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Here you will find information on WHY and HOW you should always be careful and pay attention to what you're doing. Remember ... Safety First, Safety Always. | |
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PLAYGROUND SAFETY CHECKLIST Here are 10 important tips for parents and community groups to keep in mind to help ensure playground safety.
From the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission’s (CPSC) Handbook for Public Playground Safety. |
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Is another kid picking on you? Are you being bullied on the school bus, in school, or your neighborhood? The first thing you must understand is that it is not your fault. Lots of kids are pushed around and bullied by other kids. It can make you feel frightened, angry, and helpless to be bullied, but there are things you can do about it. The most important thing for you to do is to tell an adult. Tell your teacher, your parents, a school counselor, or the principal. Don’t worry about feeling like you are tattling. It isn’t tattling when someone’s safety is concerned. The adults in your life want to help you and protect you and will have ideas for you and ways to deal with bullies. Your school probably even has a policy about bullying. The second thing for you to do is to make friends. Bullies pick on kids who are alone and don’t have the support of their friends. So, sit with other kids on the bus and at lunchtime and do things with a group at recess. Join clubs at school and ask your parents to invite a new friend to your house or to do an activity together. Play with other kids in your neighborhood, rather than being out alone. The less time you spend by yourself, the less chance a bully will have to pick on you. If you see someone else being bullied, tell an adult. If you try to stick up for the other kid the bully will see he’s not alone, and other kids may feel courageous enough to speak up too. This way the bully will lose his power. Remember, it is your right to feel safe at school. You can feel stronger and with the help of the adults in your life, the bullying will stop. |
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| SKATEBOARDING SAFETY Skateboarding is more popular today than ever before. Originally a radical street sport for teenagers, skating has been taken up by grade school children. And although many communities are providing parks and arenas for skaters, requiring safety equipment, there are still many injuries associated with the sport. Sprained or fractured wrists are the number one injury and deaths due to collisions with motor vehicles and falls also occur. More than half of skateboarding injuries caused by falls are due to irregular riding surfaces. New, inexperienced skateboarders account for one-third of those injured. The
National Safety Council offers these skateboarding tips:
Learning how to fall
Using a skateboard
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| Lunch Box Safety When choosing healthy foods for children's lunches, be sure to also consider the safety of the meals being packed. Foods that are left out, sometimes for hours before being consumed, are prime breeding grounds for bacteria, and in as little as two hours food can become unsafe to eat. Food poisoning caused by bacteria is particularly threatening to children under the age of 5, and one in four people living in the United States will suffer food poisoning this year. Foods that are particularly susceptible to food borne bacteria:
Foods that are safe at room temperature:
Foods
can be kept cool by a combination of methods:
Keep foods hot by packing in a Thermos-type container that is first heated with boiling water. After considering all the special handling foods need, it's no wonder peanut butter and jelly is a lunch bag staple. It's not only inexpensive, but a quick, easy and safe-to-pack lunch. And it's nutritious and most kids like it! For variation, try using different nut butters, the vast selection of jams and jellies, and other choices of breads or crackers. A particularly delicious combination is homemade banana bread, hearty natural peanut butter and apricot jam. With a little forethought, lunches don't have to be boring or repetitious, but most important is for them to be safe. | |
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| Backpacks for Healthy Backs According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission there were more than 21,000 backpack-related injuries treated at hospital emergency rooms, doctors' offices, and clinics in 2002. Injury to muscles and joints can lead to severe back, neck, and shoulder pain, as well as posture problems and lifelong spinal problems.
The American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons recommends that a child's backpack should weigh no more than about 15 percent of the child's body weight. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that parents look for the following when choosing the right backpack:
Parents can help ensure their child's back health by being aware of how heavy a load is packed. Today's hardcover textbooks are large and heavy. Combined with lunch, notebooks, calculators and other necessities, it is easy to see how a bag can quickly become unsafe to carry. Discuss with school authorities the possibility of having extra sets of textbooks in classrooms and enough time for students to make frequent stops at their lockers throughout the day. Parents should also heed their children if there are complaints about heavy bags or pain and discomfort. | |
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| Safety in Cyberspace Many
of the 30 million people who are online are under 18. Is cyberspace a safe environment
for them? The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children offers the following
rules for youngsters who have access to the information superhighway.
