A Safe Halloween is a Happy Halloween

Did you know that there are approximately 3,500 Halloween related injuries reported annually between October and November? Incidents involve burns from jack-o’-lanterns, lacerations from pumpkin-carving, falls related to ill-fitting costumes, and injuries from collisions due to impaired vision.

The following are some ideas for consideration to eliminate hazards:

Decorations:

Outside your home, use flameless candles or keep burning candles and jack-o’-lanterns away from landings and doorsteps or anywhere trick-or-treaters’ costumes could brush against the flame.
Remove obstacles from lawns, steps, and porches for trick-or-treaters.
When indoors, keep candles and jack-o’-lanterns away from curtains, decorations, and items that could ignite.

Costumes:

When purchasing costumes, masks, beards, and wigs, look for flame-resistant fabrics, such as nylon or polyester; look for a “Flame Resistant” label. Flame-resistant fabrics will resist burning and extinguish quickly.
Purchase costumes that are brightly colored and clearly visible to motorists.
For greater visibility, decorate or trim costumes and treat bags with reflective tape that will glow in the beam of a car’s headlights.
Children should carry flashlights to be able to see and be seen.
To guard against trips and falls, costumes should not drag on the ground.
Tie hats and scarves securely to prevent them from slipping over children’s eyes and obstructing vision.
If your child wears a mask, make sure it fits securely, provides adequate ventilation, and has holes large enough to allow full vision.

Be wise, follow these tips to eliminate hazards and enjoy a safe and happy Halloween.

What Dangers Are You Facing

Imagine you’re out on the green for a round of golf the last nice day of fall. You’re on hole nine, a 400 yard fairway and there is a sand trap at the end of the hole. A sand trap isn’t what you want to see on this nice day but thankfully for you, the sand trap holds no danger to you while on the tee.

The sand trap is a hazard. A “hazard” is an unsafe physical condition that can result in serious injury, death, and/or property destruction. “Risk” is the probability of an undesired risk occurring. Danger is the unacceptable combination of hazard and risk. Even though the sand trap is a hazard, the sand trap is 400 yards away so the risk of your golf ball coming into contact with the hazard while on the tee is very small. Accordingly, there is no danger for your golf game.

However, after you hit the ball from the tee, and the ball gets closer to the sand trap, the risk of the golf ball coming in contact with the hazard increases. As the risk increases, the danger is becoming greater for you the golfer.

As you come very close to the sand trap, the risk increases greatly; accordingly, your danger increases.

The same principles apply for designing safe products and procedures. It is best to eliminate hazards to the extent reasonably possible. When doing so, it eliminates the risk of serious injury and/or death. Accordingly, it eliminates danger.

Safety is a science that analyzes hazards, risks, dangers, and safety engineering alternatives. Hazard and risk analyses are critical and necessary components to determine if products and systems are safe.

As consumers, we assume that designers of products and systems understand these principles. Unfortunately, more times than not, these principles are not followed to prevent serious injury and/or death.

Stay with us as we explore the dangers being overlooked in products and systems. You may be surprised by what you learn.

What is Safety

Safety As consumers, do we understand what is safety? Senseless safety slogans such as “be careful,” “drive safely,” or “safety is common sense” have become the safety philosophy of the United States.

Why are the slogans senseless? Because safety is a sophisticated science that analyzes hazards (unsafe physical conditions that can cause injury), risk (probability of an undesired result occurring), and safety alternatives to prevent hazards; thus, eliminating or minimizing the risk of serious injury and/or death.

As defined by Military Standard 882 safety is “Freedom from those conditions that can cause death to personnel, damage to or loss of equipment or property.”

Consider what 99.9 percent safety in the United States would mean:

1 hour of unsafe drinking water per day
12 babies given to the wrong parents each day
2 unsafe landings at O’Hare Airport per day
291 incorrect pacemaker operations per year
20,000 incorrect drug prescriptions per year
107 incorrect medical procedures performed daily
268,500 defective tires shipped per year
500 incorrect surgical operations performed each week
19,000 newborn babies dropped at birth by doctors each year

Though only 0.1 percent, seeing the numbers may make you think twice about accepting 99.9 percent safety.

The purpose of this blog is to educate and inform consumers such as yourself about hazards, risks, and safety engineering alternatives that exist and may help eliminate more unsafe instances. Keep connected for topics that may affect or be of interest to you.