thirty that night, Neves received a call from several biologists, who had been doing research on the island of Farilhão, about six miles away from Berlinga Grande. They had heard what sounded like a whistle coming from a grotto on the shoreline. His vessel refueled, Neves hurried to Farilhão Island, where he found Acacio lying in the cave. He was blowing the Storm whistle.

Acacio was quickly transported to the hospital, where he was treated for severe hypothermia and dehydration. Despite being lost for over seven hours, the diver made a full recovery, and credited his rescue to the Storm Whistle, which supplied him with a voice when he was too weak to yell.

Pretty amazing, right? And the story dovetails perfectly with our newest podcast on rip currents.

Be careful out there, everyone!

How Exactly DO You Protect Your Phone from Hackers?

2011-07-27T19:15:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, I honestly didn’t think it was possible for someone to hack into your voicemails. I mean, I carry my phone in my pocket everywhere I go—surely there isn’t some magical way that a crook (or a sleazy journalist—no offense, sleazy journalists) could break into my phone.

Well, there is a way. Apparently. So, IS there a way to keep your phone from being hacked?

Google-ing “how to prevent someone from hacking your phone” pulls up several thousand articles, so I’ve picked them over and pulled out the best pieces of advice:

If your password is still the default one, CHANGE IT.

I know, I know. You’re not a celebrity or a politician or a CEO, so why bother changing your password from whatever default one the phone company gave you? I’d bother. It takes but a second, and a quick Google search will give you step-by-step directions specific to your phone.

Some passwords are much more common than others. Crooks will try those first.

According to Business Insider, the top ten phone passwords are 1234, 0000, 2580, 1111, 5555, 5683 (spells "LOVE"), 0852, 2222, 1212, and 1998 (?).

I’d also add to this list your birthday, birth year, or address—that sounds a bit paranoid, but better to be safe than sorry. The rumor around town is that some phone companies won’t even let you program a code with only one numeral (1111, 2222, etc.), since they’re so common.

If you notice anything suspicious, change your passcode!

By "anything suspicious," I mean not receiving messages, messages deleting themselves, etc. If a friend just SWEARS they left you a message, but you don’t have any record of it, then someone might be messing around with your voicemails. Or your friend’s just making stuff up. One of the two.

And the last piece of advice I found was...

You can’t.

As John Fitzsimmons on lovemoney.com reports:

Alternatively, it is even thought the private investigators paid sources at CTI, the accounts company which held the accounts information for all the major phone companies except O2, to tell them the pins of celebrities. This is why victims like Sienna Miller - who reportedly changed her Pin hundreds of times - still got hacked.

I feel like this is increasingly becoming the answer to these safety questions. You can’t. The moral of the story is that you’re relying on a password to keep your voicemails safe. If, say, the phone companies are SELLING ACCESS TO YOUR PASSWORD, then you can change it as many times as you like, a la Sienna Miller, and be no better off.

Be careful out there, folks--the best way to keep your voicemails entirely secure is by prompting deleting any sensitive messages.

Keeping Your Dogs Safe in Summer

2011-07-11T12:05:00.000-07:00

Dr. Wright, Storm whistle inventor and high-school chemistry teacher, and I have been doing a video podcast for the last few months. We discuss various scientific phenomena and why they occur, and then I edit a silly video together, usually featuring an animation I made in Microsoft Paint.

Last week's episode seemed pretty relevant to this safety blog, so I thought I'd post it here:

Spread the word, everyone: don't shave your huskies!

Summer Festival Safety

2011-06-29T11:45:00.000-07:00

In the last ten years, music festivals stretching over a number of days have become more and more popular. The success of Bonnaroo in particular is quite notable; despite high gas prices and unseasonably warm weather, the four-day-long Tennessee festival attracted over eighty thousand patrons, almost all of whom elected to camp out directly on the festival grounds.

Photo copyright egw, http://www.jaunted.com/tag/Bonnaroo

Sounds pretty amazing, right? Who wouldn’t want to camp out with your favorite bands in the beautiful Tennessee wilderness (along with eighty thousand friends). The more the merrier, right?

Yet over the course of the festival’s ten-year run, four people have died while attending the festival. Two of those deaths occurred during Bonnaroo 2011.

