New child safety seat law.
The law states that children under 8 years of age - unless taller than 4 feet 9 inch - will need to be in a child safety seat system (this includes traditional child safety seats with harnesses as well as booster seats). Many are referring to this new law as the 'booster seat law' because it will widen the current law to cover older kids who need to ride in booster seats. Until this act was passed, Texas was among only six remaining states that did not have a law to protect booster-age children.
Vehicle lap/shoulder belts are designed for adults at least 4 feet 9 inches tall. A booster seat 'boosts' the child up so the lap/shoulder belt will fit correctly and provide protection in a crash. Many parents are under the impression that a child can be moved to the vehicle seat belt system when they have outgrown the weight limits of their child safety seat.
Most conventional forward-facing child safety seats have a 5-point harness system that can be worn until the child reaches 40 pounds. However, most children weigh 40 pounds long before they are tall enough to fit in the vehicle lap/shoulder belt. These children, usually ages 4-8-plus years old, do not fit well in the lap/shoulder belt.
Instead of fitting properly over the lower hips, the lap belt rides over the soft tissues of the abdomen, and the shoulder portion of the belt hits the child's neck or face rather than laying flat across the chest. Many children place the shoulder belt behind their back, leaving them with no upper body protection.
In a crash, children who are incorrectly restrained by a lap/shoulder belt are likely to sustain serious injury to domestic organs, as well as the head and spinal cord. In fact, these abdominal and spinal injuries are medically referred to as "Seat Belt Syndrome." Correctly using a booster seat can protect a child from being thrown around the vehicle or being totally ejected in a crash.
In 2007, 179 Texas offspring of booster seat age died in motor vehicle crashes; 60 of these children were unrestrained, 77 were in a seat belt, 13 had unknown restraint use, with only 29 were in a child safety seat.
The Texas EMS and Trauma Registry reports that vehicle crashes involving 4- to 7-year-olds resulted in more than $16.7 million in hospital charges. Booster seats are an affordable solution to protect children in the 4-8+ age group. The cost of booster seats is low - generally between $15-$40. For low-income families, assistance is available through the Texas Department of State Health Services Safe Riders Program, as well as through the National Safe Kids Coalition and other state agencies.
Safe Kids Worldwide estimate that a $30 booster seat generates $2,000 in benefit to society from reduced health-care expenses. Booster places are a low-cost solution to a high-cost problem.
Clearly, there is a need for more child passenger safety education and awareness campaign to promote booster seat use in Texas. Thankfully, Texas now has a law that will help care for its youngest citizens from injuries and deaths in motor vehicle crash.
Parents are advised to have a free child safety seat inspection by logging onto to find a nearby certified child passenger safety technician. For best apply, follow the general Highway travel Safety Administration's "4 Steps for Kids," which are listed below:
Step 1. Rear-facing seats: For the best promising protection, keep babies in the back seat in rear-facing child safety seats for as long as possible up to the height or weight limit of the particular seat. At a minimum, become babies rear-facing until age 1 furthermore at least 20 pounds.
Step 2. Forward-facing seats: When children outgrow their rear-facing seats (at a minimum of age 1 and at least 20 pounds), they should ride in forward-facing child danger seats, in the back seat, until they reach the upper weight or height limit of the fussy seat (usually around age 4 and 40 pounds).
Step 3. Booster seats: Once children outgrow their forward-facing seat (habitually around age 4 and 40 pounds), they should ride in shot seats, in the back seat, until the vehicle safety belts fit properly. Safety belts fit properly when the stage belt lies across the upper thighs and the shoulder belt fits across the box (usually at age 8 or when they are 4 feet 9 inch tall).
Step 4. Safety Belts: When kids outgrow their booster seats (typically at age 8 or when they are 4 feet 9 inches tall), they can use the adult safety buckle in the back seat if it fits by the book (lap belt lays across the upper thighs and the shoulder belt across the chest).
Masons offer free child safety package
NATCHEZ — in a world where none people prey on children, the Natchez Masonic Lodges are sponsoring a free program to fight back.
