How Healthy Is Your Home? Series - Part 1 - Home Inspection

Homes can be surprisingly dangerous places with the potential for both environmental hazards and safety concerns.  They can contain lead-based paint, asbestos, formaldehyde, radon, mold, imported drywall and other substances that can cause illnesses or chronic health problems. Homes are also full of safety hazards from stairs and stoves to bathtubs and swimming pools that can contribute to accidents, injuries or deaths. In this 3 part series we will explore ways to improve the health of your home.

Home inspection

Many home hazards were originally introduced by builders and contractors, says Jay Gregg, director of marketing at Pillar to Post Professional Home Inspections, a Tampa, Florida-based franchise company with 450 outlets in the U.S. and Canada.

One way to find these hazards is get a home inspection, but that's only a starting point. A home inspector can't move furniture or boxes without the homeowner's permission and even a vacant house isn't 100 percent accessible.

First-time homebuyers especially should seek the help of a home inspector as they have never been through the home buying process before and are not aware of the potential problems they could encounter as homeowners.
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This blog is brought to you by SERVPRO^® of Great Neck/Port Washington, a leading provider of fire and water cleanup, mold mitigation, remediation and restoration services. For more information and a full list of our services, please visit us online at www.servproofgreatneck.com or contact us at 516-767-9600.

 

Be Ready, Nat´l Preparedness Month is Here! - Series Final - Maintain a Healthy State of Mind

September 2014 marks the eleventh annual National Preparedness Month, sponsored by the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the US Department of Homeland Security. One goal of Homeland Security is to educate the public about how to prepare for emergencies, including natural disasters, mass casualties, biological and chemical threats, radiation emergencies, and terrorist attacks.   Take note of this final valuable tip for preparing for unexpected events.

Maintain a Healthy State of Mind

Everyone has their own ways of dealing with stressful situations. Resilience—the ability to adapt well to life's ups and downs—can help manage stress and feelings of anxiety. Everyone can develop resilience. It involves thoughts and actions that can be learned and practiced over time.

Anyone who experiences a disaster is affected by it, whether directly or indirectly through location, family or friends, or exposure to media coverage of the event.

Even if a disaster, such as a terrorist act, produces little physical damage, it can bring fear, confusion, and uncertainty into daily life. Strong and varied emotional reactions to such an event are natural. People are resilient and able to recover from difficult experiences.

Given the uncontrollable nature of disasters, some people question whether they can take steps to plan for catastrophic events. Actually, we know that the more people prepare for the unexpected, the better they manage these situations.
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This blog is brought to you by SERVPRO^® of Great Neck/Port Washington, a leading provider of fire and water cleanup, mold mitigation, remediation and restoration services. For more information and a full list of our services, please visit us online at www.servproofgreatneck.com or contact us at 516-767-9600.

Be Ready, Nat´l Preparedness Month is Here! Series - Part 4 - Understand Quarantine and Isolation

September 2014 marks the eleventh annual National Preparedness Month, sponsored by the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the US Department of Homeland Security. One goal of Homeland Security is to educate the public about how to prepare for emergencies, including natural disasters, mass casualties, biological and chemical threats, radiation emergencies, and terrorist attacks.   Visit our Blog all this week to learn valuable tips for preparing for unexpected events.

#4 - Understand Quarantine and Isolation

People can be infected with dangerous diseases in a number of ways. Some germs, like those causing malaria, are passed to humans by animals. Other germs, like those that cause botulism, are carried to people by contaminated food or water. Still others, like the ones causing measles, are passed directly from person to person. These diseases are called "contagious".

Contagious diseases that pose a health risk to people have always existed. While the spread of many of these diseases has been controlled through vaccination and other public health efforts, avian influenza ("bird flu") and terrorist acts worldwide have raised concerns about the possibility of a disease risk. That makes it important for people to understand what can and would be done to protect the public from the spread of dangerous contagious diseases.