I’m tempted to cite my “Dr. Wright Breaks It Down for You: Crowd Safety” podcast again, but we’re not talking about panicked festival goers. According to the L.A. Times, the man died of “hyperthermia,” or overheating.

So, what to do? It’s tricky, especially when bottled water is assuredly at festival prices (read: crazy expensive) and, due to the rural nature of Bonnaroo, there aren’t exactly drinking fountains every five feet. To discourage buying bottled water, the Bonnaroo management have set up around twenty-four “water fill-up stations"

Sean Higgans, who attended this year’s festival, wrote:

With temps in the 90s and humidity through the roof, staying cool and keeping hydrated was of the utmost importance. My battle for water was often a tough one, as fighting through a crowd of 100,000 [sic] to fill up a single water bottle is no easy task.

Yipes.

I went online to try to find some safety tips for summer festivals. The UK’s Ministry of Health had a pretty good collection of tips here (as well they should, seeing that their Glastonbury Festival, with a maximum capacity of almost a hundred and eighty THOUSAND, sold out this year). It’s definitely worth a read, but two points jumped out at me as really, really good ones:

Organize a meeting point with your friends where you will be three times a day (e.g. 2pm, 6pm and 1am) in case you get split up.

This is a pretty good tip—it’ll allow you to check up on your friends (and let them check up on you) to make sure everyone’s doing all right health-wise.

Remember, alcohol or drugs can affect your ability to make safe judgments.

This seems pretty obvious, but it’s a good one to keep in the back of your mind. Wouldn’t hurt to ask yourself this every so often. Especially keep in mind that alcohol actually dehydrates you .

It’s actually a testament to the Bonnaroo organizers that more people weren’t injured. With reports of over eighty-five THOUSAND people gathered in ninety-five degree heat in the middle of Tennessee, the festival could have easily spiraled out of control. But it didn’t.

Reflecting on his experience at Bonnaroo 2011, photographer Fil Manley wrote:

At Bonnaroo, everyone, regardless of their income, color, sexual orientation or religious beliefs has a home, and everyone walks around in the same white dust and uses the same blue and grey bathrooms. I think that’s beautiful and awesome, and this year, 85,000 people agreed with me.

I agree as well. These music festivals are, overall, consistently peaceful gatherings where people celebrate the health and well-being of the world.

Just don’t forget to look out for your own health and well-being , too. And that means keeping hydrated.

SUVs and ESC

2011-06-13T12:00:00.000-07:00

Last week, this report by the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety, or IIHS, became public. From their website:

IIHS was founded in 1959 by three major insurance associations representing 80 percent of the US auto insurance market. At first, IIHS's purpose was to support highway safety efforts by others. A decade later, IIHS was reinvented as an independent research organization.

The report covered any model of car between 2005 and 2008 that accrued at least 100,000 registered drivers. The results of the report were hopeful; virtually every car had a lower fatality rate than the corresponding 1999-2002 models. The most striking news from the report, however, was the dramatic drop in driver deaths of sports utility vehicles:

“In the past, the top-heavy vehicles frequently rolled over, giving many models some of the highest driver death rates. But drivers of today’s SUVs are among the least likely to die in a crash, the Institute’s latest calculations to driver death rates show. The change is due largely to the widespread availability of electronic stability control (ESC), which helps prevent rollovers. With the propensity to roll over reduced, SUVs are on balance safer than cars because their bigger size and weight provides greater protection in a crash.”

ESC? I’ve heard before that the US Government is requiring ESC on all new cars after 2012. But what is it?

Youtube, as always, came through with an informational video:

Wow! Magic!

But the question for me was never if SUVs are safe or not. Edmonds, the renowned automotive consumer website, recently posted an article by Anita Lienert, which summed it up concisely:

The death rate for SUV drivers dropped 66 percent, from 82 per million vehicles for 1999-2002 models to 28 per million for 2005-'08 models. But the death rate for drivers of small, four-door cars was 72 [per] million vehicles for 2005-'08 models, down 35 percent from 110 per million in 1999-2002 models.

Right now, small, four-doors cars have a fatality rate THREE TIMES that of SUVs. And even before the electronic stability control helped reduce the rollover problem in SUVs, small, four-door cars had 110 deaths per million vehicles, verses 82 per million for the SUVs.