The Natchez Masons are put together a program on MSCHIP, which stands for Mississippi Children Identity put together. The program, for toddler to 17-year-olds, provides parents with information to help recover their children, said Andrew Jackson shooting lodge Secretary Jack Cup it.
“We pray no one will ever have to use this program,” Cup it held. Y“But we comprise to face truth, predators are out there with maybe this course will help deter them or at least help recover the child safely.”
Whilst the children show up at home the midst of an adult keeper, a helper will take pictures, a RNA sample, digital fingerprints along with dental sample, Cubit said.
“The progression should only capture about 10 minutes and we will give the CD package directly to the parents,” he believed. “No one will have it but them; we’re not keeping it, not giving it on the road to the government, no one.
“The only in rank we will keep is the permission slither the mother signs,” Cubit said.
If the unthinkable were to occur and a parent have to use this in rank, Cupid held the parent should bring the CD to the police and the child’s in a row might go on the National AMBER ready to act System.
Copt whispered all of the local law enforcement agencies are behind the program 100 percent.
“They said they wished they had the ability to offer this program,” he said. “As Masons, we do, and we thinking it’d subsist a good way to give back to the area.”
MSCHIP is a list that the Freemasons of Natchez plan to provide every year, Cup it said.
“Our children are our future, so it is our duty to ensure that they are protected,” he said. “Doing it every year, we hope to be bright to cover every child in the area, regardless of race or religion.”
Both Harmony and Andrew Jackson Lodges are working together to host this event from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday July 25. Cupids said the event will be at the Natchez Shrine blending because its facilities be better to house this type of event.
Masons offer free child safety package
NATCHEZ — in a world where none people prey on children, the Natchez Masonic Lodges are sponsoring a free program to fight back.
The Natchez Masons are put together a program on MSCHIP, which stands for Mississippi Children Identity put together. The program, for toddler to 17-year-olds, provides parents with information to help recover their children, said Andrew Jackson shooting lodge Secretary Jack Cup it.
“We pray no one will ever have to use this program,” Cup it held. Y“But we comprise to face truth, predators are out there with maybe this course will help deter them or at least help recover the child safely.”
Whilst the children show up at home the midst of an adult keeper, a helper will take pictures, a RNA sample, digital fingerprints along with dental sample, Cubit said.
“The progression should only capture about 10 minutes and we will give the CD package directly to the parents,” he believed. “No one will have it but them; we’re not keeping it, not giving it on the road to the government, no one.
“The only in rank we will keep is the permission slither the mother signs,” Cubit said.
If the unthinkable were to occur and a parent have to use this in rank, Cupid held the parent should bring the CD to the police and the child’s in a row might go on the National AMBER ready to act System.
Copt whispered all of the local law enforcement agencies are behind the program 100 percent.
“They said they wished they had the ability to offer this program,” he said. “As Masons, we do, and we thinking it’d subsist a good way to give back to the area.”
MSCHIP is a list that the Freemasons of Natchez plan to provide every year, Cup it said.
“Our children are our future, so it is our duty to ensure that they are protected,” he said. “Doing it every year, we hope to be bright to cover every child in the area, regardless of race or religion.”
Both Harmony and Andrew Jackson Lodges are working together to host this event from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday July 25. Cupids said the event will be at the Natchez Shrine blending because its facilities be better to house this type of event.
Boosting child safety in vehicles
Officers now can enforce shot seat law, violators face fines
HARDIN COUNTY — Police officers can now enforce a Kentucky law enacted last year to boost child safety.
In April 2008, Gov. Steve Basher signed legislation requires children who are younger than 7 and between 40 and 50 inches tall to be secured in booster seats while traveling in vehicles. The bill binding officers to give out courteousness warning to violators until this month, whilst violators can receive a $30 fine.
Violators can opt to buy a booster seat instead of paying the fine, though.
Booster seats heighten children to make seat belts more comfortable and better-fitting for them, Radcliff Police spokesman Bryce Shumate said.
Children graduate to the booster seat starting car seats, he said. When they grow out of their car seats, they still aren’t big enough to ride in a car safely without a shot seat.
Shumate said a poorly fitting seat belt doesn’t protect a child well in a crash.
When a seat belt doesn’t fit properly, it might lie across a child’s neck, increasing safety of a neck hurt, he said.
