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Drownings: The Reality | 06/01/2011

Flooding, Our Most Frequent Natural Disaster | 04/08/2011

Flooding is the nation’s most common natural disaster. Flooding can happen in every U.S. state and territory. However, all floods are not alike. Some can develop slowly during an extended period of rain, or in a warming trend following a heavy snow. Others, such as flash floods, can occur quickly, even without any visible signs of rain. It’s important to be prepared for flooding no matter where you live, but particularly if you are in a low-lying area, near water or downstream from a dam. Even a very small stream or dry creek bed can overflow and create flooding.

Step 1: Get a Kit

Get an Emergency Supply Kit, which includes items like non-perishable food, water, a battery-powered or hand-crank radio, extra flashlights and batteries. You may want to prepare a portable kit and keep it in your car. This kit should include:

Copies of prescription medications and medical supplies;

Bedding and clothing, including sleeping bags and pillows;

Bottled water, a battery-operated radio and extra batteries, a first aid kit, a flashlight;

Copies of important documents: driver’s license, Social Security card, proof of residence, insurance policies, wills, deeds, birth and marriage certificates, tax records, etc.

Step 2: Make a Plan

Prepare your family

Make a Family Emergency Plan. Your family may not be together when disaster strikes, so it is important to know how you will contact one another, how you will get back together and what you will do in case of an emergency.

Plan places where your family will meet, both within and outside of your immediate neighborhood.

It may be easier to make a long-distance phone call than to call across town, so an out-of-town contact may be in a better position to communicate among separated family members.

You may also want to inquire about emergency plans at places where your family spends time: work, daycare and school. If no plans exist, consider volunteering to help create one.

Be sure to consider the specific needs of your family members

Notify caregivers and babysitters about your plan.

Make plans for your pets

Take a Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) class from your local Citizen Corps chapter. Keep your training current.

Purchase a flood insurance policy if you do not already have one or review your current insurance policy to ensure your home and contents are adequately covered. Visit FloodSmart.gov to learn more about individual flood risk, explore coverage options and to find an agent in your area.

Step 3: Be Informed

Familiarize yourself with these terms to help identify a flood hazard

Flood Watch: Flooding is possible. Tune in to NOAA Weather Radio, commercial radio, or television for information

Flash Flood Watch: Flash flooding is possible. Be prepared to move to higher ground; listen to NOAA Weather Radio, commercial radio, or television for information.

Flood Warning: Flooding is occurring or will occur soon; if advised to evacuate, do so immediately.

Flash Flood Warning: A flash flood is occurring; seek higher ground on foot immediately.

Understand Some of the Most Frequent Causes of Flooding:

Tropical Storms and Hurricanes: Hurricanes pack a triple punch: high winds, soaking rain, and flying debris. They can cause storm surges to coastal areas, as well as create heavy rainfall which in turn causes flooding hundreds of miles inland. While all coastal areas are at risk, certain cities are particularly vulnerable and could have losses similar to or even greater than those caused by the 2005 hurricane, Katrina, in New Orleans and Mississippi.

When hurricanes weaken into tropical storms, they generate rainfall and flooding that can be especially damaging since the rain collects in one place. In 2001, Tropical Storm Allison produced more than 30 inches of rainfall in Houston in just a few days, flooding over 70,000 houses and destroying 2,744 homes.

Spring Thaw: During the spring, frozen land prevents melting snow or rainfall from seeping into the ground. Each cubic foot of compacted snow contains gallons of water and once the snow melts, it can result in the overflow of streams, rivers, and lakes. Add spring storms to that and the result is often serious spring flooding.

Heavy Rains: Several areas of the country are at heightened risk for flooding due to heavy rains. The Northwest is at high risk due to La Niña conditions, which include: snow melts, heavy rains, and recent wildfires. And the Northeast is at high risk due to heavy rains produced from Nor’easters.

This excessive amount of rainfall can happen throughout the year, putting your property at risk.

