November 18, 2019
Keeping Your Family Safe
By Michael D. Shaw
As we approach the holidays, our thoughts naturally turn to those close to us. At the same time, with the end of the year at hand, we take stock in what is truly important. In its entry on the topic, Encyclopedia Britannica defines “safety” as “[T]hose activities that seek either to minimize or to eliminate hazardous conditions that can cause bodily injury.”
Most progress in safety derives from the steps taken in response to the demands of organized labor during the industrial revolution, although some sources trace it back to the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381. The notion of personal safety came later, and was jump-started by the interest in accident prevention, especially as it related to motor vehicle safety. The post-World War II generation was fed a steady diet of sometimes scary productions urging safe driving—not to mention the contemporary ones.
These days, safety advice—relating to all aspects of modern life—is available from many sources. Here is list of tips, culled from a variety of organizations…
1. Use seatbelts and car seats. Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for people ages 1 to 33.
2. Use appropriate helmets for all sports activities and bike riding. Bicycle helmets reduce risk of serious head injury by nearly 70%.
3. Prevent falls. More than 50 percent of all falls occur in the home. Nearly 30,000 people over 65 die from falls in the US each year. Children are also prone to falls, and commonsense safety measures can be put into place for both groups. (Tips for seniors.)
4. Watch out for poisoning risks. In 2011, poisonings overtook motor vehicle crashes for the first time as the leading cause of unintentional-injury-related death for all ages combined. This is driven by prescription drug overdoses. Here’s more from the National Safety Council.
5. Be cognizant of drowning hazards. The statistics are pretty frightening. Drowning is responsible for more deaths among children aged 1-4 than any other cause except congenital anomalies (birth defects).
6. Eliminate choking hazards.
7. Always be fire safe. Smoke detectors and carefully-placed extinguishers are a must. Practice an escape plan with your family, and this would include an outdoor meeting place.
8. Protect your family against cybercrime. Never assume that a new correspondent on social media is who he claims to be until verified, and take special care with your passwords. The era of remembering passwords has long passed. In fact, passwords—except for your master password to a password management program—should purposely be complicated and impossible to remember. Ideally, that master password should be long and weird, but be a phrase or abbreviation meaningful only to you.
And then there’s the matter of keeping in touch in an emergency situation, or even in recreational environments. We’re talking about GPS trackers. GPS tracking is the surveillance of location through use of the Global Positioning System (GPS ) to track the location of an entity or object remotely. The technology can pinpoint longitude, latitude, ground speed, and course direction of the target.
In the context of this article, the trackers allow you to pinpoint the location of family members. Radacat’s GPS Messenger 2 is the text-and-find, off-grid resource that does not require cellular service or Wi-Fi. The new product features…
- 6-mile range
- 100% private network
- Real-time location
- Off-grid texting
- No monthly fees
- No reliance on service providers
Sean Zhou, founder and CEO of Radacat told me: “Radacat GPS Messenger 2 is an essential part of any outdoor, home safety, or disaster preparedness kit. In a crisis, when communications networks may be down and cell phones not working, the ability to stay in touch—the freedom to text and find loved ones—is a lifesaver. Radacat GPS Messenger 2 is the private and secure resource for not only staying in touch, but keeping families intact during an emergency.”