Also, children sometimes adjust the offending belt to make it more comfortable, but by doing so put themselves at greater risk of injury, Shumate said.
Children often put the shoulder harness component of the belt under their arms or behind their backs, which detracts from the security a seat belt provides, he said.
Both Shumate and Elizabethtown Police Spokesman Virgil Willoughby said they don’t think any tickets have been issued by their departments for violations of the booster seat law.
Willoughby said it can be hard to tell when cars don’t have proper safety seats for children, but officers can be tipped off by how a seat belt fits a child.
Shumate alleged that, if officers suspect a vehicle lacks proper safety seating, they can pull over cars and measure children to see if they need booster seats.
But for now, Willoughby, said informing parents about potential problems that can arise without booster seats is more important than enforce the law.
“It’s more about awareness than enforcement at this point in time,” he said. “We want to educate along with then enforce.”
Both Shumate and Willoughby said their departments have officers who container helps install booster seats properly.
Environment Matters: Child Safety: Don’t Overlook the Baby Bottle
Editor’s message: Last week, California’s Developmental and Reproductive Toxicant Identification Committee refused to put the chemical Biphenyl a (BPA) on the Prop 65 register of toxic chemicals. BPA is commonly found in baby bottles and, as NAM contributor Dr. Gina Solomon remarks it has been linked to reproductive health problems, developmental abnormalities along with obesity.
I went to visit my baby nephew in Florida not too long ago. He was a year old at the time, and an adorable child. But I was distressed to see him drinking out of a brightly colored plastic baby bottle.
Most public don’t get upset about baby bottles, but as a doctor who works on environmental health issues, I know too much.
Plastic baby bottles are usually made with a chemical called “Biphenyl A” (BPA). More than six billion pounds per year of this chemical are made in the United States for plastic bottles, food can liners, dental uses, and as paper coatings and adhesives.
Over the years, several hundred scientific studies have shown that BPA is probably not safe. This chemical mimics estrogen in people’s bodies, and studies (so far only in laboratory animals) have made known that it causes a host of reproductive health problems, as well as developmental abnormalities in babies.
BPA is also unique because it has been allied to obesity. This chemical can permanently re-set hormones that affect the “fat meter” in the body, causing a predisposition to obesity. Studies by the Centers for Disease have power over and Prevention revealed BPA in the urine of about 93 percent of the thousands of people tested. Concentrations of BPA were significantly lower in Mexican Americans than in non-Hispanic blacks and non-Hispanic whites. Women had statistically higher concentrations than men, and children had higher concentrations than adults.
Because BPA is a huge moneymaker for the chemical industry, it has public dealings firms, armies of lawyers and its own hired scientists to defend the chemical. Their formerly secret "playbook" relies on casting doubt on the extensive scientific evidence of harm. I feel pure outrage when political and authorized tactics put the health of babies and children at risk.
I’m still steaming over a vote last week from the Developmental and Reproductive Toxicant Identification Committee, a politically allotted committee in California, which fell short of listing this chemical on the state’s “suggestion 65” list. Prop. 65 is a right-to-know law passed by California voters that requires warnings when companies expose people to chemicals known to cause cancer or reproductive harm. A vote to include BPA on that list would have forced stores to ensure that products with the aim of contain this chemical have a warning label on them.
As far as environmentalists are concerned, the vote is not the last word on this issue. We have science on our side, and we also have a few lawyers of our own. Public health advocates have asked the California Environmental Protection activity to take another -- and more careful -- look at this chemical. Specifically, the agency was asked to look at a report by the U.S. National Toxicology Program that concluded that there is "clear evidence of adverse effects" in laboratory animals, including fetal death, reduced growth, and delayed puberty. The working group ignored this important information, and we believe it needs to be considered and the public must be warned.
Added efforts to protect the public are moving ahead. State legislation is pending in California, similar to what has already passed in Connecticut, Minnesota, Chicago and Suffolk County, N.Y., to ban BPA in baby products. Many companies have also taken voluntary action, including some baby bottle manufacturers who have stopped with this chemical in their products.