West Coast Threats: The West Coast rainy season usually lasts from November to April, bringing heavy flooding and increased flood risks with it; however, flooding can happen at anytime.

A string of large wildfires have dramatically changed the landscape and ground conditions, causing fire-scorched land to become mudflows under heavy rain. Experts say that it might take years for vegetation to return, which will help stabilize these areas.

The West Coast also has thousands of miles of levees, which are meant to help protect homes and their land in case of a flood. However, levees can erode, weaken, or overtop when waters rise, often causing catastrophic results.

Levees & Dams: Levees are designed to protect against a certain level of flooding. However, levees can and do decay over time, making maintenance a serious challenge. Levees can also be overtopped, or even fail during large floods, creating more damage than if the levee wasn’t even there.
Because of the escalating flood risks in areas with levees, especially in the mid-west, FEMA strongly recommends flood insurance for all homeowners in these areas.

Flash Floods: Flash floods are the #1 weather-related killer in the U.S. since they can roll boulders, tear out trees, and destroy buildings and bridges. A flash flood is a rapid flooding of low-lying areas in less than six hours, which is caused by intense rainfall from a thunderstorm or several thunderstorms. Flash floods can also occur from the collapse of a man-made structure or ice dam.

New Development: Construction and development can change the natural drainage and create brand new flood risks. That’s because new buildings, parking lots, and roads mean less land to absorb excess precipitation from heavy rains, hurricanes, and tropical storms.

Know Your Risks, Know Your Saftey

Find out if your home is at risk for flood and educate yourself on the impact a flood could have on you and your family. FEMA’s Flood Insurance Study compiled statistical data on river flows, storm tides, hydrologic/hydraulic analyses, and rainfall and topographic surveys to create flood hazard maps that outline your community’s different flood risk areas.

Most homeowners insurance does not cover flood damage. Talk to your insurance provider about your policy and consider if you need additional coverage.

The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) can help provide a means for property owners to financially protect themselves if additional coverage is required. The NFIP offers flood insurance to homeowners, renters, and business owners if their community participates in the NFIP. To find out more about the NFIP visit www.FloodSmart.gov.

Prepare Your Home

Elevate the furnace, water heater and electric panel in your home if you live in an area that has a high flood risk.

Consider installing “check valves” to prevent flood water from backing up into the drains of your home.

If feasible, construct barriers to stop floodwater from entering the building and seal walls in basements with waterproofing compounds.

Find out how to keep food safe during and after and emergency by visiting www.FoodSafety.gov

Prepare Your Business

Plan to stay in business, talk to your employees, and protect your investment.

Carefully assess how your company functions, both internally and externally, to determine which staff, materials, procedures and equipment are absolutely necessary to keep the business operating.

Identify operations critical to survival and recovery.

Plan what you will do if your building, plant or store is not accessible.

Consider if you can run the business from a different location or from your home.

Develop relationships with other companies to use their facilities in case a disaster makes your location unusable.

Learn about programs, services, and resources at U.S. Small Business Administration.

Listen to Local Officials

Learn about the emergency plans that have been established in your area by your state and local government. In any emergency, always listen to the instructions given by local emergency management officials.

Source: Ready.gov, April 8th, 2011

Learn to Stay Safe from Home Fires: The Risk is Real | 10/07/2010

The risk of injury and death from home fires is real

Consider that:

In 2009, fire departments across the country responded to 377,000 home fires.

These fires claimed the lives of 2,565 people and injured another 13,050.

Approximately 4 out of 10 home fire deaths occur in homes without smoke alarms.

The main reason smoke alarms fail to operate during home fires is missing or disconnected batteries.

Keep Your Home Fire Safe

Your home should be a safe and comfortable place—and you can help keep it fire-safe by following these prevention tips.

