A good video about the latest technology and measure to prevent accidents

Unintended side effects: Burgular safety vs. fire safety

Making your house safe from burglars/intruders means making it harder for unauthorized people to enter your house. However if your burglar protection is too good, this can create a hazard when you need to escape from your house.

Metal bars in front of the windows and reinforced doors with multiple locks can be a good way to keep people out, but they also keep out firefighters or other rescue units. Although rotary saws, chainsaws and halligan tools can clear most burglar protection, it takes time. Can you exit you house during a fire when you have placed bars in front of your windows? Can you exit the front door when you have locked them and you keys are on a table somewhere else?

Some houses even have concealed rooms or very unexpected layouts due to all kinds of modifications of the building. If your house has collapsed and you are in a well hidden safe room, can others find you and get you out? Can firefighters find you during a fire when you are in a hidden space?

Great examples seen from a firefighter perspective can be found on: http://www.vententersearch.com/?cat=29

When looking at safety, it's important to look at it in different angles. If one safety measure decreases your safety on a kind of safety, you might need to take measures to compensate this.

Secure your load in the car

The end of the summer is approaching. With all the vacation traffic in the highways. You can see how people have packed there cars for vacation. With European cars and gasoline being expensive, people buy small cars. However on holidays they still want to pack a lot of things in there cars. If this is not done properly, they can turn in to dangerous projectiles.

The ADAC (German) has done some interesting tests with badly loaded cars. Even if you can't understand German, the video's are quite clear:

And two more links (I can't seem to add windowed on the page):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WA0JnHMVNQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ip497C6UZhk

HTFU: Inconvenience is good

During an emergency having efficient and convenient methods of doing things can be a lifesaver. Having to do things means using up a lot of energy (food) and time, making your tired and more venerable for disease.

However in normal life it’s quite the opposite. Most richer counties have a lot of health problems due to the convenience in normal life. Just have a look at the dead causes in rich countries. Taking the elevator, taking the car, robot vacuums, drive-in fast food, etc. Too much convenience makes us weak and fat. So sometimes you just have to suck it up and deal with inconvenience. Do some physical things in life to have a healthier life in the long run and make you stronger for when it is needed. 

Dogfooding: Don't just think of safety/security measures

Ever had have safety and/or security measure not working properly, being a source of irritation or even counter productive?

Thinking and making new safety and/or security measure can be easy, but making it work in practice with actual people not. There is a fundamental difference between what works on paper and what actually works. Safety and security measures generally have a influence on the job. The tighter the security/safety, the more it will interfere with your job. To an extend this is not a big problem. If you are working with dangerous goods of sensitive information, this will generally be accepted and it won't be a big problem. However if you over do it, it will become a problem. If employees think it's grossly overdone, rules might be crossed.

To check this, you might use a trick what programmers in the software uses: dogfooding. Getting to work with your own procedure day in, day out. Getting annoyed? Using loopholes? Bypassing it all together? Time to fix the problems which causes these behavior! You are not working with machines, but with people and by testing your own procedures this way, you might find out what works and what does not.

Quality matters: Batteries

Batteries are often overlooked pieces of equipment. A lot of people just buy the cheapest they can find, which might not be the best choice. Your electronics won't work properly if the batteries are not working properly. So it pays to have proper batteries, especially in emergency equipment. Even in not essential equipment, having leaky batteries damage your equipment is no fun either.

Alkaline batteries are cheap and common and used in many devices. My opinion about them; I hate alkaline batteries. They leak and you end up having to pry out the battery and clean the acid off your devices. Sometimes they totally ruin your equipment. I have tried multiple brands, brand names and generic ones. They all leak. They have a place in cheap (disposable) non-essential electronics, but in most cases I prefer high quality equipment. I might use alkaline when I get the with the device I bought, not after emptying them i switch to NiMH's.

For emergency equipment lithium batteries are great. Less sensitive to cold, more capacity, longer storage life, no acid to leak and weight less. Ideal for equipment you rarely use, but should be ready to use immediately. Storing batteries separately and inserting them when needed  is simply not an option with emergency equipment. They are however a bit expensive, but when you need your devices to work, they are great. Make sure your devices can handle the slightly higher current from these batteries before relying on them.

Note: If your equipment is HAZLOC or ATEX certified (and you will be using it in such conditions), check if this certification is valid when using a certain battery type.

For equipment which are used regularly I primary use Sanyo Eneloops. I have been using them since 2008-2009, without any problems. They were the first that low self discharge (LSD)  batteries that where available. LSD means they don’t discharge by them self’s when they are not in use. Allowing charged batteries stored and ready to use for extended periods. They don't leak as alkaline, are cheaper in the long run and have a higher discharge rate (you can use more powerful devices with them).

Note: I have noticed fake LSD batteries, which turn out to be low capacity regular NiMH batteries. So I recommend to buy you batteries from a proper vendor, instead of oversea's from the internet. 

Unintended side effects: flame retardent

Safety measure can be complicated and can be linked to other safety issue. After having deaths due to house fire, some countries and states require flammable furniture to be treated with flame retardant. Implementing these measures means a lot of expenses on testing, implementing and enforcing these rules.  What do we know years later; hardly any real effect of house fires, but we are getting toxins in our house and bodies.  An interesting article from the NY times last year:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/09/magazine/arlene-blums-crusade-against-household-toxins.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

We need to be aware what kind of measure we are taking to protect our selves and what the possible side effects are. A lot of times a very obvious solution of a problem, does have unintended side effects. This does not only apply to flame retardant, but many other 'solutions' as well.

Light my fire Firesteel; long time review

Being able to light a fire is very important. Fire obviously has many uses as boiling water, cooking food, heating, signaling, as a tool, etc. A lighter or match are the easiest solutions. However they are not always reliable when wet, cold or stored for a longer period of time.  A ferrosium rod is a very reliable means of starting a fire.

When I started with survival and bushcraft, the now common light my fire firesteel was not available yet. The only one that was available was the BCB ranger flint. A small ferrosium rod mounted on a steel support with a hacksaw as striker. The one pictured on the left is the old model (somehow I found a unused one in the junk draw) and in the middle the ‘new’ model (about a decade old now). These BCB ranger flints where quite hard, but the hacksaw allows you to throw big sparks. The size does make it a little fiddly to use.

So when the much bigger Firesteel came out, I had to try them. I still have and use the first version of the army model firesteel. Not worn down in over a decade. The handle did get loose and was glued back. The striker has started to rust, but still working fine. I know some people have had issues with corrosion on the rods, leaving a crumbling white power behind. Mine only ever got small spots of thin white-ish corrosion which was scrapped off after striking a few times. I do keep my equipment dry and I put a thin coat of oil on the rod, when I maintain my other tools.

So after years and years of use, it’s still a good tool. Only real complain was the handle coming loose. I have tried a cheap brandless one, but noticed these rods are harder. Harder material means they are more durable, but throw less sparks. Though my firesteel is pretty old and used, I haven’t seen durability issues yet. I’m however very careful with tinder preparation, so I unusually only have to strike once. I have to say that I now use the old BCB ranger flints more often than my firesteel. I like the smaller size, which is not only useful to save size and weight, but also allows you to get slightly closer to your tinder and the hacksaw striker is more accurate in throwing the sparks. The Firesteel is easier to handle though.