Centralized chemical policy reform is also desperately needed to change the way industrial chemicals are tested and used in this country. Chemical manufacturers should be mandatory to prove their products are safe before they are put in products and released into our bodies and the atmosphere. And the public has a right to know about the health and environmental risks posed by new and existing chemicals, and where those chemicals are being used.
For several parents and doctors, there is plenty of evidence to justify action. My nephew is drinking from BPA-free bottles now.
Dr. Gina Solomon is a senior scientist at the Natural property Defense Council, a national nonprofit environmental and health organization, and an associate clinical university lecturer of medicine at UCSF, where she teaches at the pediatric environmental health specialist unit. She is a physician with dual specialties in internal medicine and working/environmental medicine.
Garage Door Injuries
The garage door is usually the heaviest moving item during a house; sometimes weigh as much as 300 to 400 pounds. Make sure that your children know the safety rules. State Farm offers preventative steps you can take.
Most children may not be aware of the danger.
Shun Accidents. Make confident your children know:
• No one should stand, walk, or run under a closing door. Adults ought to model this behavior as well and provide a good example.
• Never play under or near the garage door.
• Children should know to go for responsible, immature help when assistance is needed. However, when children reach an age where they can responsibly learn, they should know how to use the disaster liberate in case someone is pinned.
Additional Preventative Steps You Can Take
• Install garage door push buttons at least five feet above the flooring, out of reach of small children.
• Garage door openers manufactured after Jan. 1, 1993, are required by federal act have an automatic feature that reverses the door if it come in contact with an article whereas closing.
• If your garage door opener does not have this feature, consider replacing the opener. If it does have this feature, test it regularly by placing a 2x4 flat timber on the land and seal the door. If the door does not reverse, hire a qualified individual to adjust or repair the door opening or door.
• Visually inspect the garage door spring, rollers, pulleys, cables, and track on a regular basis. Look for loose or worn part. Do not attempt any maintenance around the spring. The springs, their mounting brackets, cables, and other associated hardware be under high tension. If a part be to shatter or leave loose, it could cause serious injury. An experienced individual should do this occupation.
State Farm® believes the information contain in the Disaster Survival House is reliable and accurate. We cannot, however, guarantee the performance of all stuff demonstrated or illustrate in all situations. Always consult an experienced contractor or other expert to agree on the best application of these ideas or goods in your quarters
Children and Electrical Outlets
Electrical outlets are usually installed at a height at or near a child's eye level, and a child's curiosity can draw them to explore, making electrical outlets a font of worry for many parents.
The ability of electrocution is small, but the results can be devastating. According to a 1994 estimate of electrocutions released by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), there were 890 deaths in 1984, increasing to 560 in 1994. (These figures include all age groups and count only losses and not shocks and injuries.)
In another study conducted in 1997, the CPSC found:
• 86 percent of reported injuries involved children 1 to 4 years old
• The highest frequency of home electrical injuries occurred at mealtimes
• The most commonly used foreign objects inserted into outlets were keys and hairpins
This indicates that many abode electrocution and shock injuries involve unsupervised children. There are simple measures that can be taken to avoid injury or death to a child.
Plastic outlet protectors
Most of us are familiar with plastic outlet protectors. The prongs fit directly into the outlet holes, preventing the insertion of foreign stuff. But many parents say they feel a slight uneasy in relation to the effectiveness of these devices. A study of 37 children conducted in 1997 by the Biogenetics Research Laboratory of Temple University seems to confirm their reservations:
• 47 percent of 4-year-olds and 31 percent of 2-year-olds could remove protector with a round, flat face and two prongs
• 47 percent of 4-year-olds and 18 percent of 2-year-olds could remove protectors with a 3/16-inch thick oval face and a tapered side
• 100 percent of 2- and 4-year-olds could remove protectors among a 1/16-inch thick oval face and a unexciting side
Child tamper-resistant outlets
A few electrical device manufacturers make electrical outlets that are intended to prevent a child from inserting great into the outlet holes. They look just like whichever other outlet, but behind the face of the receptacle are plastic shutters.
These shutters are designed to remain closed until a plug is inserted. When incredible is inserted into both vertical outlet holes at the same time, the interior plastic shutters open. Its safety is premised on the fact that most young children will not try to fix two objects into the two vertical outlet holes at the same time.