Lienert goes on, saying:

The report is clearly aimed at federal regulators who are drafting new fuel-economy rules due out this fall that will force automakers to build and sell smaller, lighter vehicles. The report is also critical for consumers who are turning to smaller, more fuel-efficient cars in an era of high gas prices.

Lienert contends that this report, generated by the “insurance industry-funded group” is intended to make Congress think twice before regulating SUVs. But to me, the question was never about whether or not SUVs are safe—it’s pretty common knowledge that if a tiny car gets into a crash with an SUV, the tiny car will get crushed. And now, with the benefit of ESC, the sports utility vehicles seem pretty unstoppable.

So, yes. Driving is extremely dangerous—not a year ago, I got into a crash with my 1997 Toyota Camry, which broke both the bones in my right forearm and broke my right femur in four places. And the temptation would certainly seem for car manufacturers to keep piling layers of steel.

But to me, this information could just as easily support an argument for getting heavier cars off the road, as maybe the smaller cars that have the horrible luck of crashing with an SUV won’t be quite so decimated. And the amount of energy it takes to both produce and power these hulking machines makes me cautious. There must be a better way to improve safety without making every car into an armored vehicle?

I wish there was a way to build STRONGER cars without them being HEAVIER. It’s possible, right? Right????

Anthony Weiner and Internet Safety

2011-06-07T23:11:00.000-07:00

So, I was cruising around Huffington Post earlier today, and found this article discussing the Congressman Weiner scandal. In it, Jason Linkins writes,

“Here's the part I can't reconcile: when this story broke and Weiner began lying about it, he knew full well that this caused an unholy amount of upheaval in the life of… the women to whom the crotchshot image was sent, via Twitter, as well as numerous other women and girls whose only crime was that they followed him on Twitter… [T]he simple fact of the matter is that Weiner could have ended that instantly has he just come clean in the first place."

I hadn’t thought of it that way before.

This article (in typical Internet fashion) linked to a second, much more terrifying article by Tommy Christopher: Weinergate Zealotry on Right and Left Exposes Underage Girls to Risk.

Mr. Christopher writes that:

"Right-wing blogger Jim Hoft, also known as Gateway Pundit, posted a list of young, female, mutual follows with Rep. Anthony Weiner’s Twitter feed several days ago, ostensibly to express “concern” over the pattern, but his description of “Pages of Young Luscious Fans,” and his presentation of large photos of the girls, made it seem more like an exercise in exploitation. His inclusion of the young women’s Twitter links seemed more like an invitation to harassment. Whatever alleged “news value” this information had could have been preserved with a more responsible presentation, but sex sells, right?"

This makes me sick to my stomach—mainly because I have no idea how to prevent underage people from getting tangled up in such messes.

Upon googling “Keeping Kids Safe on the Internet,” the first hit gives me a .gov address: FBI—Parent Guide to Internet Safety. While this one doesn’t have a copyright date, it’s pretty clear that this site dates from around 1996-97:

Um, CompuServe? Good grief.

And here, finally, is the FBI’s checklist for parents wanting their children to be safe while browsing the Internet:

This is particularly sobering for anyone (everyone?) with a Facebook profile, for there are slots to plug in any amount of personal information short of your Social Security Number. And uploading photographs to a place where people you don’t know can view them? Isn’t that the purpose of uploading photos to Facebook?

That reminds me. I need to recheck my Facebook Privacy settings.

But what does all this have to do with Congressman Weiner?

So, he made a mistake, switched a few keystrokes, and ended up sending his crotchshot over his Twitter feed. The importance of this is that it demonstrates in a pretty chilling way just how little control we have over what our children are exposed to on the Internet. The girls who followed Congressman Weiner on Twitter did not intend to receive a photograph of a man’s crotch. But that’s what they saw in their Twitter feeds two weeks ago.

How, then, do we keep dirty pictures out of the reach of underage children when they KEEP CROPPING UP IN THE MOST UNEXPECTED PLACES?

The depressing truth is, you don’t. You can't. You can't control what a congressman posts on their Twitter, mistake or no. All you can do is keep reminding your children, your friends, your uncles, and your aunts to never, EVER post personal, identifying information in places that strangers can access. Because if you have this personal, identifying information floating about, and some crazy photo does cross your path, then you might become permanently and publicly entangled with the photograph, as were the young women whose only crime was following Congressman Weiner on Twitter.