The Internet is a medium that's here to stay and that can have tremendous benefits for education, science, marketing, entertainment and communications when used appropriately. You will need a little bit of education before you go online and a lot of vigilance once you are. Don't work without a safety net while you are on the "Net." | |
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Here are some suggestions to make trick-or-treating safe for Halloween fans:
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| How Safe is Your Bunk Bed? Kids and parents like bunk beds for different reasons. Kids who share space with a sibling enjoy having someone to talk with while falling asleep. Parents are happy to find a solution to small bedrooms. But children and adults need to be aware of risks associated with bunk beds and how to make bunking safer. Each year thousands of children wind up in hospital emergency rooms due to bunk bed injuries. Most of the time a child has fallen from the top bunk and suffered a minor injury. Sometimes goofing around in the bunks has caused an accident. Even fatal injuries from strangulation or suffocation occur when a bunk bed is not constructed and used safely. Here are important facts about bunk bed safety for parents and kids:
These rules apply for younger children and older children alike. There have been cases of teenagers suffering fatal injuries when the top beds fell on them. All children should be taught that rough play is unsafe around beds and other furniture. Extrapolated from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission website www.cpsc.gov | |
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| Did you know everyone under the age of 14 must wear a helmet while riding a bicycle in Suffolk County? Do you know why? Just as there are seat belt laws to protect us while we are driving or riding in our cars and helmet laws for riding motorcycles, there are laws to protect us when we ride bikes.
Why don't people older than 14 have to wear helmets? While it does make sense for everyone to be protected while riding bikes, as we get older and more experienced at handling a bicycle, watching out for cars and learning traffic rules, there's less chance of being hurt in a bike accident. But, there are counties and states that require everyone, no matter how old, to wear a helmet while riding a bicycle.
What if you're just riding in your neighborhood? Isn't it safe to ride without a helmet then? NO! You can't predict when you're going to be involved in an accident. Just being in your neighborhood doesn't mean it's OK to ride without your helmet.
Who is most at risk? Boys. Maybe because more boys ride bikes more often and farther than girls. Maybe because boys are generally less careful than girls. Maybe for a bunch of reasons.
So, how much safer are you if you wear a helmet? The statistics are shocking. Hopefully you will think of them the next time you are tempted to ride without your helmet. Also remember, you can encourage your friends to be safe by setting a good example since kids will be more likely to wear their helmets if their friends do.
OK. Now that you understand why you need to wear a helmet while riding on a bike, here are a couple of other things to think about:
NOTICE: Change in New York State's Helmet Law Starting July 1, 2002 scooter riders under the age of 14 will be required by law to wear helmets when riding scooters. The parent or legal guardian of a youth using a scooter with a helmet faces a warning for the first violation and a fine of up to $50 for subsequent violations. (section 1238 of the NYS V & T Law). * Statistics are a compilation from:
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Soccer has become a very popular sport on Long Island. Children play on organized teams and in neighborhood parks and streets. Nationally, more than 12 million children under the age of 18 play soccer each year. It has become the fourth most popular sport, following basketball, volleyball and softball with more than two million more people playing soccer than baseball each year. But many people aren't aware of how dangerous movable soccer goals can be, causing deaths and injuries to children each year. The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has released specific guidelines to try to reduce the risk to children who may climb on goals (and nets) or hang from crossbars. Most injuries are caused by heavy, unstable home-made goals made by high school shop classes, custodians, or local welders. Here are a few safety tips for soccer goals:
FOR SPECIFIC GUIDELINES AND MORE INFORMATION, VISIT THE CPSC WEBSITE AT: www.cpsc.gov | |
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Home trampolines have become very popular over the past few years partly because they are cheaper than ever before. When you use a trampoline in school (many schools now prohibit their use due to potential injuries), there is adult supervision, training on how to use the equipment properly and the equipment is maintained. But, a trampoline in a backyard can be an accident waiting to happen. In the year 2000, more than 70,000 children ages 5-15, suffered injuries using trampolines at home. There have been about 6 deaths involving trampolines since 1990. Most trampoline injuries are fractures, sprains, scrapes, bruises and cuts. They happen when more than two people are jumping at the same time and collide; from doing stunts and landing wrong; from falling or jumping off the trampoline, or from falling on the springs or frame of the trampoline. There are some things you can do to try to prevent injuries and still enjoy your backyard trampoline. Here are a few safety rules when using a backyard trampoline:
Extrapolated from:
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| GOPED NOTICE
As a motor vehicle, a goped would have to be licensed, registered, insured and inspected. However, gopeds cannot be licensed, registered or insured in New York State and therefore, may not be driven on any public roadway, including sidewalks and streets. These gasoline-powered vehicles can only be used on private property in New York State. While other states permit street use, with proper safety measures, such as age and helmet requirements, New York doesn’t. Police in many Long Island towns and villages are confiscating gopeds and issuing summonses to people operating them on public roadways. A rider can injure or even kill himself or others while riding a goped and could also cause serious property damage with the vehicle. Since a goped isn’t insured, the person using it could be arrested or sued. Parents can be held civilly liable for injuries and damage caused by their children riding gopeds. Parents with questions about gopeds should contact their local police traffic division. | |
Backpacks
provide a convenient, practical way to carry the necessities of a school day.
But keys to maintaining back health while carrying a load are careful choices
and proper use.
Gopeds,
those zippy little motorized crosses between a skateboard and a scooter, are popping
up all over the metropolitan area. Kids and adults alike are riding them in the
streets and on sidewalks in the city and in the suburbs. While they look easy
to maneuver and fun to ride, gopeds are actually illegal in New York State.