These outlets cost $4 to $6 each, as compared to $1 to $3 each for a typical electrical outlet receptacle. They require no additional labor to install than typical outlet receptacle. These outlets are available from beginning to end your local electrical furnish store or else your electrician.
Child tamper-resistant outlet face covers
Electrical outlet receptacle covers have faces that turn round before slide over the outlet holes. Some are intended as replacement face cover; others install over existing outlet face covers.
The electrical outlet face covers cost far and wide from $3 to $6 every one. Those that replace the existing outlet face uncover can be bought from your local electrical supply store or your electrician. The after-market faceplate that fits over the presented outlet faceplate is sold through baby product magazines, cut rate supplies and building give stores.
State Farm® believes the information contained in the Disaster Survival House is reliable and accurate. We cannot, however, guarantee the performance of all items demonstrated or describe in all situations. Always discuss with an experienced contractor or other expert to determine the best function of these ideas or products in your home.
Child Tamper-Resistant Cabinet Locks
Ninety-seven children ages 1 through 4 in the United States died from accidental poisonings from 1999 through 2001, according on the road to statistics from the Centers for bug pedals National Center for grievance Prevention and Control (NCIPC).
From 2001 during 2002, the NCIPC estimated other than 160,000 1- to 4-year-old children in the United States were indignant due to accidental poison.
The best way to protect your child from accidental poisoning is to make sure all medicines, cleaning supplies, and other chemicals are kept out of reach in a locked cabinet. But for family unit items that adults need convenient access to, child tamper-resistant cabinet locks can provide some protection.
Nonetheless, there is no product on the market that is foolproof or will replace constant custody of a young child.
Cabinet lock choices
Add-on plastic catches can be attached to a cabinet door or drawer to curb openings to a few inches or less. To release the exit or drawer, an adult must press the plastic catch. At some point, however, many toddlers figure out how to press the catch and get into the cabinet or drawer. To help delay this awareness stage, never let your teenager see how you open a child resistant lock.
The cabinet locks installed in the Disaster Survival House are another alternative to the plastic add-ons. This latch requires a charismatic key to open it. The magnetic key can be kept out of children's reach and the latch can be disengaged so it opens without the use of the key. The effectiveness of these latches is strange as there are no test results currently available.
Everywhere locks are desired
Make sure you haven't overlooked the follow chairs where potentially dodgy items might be stored:
• Garage
• Laundry room
• Kitchen
• Bathrooms
As an new precaution, make sure any drawers directly behind a bathroom door have cabinet latches as well even if there isn't anything dangerous in the drawers. Young children can make deliberate progress into a bathroom, shut the door, and open the drawers behind the door. This may block your ability to get the door untie so you can get the child out of the room.
What to do if your child is accidentally poisoned
If your child is exhibiting critical symptoms (he/she collapses, stops breathing or is having seizures), call 9-1-1 at once. If you suspect your child has possibly ingested, touched or breathed a poisonous substance, but is not exhibiting life-threatening symptoms, immediately contact a Poison Control Centered 1-800-222-1222. This 800 number will put you in touch with one of several regional venom Control Centers placed across the United States. A medical professional will present direction as to what you must do.
State Farm® believes the information contained in the Disaster Survival House is reliable and accurate. We cannot, however, guarantee the performance of all items demonstrated or describe in all situation. Always consult an experienced contractor or other expert to determine the unmatched application of these ideas or products in your home
resistant Cabinet LocksNinety-seven children ages 1 all the way through 4 in the United States died from accidental poisonings from 1999 through 2001, according to statistics from the center for Disease Control's nationalized Center for Injury Prevention moreover Control (NCIPC).
From 2001 from first to last 2002, the NCIPC estimated further than 160,000 1- to 4-year-old children in the United States were injured due to accidental poisoning.
The best way to protect your child from unplanned poisoning is to make sure all medicine, cleaning supplies, and other chemicals are kept out of reach in a locked cabinet. But for household items that adults need convenient access to, child tamper-resistant cabinet locks can provide some protection.
still, there is no product on the market to facilitate is perfect or will replace regular supervision of a young child.