Let's all go to Facebook and recheck our privacy settings. Everybody!

I Want To Help Joplin—But How?

2011-06-02T15:12:00.000-07:00

One of my friends works at the Humane Society of Missouri, a group “[c]ommitted to the prevention of cruelty, abuse and neglect of animals through its adoption centers, veterinary medical centers, and rehabilitation centers.” After the tornado hit the town of Joplin, Missouri a few weeks ago, volunteers from all over the country have been swarming Joplin. I thought this was nothing but a good thing, until I looked at my Facebook newsfeed and saw this message from my friend:

Tuesday’s edition of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch has a similar sentiment:

“The Joplin area is now overwhelmed with spontaneous supply donations and volunteers. Therefore, everyone who wants to volunteer or contribute supplies for people or pets is advised to dial the United Way's 2-1-1 line or visit www.211missouri.org. This resource has information on current volunteer and supply needs for the Joplin area. People are advised not to travel to the area unless they have received official authorization” (full article here).

When a crisis like this happens, everyone feels pretty helpless. A good way to assuage these feelings is to be helpFUL, and what better way to be helpful than to take a roadtrip down to Joplin? Right? RIGHT?

Emergencies like these just underscore how important communication really is. Joplin might need help—it might need bulldozers to clear debris, and medical doctors or therapists to treat the injured. But does Joplin really needs my flabby arms and weak legs? How much debris can I haul before getting tired? Pretty soon, I’d be collapsed, exhausted, and drinking water intended for those actually in need. If you want to help, donate money to support those with the appropriate skills. It would certainly be a smarter use of everyone’s time and resources if I just sent money to the Humane Society, verses just show up. Then someone would have to waste time training me to do tasks that she could do in half the time.

Perhaps in a few months, when most of the volunteers have left, I’ll think differently about the whole mess. But for now, I say, “Send money or supplies!” This won’t make you feel as good as actually, physically going down there. But it will do so much more for the people of Joplin.

Everyone Needs To Read This Article Right Now

2011-05-30T19:20:00.001-07:00

I was going to write a blogpost today about the Joplin tornadoes BUT when scrolling through my Facebook newsfeed, I came upon this article:

Drowning Doesn't Look Like Drowning

I had absolutely no idea. According to Mario Vittone, Marine Safety Specialist with the United States Coast Guard Sector:

Sometimes the most common indication that someone is drowning is that they don’t look like they’re drowning. They may just look like they are treading water and looking up at the deck. One way to be sure? Ask them, “Are you alright?” If they can answer at all – they probably are. If they return a blank stare, you may have less than 30 seconds to get to them. And parents – children playing in the water make noise. When they get quiet, you get to them and find out why.

The article goes on to list the specific symptoms of someone drowning. This is pretty much required reading for anyone involved in water sports or aquatics.

It reminds me of what to do when someone's choking--they always say that if a person is able to say, "Hey! I'm choking!" then they're fine. It's only when someone is unable to speak that you've got a medical emergency on your hands.

But really, people. It's easy! When in doubt, just yell out, "Are you okay?" If the person says yes, then you'll just look like a particularly caring bystander. If they cannot respond, then you've got to get a trained professional in the water to rescue them immediately.

Wasp Spray and the Panic Button on your Car Keys

2011-05-24T12:17:00.000-07:00

My mother forwarded me an email the other day with some safety tips. Usually these are full of pretty unhelpful ideas along the lines of "Use your keys to stab out your attacker's eyes!" "If someone is shooting at you, run in zig-zags! A moving target is harder to hit!" I take special umbrage with the "use your keys" scenario, because in my (very limited, admittedly) experience of trying to get away from an aggressive, drunk male, it didn't work so well. Because men are stronger than women.

This is a tough pill to swallow, admittedly. But it's true. We'll deal with that in a separate post.

But I strongly believe that the danger most women today will encounter does not involve knowing how to kick the taillights out from inside of a trunk (where you have been placed in order to kidnap you), or knowing how to outmaneuver bullets from a gun. It will come from being assaulted, perhaps by someone you know and trust. Another tough pill to swallow, another truth, and another thing to deal with in a separate post.