The CDC applies the term "quarantine" to more than just people. It also refers to any situation in which a building, conveyance, cargo, or animal might be thought to have been exposed to a dangerous contagious disease agent and is closed off or kept apart from others to prevent disease spread.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the U.S. government agency responsible for identifying, tracking, and controlling the spread of disease. With the help of the CDC, state and local health departments have created emergency preparedness and response plans. In addition to early detection, rapid diagnosis, and treatment with antibiotics or antivirals, these plans use two main traditional strategies —quarantine and isolation— to contain the spread of illness. These are common health care practices to control the spread of a contagious disease by limiting people's exposure to it.

The difference between quarantine and isolation can be summed up like this:

·         Isolation applies to persons who are known to be ill with a contagious disease.

·         Quarantine applies to those who have been exposed to a contagious disease but who may or may not become ill.

Definitions

Infectious disease: a disease caused by a microorganism and therefore potentially infinitely transferable to new individuals. May or may not be communicable. Example of non-communicable is disease caused by toxins from food poisoning or infection caused by toxins in the environment, such as tetanus.

Communicable disease: an infectious disease that is contagious and which can be transmitted from one source to another by infectious bacteria or viral organisms.

Contagious disease: a very communicable disease capable of spreading rapidly from one person to another by contact or close proximity.
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This blog is brought to you by SERVPRO^® of Great Neck/Port Washington, a leading provider of fire and water cleanup, mold mitigation, remediation and restoration services. For more information and a full list of our services, please visit us online at www.servproofgreatneck.com or contact us at 516-767-9600.

  

Be Ready, Nat´l Preparedness Month is Here! - Series - Part 3 - Learn How to Shelter in Place

September 2014 marks the eleventh annual National Preparedness Month, sponsored by the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the US Department of Homeland Security. One goal of Homeland Security is to educate the public about how to prepare for emergencies, including natural disasters, mass casualties, biological and chemical threats, radiation emergencies, and terrorist attacks.   Visit our Blog all this week to learn valuable tips for preparing for unexpected events.

#3 - Learn How to Shelter in Place

"Shelter-in-place" means to take immediate shelter where you are—at home, work, school, or in between. It may also mean "seal the room;" in other words, take steps to prevent outside air from coming in. This is because local authorities may instruct you to "shelter-in-place" if chemical or radiological contaminants are released into the environment. It is important to listen to TV or radio to understand whether the authorities wish you to merely remain indoors or to take additional steps to protect yourself and your family.

At home

·         Choose a room in advance for your shelter. The best room is one with as few windows and doors as possible. A large room, preferably with a water supply, is desirable—something like a master bedroom that is connected to a bathroom.

·         Contact your workplaces, your children's schools, nursing homes where you may have family and your local town or city officials to find out what their plans are for "shelter-in-place."

·         Find out when warning systems will be tested. When tested in your area, determine whether you can hear or see sirens and/or warning lights from your home.

·         Develop your own family emergency plan so that every family member knows what to do. Practice it regularly.

·         Assemble a disaster supplies kit that includes emergency water and food supplies.

At work

·         Help ensure that the emergency plan and checklist involves all employees. Volunteers or recruits should be assigned specific duties during an emergency. Alternates should be assigned to each duty.

·         The shelter kit should be checked on a regular basis. Duct tape and first aid supplies can sometimes disappear when all employees know where the shelter kit is stored. Batteries for the radio and flashlight should be replaced regularly.

In general

·         Learn CPR, first aid and the use of an automated external defibrillator (AED). (Contact your local American Red Cross chapter for more information.)

How will I know when I need to "shelter-in-place"?

Fire or police department warning procedures could include:

·         "All-Call" telephoning - an automated system for sending recorded messages, sometimes called "reverse 9-1-1".

·         Emergency Alert System (EAS) broadcasts on the radio or television.

·         Outdoor warning sirens or horns.

·         News media sources - radio, television and cable.

·         NOAA Weather Radio alerts.

·         Residential route alerting - messages announced to neighborhoods from vehicles equipped with public address systems.

Facilities that handle potentially dangerous materials, like nuclear power plants, are required to install sirens and other warning systems (flash warning lights) to cover a 10-mile area around the plant.

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This blog is brought to you by SERVPRO^® of Great Neck/Port Washington, a leading provider of fire and water cleanup, mold mitigation, remediation and restoration services. For more information and a full list of our services, please visit us online at www.servproofgreatneck.com or contact us at 516-767-9600.