Cook with care. When you cook, never leave cooking food unattended on the stove. Keep anything that can catch on fire, like potholders and towels, away from the cooking area. Avoid wearing clothes with long, loose-fitting sleeves that can catch on fire. Also, keep pot handles turned in.

If you smoke, attempt to quit. Don’t smoke inside your home. If you do smoke in your home, never smoke in bed or leave burning cigarettes unattended. It is unsafe to smoke while drowsy or under the influence of alcohol or medications. Also, don’t empty burning or hot ashes in a trash can, and keep ashtrays away from upholstered furniture and curtains.

Stay warm—safely. If and when you use a space heater, keep it more than three feet away from anything that can catch on fire, like draperies.

Be alarmed. Install smoke alarms on every floor of your home, including the basement, and make sure you have smoke alarms near all sleeping rooms. For better protection, install smoke alarms in sleeping rooms, especially if they are occupied by a smoker. Test all smoke alarms once a month using the test button.

Make and practice an escape plan. Create a home fire escape plan. Know at least two ways out of every room, if possible, and have a meeting place outside. Practice your escape plan twice a year with everyone living in your home.

For more tips on protecting children from burns, visit CDC’s Protect the Ones You Love.

A Time to Act

An online video available through CDC-TV, “A Time to Act”, chronicles the experience of a family that escaped during a home fire after being alerted by recently installed smoke alarms. The video also reviews the main risk factors for home fires and steps viewers can take to reduce the risk of fire-related injury and death. These steps include installing and regularly testing smoke alarms and practicing a fire escape plan at least twice a year.

“A Time to Act” is available for viewing through a number of channels including mobile phone, or as a podcast, or for download (see “Download this Video” instructions on the CDC-TV page) thus allowing organizations to utilize our online video in any number of ways including as an instructional tool for parents, healthcare providers or teachers. Providing short, high-quality videos is part of CDC’s goal to increase people’s access to the information necessary to help prevent illness, injury and to protect their health and that of their families.

Source: CDC, October 7th, 2010

USDA Pushes Ahead on Research of B Vitamins and Their Impact on Aging Brains | 08/18/2010

Ongoing research takes a closer look at role these nutrients may play in preventing decline in brain function of elderly; depression in women

B vitamins–B-6, B-12 and folate–all nourish the brain. Ongoing research indicates lower levels of these B vitamins may enhance dementia, cognitive decline and even depression in senior citizens.

The research has been encouraged by the Department of Agriculture (USDA), because the agency feels much remains to be discovered about the relation between these essential nutrients and brainpower.

According to Lindsay H. Allen, USDA nutritionist, the research is needed because many studies of B vitamins and brain function have given inconsistent or conflicting results.

Allen is director of the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Western Human Nutrition Research Center in Davis, Calif. ARS is the chief intramural scientific research agency of USDA. Scientists from the University of California-Davis (UCD) and the UCD Medical Center also are collaborating in the research.

Allen has collaborated in ongoing research that has taken a closer look at the role these nutrients may play in preventing decline in brain function.

The investigations, led by Mary N. Haan of the University of California-San Francisco, are part of the multiyear Sacramento (Calif.) Area Latino Study on Aging, or “SALSA.” Begun in 1996, the study attracted nearly 1,800 Hispanic seniors, ages 60 to 101, as volunteers.

An analysis of volunteers’ blood samples showed that lower levels of one B vitamin, folate, were associated with symptoms of dementia and poor brain function, also called “cognitive decline,” as determined by standard tests of memory and other factors. The impairments were detectable even though less than 1 percent of the volunteers were actually deficient in folate.

Low Levels of Folate and Depression in Women
In women, but not men, low levels of folate were associated with symptoms of depression. In fact, female volunteers whose plasma folate levels were in the lowest third were more than twice as likely to have symptoms of depression as volunteers in the highest third. That finding provided new evidence of an association between lower blood folate and depression. Depression is already known to affect brain function.

