Focus on Community Safety Program Bulletin

Summertime is a time for vacation, fun, and relaxation! It is also a time to be more than ever conscious of SAFETY.

Areas to be Safety Conscious:

• While some exposure to sunlight is enjoyable, too much can be dangerous. Broad spectrum ultraviolent (UV) radiation can cause immediate effects like blistering, sunburns, and long term problems like skin-cancer, cataracts, and immune suppression. Overexposure also causes wrinkling ad aging of the skin. Be sure to apply generous amounts of sunscreen and advise others to do the same. Perhaps a club project could involve handing out materials at local beaches of polls.
• Pool safety is another important safety concern. Many of the clubs report supporting swimming lessons, life vests, and education programs. Check with your local community and be sure that they have adequate opportunities for children to learn and enjoy the benefits of summer with adult supervision.
• The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children continues to have success with the Amber Alert. Be sure that your community has the Amber Alert and that the businesses use the Code Adam program. For more information on these programs contact them at www.NCMEC.org or www.MissingKids.com.
• Identity Theft continues to be on the rise, with many new schemes. The easiest way to begin protecting yourself from indentify theft is to be sure you don’t hand the thieves your personal data. Never let a piece of paper with any information that a thief could use leave your house in one piece. If you have a problem—act quickly. A call to your financial institution’s toll-free emergency hotline and you have uncovered a theft early and will likely avoid having to pay for the extra charges.
• Be sure to check the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. Aqua-leisure Industries has voluntarily recalled baby floats due to a drowning hazard.

Updates:

• Be sure to check the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. Aqua-leisure Industries have voluntarily recalled baby floats due to a drowning hazard.
• The Safe Highways and infrastructure Preservation Act continues to be an issue. The SHIPA (H.R. 1618 & S. 779) protects our roads and bridges by capping the length of single truck trailers, freezing weights of trucks using the National Highway System and extending the freeze on double and triple trailer trucking. This involves ALL states.
• National Night Out will be August 4, 2009. Communities are being forces by tight budgets to scrutinize everything they do. On a small budget the National Association of Town Watch (NATW) the sponsoring organization of National Night Out has created and hosts an annual event that this year will bring together 37 million Americans in 15,000 communities.

Safety Tip:

Put your car keys beside your bed at night. If you hear a noise outside your home or someone trying to get in your house, just press the panic button for your car. The alarm will be set off and the horn will continue to sound. It’s a “security alarm system” that you have already and requires no installation.

—Mary Sprague (Calif.), GFWC Focus on Community Safety Program Chairman