BUT BACK TO THE EMAIL from my mom. It had two pretty awesome tips:

1) Keep a can of wasp spray around, specifically around your workspace (if you have to do things like count money and are worried about being robbed but really don't want to buy a gun because the thought of shooting another person in the face isn't that appealing to you). Also put one in your home. When someone tries to rob you or attack you, spray it in their eyeballs. Most of these babies have a twenty-foot reach, so you won't have to get too close to the person.

This has the added benefit of not being too conspicuous--you might get some weird looks and asinine comments from your coworkers about a can of pepper spray or a crowbar, but wasp spray is pretty harmless looking. ALSO you can use it to kill wasps. Which is handy.

2) IF you have one of those fancy cars with a panic button on the car keys, keep your car keys by your bed! If you wake up one night and hear strange noises, reach over and hit the panic button. Your car (which I'm assuming is in your driveway and not parked down the street, like mine always seem to be) will go off like the Fourth of July, and should attract enough attention to scare the burglar away.

I would definitely test this option first before relying on it... I know the throw of those little remotes is pretty powerful, but you never know.

There were a few other tips in the email that I think we all have heard before (don't let newspapers accumulate in your driveway, don't announce your vacation on your Facebook page [BUT BETTER YET, SET ALL YOUR SETTINGS TO PRIVATE], etc), but I thought the wasp spray tip was especially effective. Though if you have wee ones, be mindful of leaving it around. Though if I had to choose between my child getting hit in the face with some wasp spray from the canister she was playing with, or getting hit in the face with a bullet from the gun she was playing with...

Let's just say I think I know which I would chose to have in my home.

Use of Twitter to Alert University Students

2011-05-18T21:22:00.000-07:00

Around nine a.m. on May 12th, the followers of the Missouri University of Science and Technology twitter feed received this:

I cannot even imagine what it must have been like to receive that message. No one was hurt in the incident, as detailed in a press release that Missouri S & T sent out later that day:

But what if you never bothered to "follow" the university's twitter feed? I can understand why a student wouldn't be interested in the information that @MissouriSandT was sharing--the feed had been clogged for the last few days with accolades from family members congratulating their sons and daughters on their graduation. This is no fault of the university--Missouri S & T doesn't have a twitter feed dedicated to safety alerts. Though they do have one for their sports teams.

I would urge universities across the country to establish twitter feeds EXCLUSIVELY for safety alerts, and to urge their students to sign up for them (as Florida State does [http://twitter.com/fsualert]). University students today are so swamped with information that they may be reluctant to add many more to their plate. We must make sure that the most important pieces of information don't get swept away.

Dr. Wright's Crowd Safety Tips

2011-05-13T10:06:00.001-07:00

As some of you may know, Storm whistle inventor Dr. Wright and I have a podcast, where we discuss the reasons behind the various phenomena in our daily lives. They're sometimes a bit silly (I get a little carried away with my Microsoft Paint animations...), but we really work hard to research each topic carefully, and to get accurate information out there.

A few weeks ago, we did a video podcast on crowd safety:

This was a pretty chilling podcast for me--through our conversation, I realized that I really had no idea how to act during a dangerous crowd situation. The jist of the podcast is this: if you're in an open area (i.e. a field, a street) in a fast-moving crowd, stay away from the middle. But if you're in an enclosed area in a slow-moving crowd, stay away from the walls--you almost WANT to be in the middle during these circumstances, as you have a better chance of surviving by being crushed against a human body than by being crushed against a unyielding brick wall.

Ugh. This is pretty awful to think about, especially because we were still unresolved as to how to survive a fast-moving crowd in an enclosed area. Pop suggested blowing a Storm whistle to let the people around you know that you were being crushed, which isn't a bad idea...

Ughhhh. It gives me the jeebies just thinking about it.

Welcome!

2011-05-04T13:57:00.000-07:00

Hello, and welcome to All Weather Safety Whistle Company's new blog!

We'll be mainly using this blog to post information on safety tips and topics, and to show you sneak peeks of any upcoming products we may be cooking up.

And perhaps links with pictures of adorable pictures of kids using our whistle, such as this one. Thanks for the great review, Alaskan Mom Approved!