In research with vitamin B-12, the SALSA team also determined that a protein known as holoTC, short for holotranscobalamin, might be key to a new approach for detecting cognitive decline earlier and more accurately.

The researchers have published these and other findings, beginning in 2003 and continuing through this year, in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine, The European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, The Journal of Nutrition, and The Journal of Nutrition, Health, and Aging.

Source: USDA, August 17th, 2010

New Test May Encourage More to Be Screened for Colorectal Cancer | 08/12/2010

Ninety Percent of Stroke Risk due to 10 Risk Factors | 06/23/2010

A large international study has found that 10 risk factors account for 90% of all the risk of stroke, with high blood pressure playing the most potent role.

Of that list, five risk factors usually related to lifestyle — high blood pressure, smoking, abdominal obesity, diet and physical activity — are responsible for a full 80% of all stroke risk, according to the researchers.

The findings come the INTERSTROKE study, a standardized case-control study of 3,000 people who had had strokes and an equal number of healthy individuals with no history of stroke from 22 countries. It was published online June 18 in The Lancet.

The study — slated to be presented Friday at the World Congress on Cardiology in Beijing — reports that the 10 factors significantly associated with stroke risk are high blood pressure, smoking, physical activity, waist-to-hip ratio (abdominal obesity), diet, blood lipid (fat) levels, diabetes, alcohol intake, stress and depression, and heart disorders.

Across the board, high blood pressure was the most important factor, accounting for one-third of all stroke risk.

“It’s important that most of the risk factors associated with stroke are modifiable,” said Dr. Martin J. O’Donnell, an associate professor of medicine at McMaster University in Canada, who helped lead the study. “If they are controlled, it could have a considerable impact on the incidence of stroke.”

Controlling blood pressure is important, he said, because it plays a major role in both forms of stroke: ischemic, the most common form (caused by blockage of a brain blood vessel), and hemorrhagic or bleeding stroke, in which a blood vessel in the brain bursts.

In contrast, levels of blood lipids such as cholesterol were important in the risk of ischemic stroke, but not hemorrhagic stroke.

“The most important thing about hypertension is its controllability,” O’Donnell said. “Blood pressure is easily measured, and there are lots of treatments.”

Lifestyle measures to control blood pressure include reduction of salt intake and increasing physical activity, he said.

He added that the other risk factors — smoking, abdominal obesity, diet and physical activity — in the top five contributors to stroke risk were modifiable as well.

High intake of fish and fruits, for example, were associated with a lower risk of stroke, according to the study.

The researchers pointed out several potential limitations of the study, including the sample size, which they said “might be inadequate to provide reliable information” about the importance of each risk factor in different regions and ethnic groups.

Many of the same risk factors have cropped up in other studies, but this is the first stroke risk study to include both low- and middle-income participants in developing countries and to include a brain scan of all participating stroke survivors, according to the researchers.

The countries joining in the study were Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Croatia, Denmark, Ecuador, Germany, India, Iran, Malaysia, Mozambique, Nigeria, Peru, Philippines, Poland, South Africa, Sudan and Uganda.

The INTERSTROKE study confirms that high blood pressure “is the leading cause of stroke in developing countries” as well as developed nations, Dr. Jack V. Tu, of the University of Toronto, wrote in an accompanying editorial. He added that it highlighted the need for health authorities in those countries to develop strategies to reduce high blood pressure, salt intake and other risk factors.

A second phase of the INTERSTROKE study is underway, with researchers looking at the importance of risk factors in different regions, ethnic groups and types of ischemic stroke. They’ll also study the association between genetics and stroke risk. The researchers plan to enroll 20,000 participants.

Dr. Larry B. Goldstein, director of the Duke Stroke Center, noted that the study underscored what’s already known about stroke risk.

“The bottom line is that the risk factors for low- and middle-income countries seem to be pretty similar to those of Western countries,” Goldstein said. “The findings reiterate the importance of attention to lifestyle factors in stroke risk — diet, smoking, physical activity.