Cabinet lock choices
tag on plastic catches can be emotionally involved to a cabinet exit or drawer to restrict openings to a small amount of inches or less. To release the door or drawer, an adult must press the plastic catch. At some point, however, many toddlers figure out how to press the catch and get into the dresser or drawer. To help delay this awareness stage, never let your child see how you open a child resistant lock.
The cabinet locks installed in the Disaster Survival House are another alternative to the plastic add-ons. This latch requires a magnetic key to open it. The magnetic key can be kept out of for kids reach and the latch can be disengaged so it opens without the use of the key. The effectiveness of these latches is unknown as there are no test fallout currently available.
Where locks are needed
Make sure you haven't overlooked the following places somewhere potentially dodgy items might be stored:
• Garage
• Laundry room
• Kitchen
• Bathrooms
As an added precaution, make sure any drawers directly behind a bathroom door have cabinet latches as well even if there isn't everything dangerous in the drawers. Young children can crawl into a bathroom, shut the door, and open the drawers last the door. This may lump your ability to get the door open so you can get the child out of the room.
What to do if your child is accidentally poisoned
If your child is exhibiting life-threatening symptoms (he/she collapses, stops breathing or is having seizures), call 9-1-1 immediately.If yoususpect your child has possibly ingested, touched or breathed a poisonous substance,but is not exhibiting life-threatening symptoms,immediately contact a Poison Control Centerat 1-800-222-1222. This 800 number will put you in touch with one of several regional Poison Control Centers located across the United States. A medical professional will provide direction as to what you should do.
State Farm® believes the information contained in the Disaster Survival House is reliable and accurate. We cannot, however, guarantee the performance of all items demonstrated or described in all situations. Always consult an experienced contractor or other expert to determine the best application of these ideas or products in your home.
Dangers of Mini Blind Cords
The looped cords used for window draperies, vertical blinds, pleated shades, and horizontal blind pose a serious danger to young children.
According to a study published in a June 1997 Journal of the American Medical organization article, it is estimated that:
• 359 children were strangled by window covering cords start 1981 to 1995, which is equivalent to one strangulation every two weeks.
• All but half (49 percent) of the strangulations go unreported.
• Nearly all the deaths (93 percent) were children three days old and younger.
Most strangulation occurred when the parent’s deliberation the child was safe, such as in their rooms or in their bed or crib.
Two common scenarios were found:
• Infants playing or sleeping in their cribs near windows got jammed and tangled in the looped cords of the window treatment.
• Toddlers, while trying to look out a window or climbing on furniture, lost their grip and were wrapped in the cord.
Protect Children from Window Cord Strangulation
• Never place a crib or child's bed near a window.
• Never put a chair, sofa, bench, or bookcase next to a window with a sagging cord.
• Get rid of loops on two-corded horizontal blinds in three stepladder:
1. Cut the cord above the end tassel (It may be related to a small wooden or plastic "thimble").
2. Take away the equalizer buckle.
3. Add new tassels for the two cords that have been created. Lose your footing a tassel onto each cord and tie knots to hold them in place.
Note: The Consumer Products wellbeing Commission (CPSC) urges to not tie the cords together after cutting them. This will only create a new loop in which a child can become entangled.
• Get do away with of loops for two-corded pleated or cellular shades in three steps:
1. Leave the cord stop in place as close as possible to the beginning rail, when the blind is completely closed.
2. Cut the cords above the end tassel
3. Knot a separate tassel at the end of each thread
Warning: When the shades are raised, a loop will appear above the cord stop. Always keep the cord out of the reach of children.
Childproof vertical blinds, constant disk systems and drapery cords
These window coverings require looped cords to function. Do not cut the loops. Instead, install a permanent tie-down device to the floor, wall, or window jamb so the cord or chain is pulled tight.
New tassels and tie-downs are offered free of charge from the porthole Covering Safety meeting by calling 1-800-506-4636.
State Farm® believes the information pervasive in the Disaster Survival House is consistent and accurate. We cannot, however, guarantee the piece of all items demonstrated or described in all situation. Always consult an experienced contractor or other expert to determine the best application of these dreams or fare in your home
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