Living Safer - Vol. 7, Ed. 2

VOLUME 7 • EDITION 2

MAGAZINE

editor-in-chief

Stephanie Andre sandre@livingsafer.com

art director

Eva Talley

A LETTE R FROM TH E E D ITOR

etalley@livingsafer.com

Dear Friends,

a s s o c i at e e d i t o r

Brittany Monbarren What a great time of year. From warmer temps to family vacations, it’s an amazing time to spend some quality time with friends and family.

And what better way to do so than with a little road trippin’.

bmonbarren@livingsafer.com

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There’s something to be said for packing up the car with luggage, snacks, games and anything else to occupy the time. It brings me back to a simpler time and conjures up thoughts of “National Lampoon’s Vacation” and more.

ordering

orders@livingsafer.com

living safer

Now, as a parent myself, there’s a bit more thought that goes into planning a long-distance trip: Did I get the oil changed? Should I have the tires checked out? Is my car ready for this drive?

209 South Howard Avenue Tampa, FL 33606 813.225.1313

livingsafer.com

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@livingsafer

Thankfully, car safety standards are much more stringent these days, thanks, in part, to the National Highway Safety Transportation Administration (NHTSA) and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). These agencies — which test and rank all vehicles before coming to market — provide the general public with more access to information than ever before.

In this issue’s cover story, written by crash testing expert Peter J. Leiss, P.E., we discuss what these tests mean, how to use them when comparing vehicles and other safety systems that are available today.

I firmly believe that the best way to protect yourself and your family is with education.

Before buying your next vehicle, do the research. It will help ensure that your next road trip is the also the safest.

© 2015 by Claris Marketing, Tampa, Florida.

All rights reserved. Editorial and executive offices at 209 S. Howard Avenue, Tampa, FL

Best to you and yours,

33606. Telephone: 813-225-1313. Material in this publication may not be stored or reproduced in any form without permission.

Requests for permission should be made to Stephanie Andre, Editor-In-Chief, Living Safer,

Stephanie Andre, Editor-in-Chief

sandre@livingsafer.com. The opinions expressed in this publication are those of specific authors and are not intended to or do not necessarily represent the opinion or views of the publisher, staff or other authors.

living safer is your guide to all things safety.

Inside This Issue ON THE COVER

FEATURES

13

BRAIN BUSTERS: WHY WORKING THE MUSCLE IS YOUR KEY TO LONGEVITY

25

BUYING AND SELLING SAFELY ONLINE

28

CREDIT CHECK: THE IMPORTANCE OF MONITORING YOUR CREDIT REPORT

49

WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS NOW…IS TOLERANCE

59

RENT OR BUY? LOCATION, FINANCES, SITUATION ALL FACTORS

34 What Makes a Car Safe?

Increasing vehicle safety is an ongoing effort of industry and government engineers. Today, we have unprecedented access to information on how a vehicle performs in crash testing. This information allows the general public the ability to make informed choices when purchasing a vehicle, whether it is new or used. In this article we will decipher what the tests mean, how to use them when comparing vehicles, and other safety systems that are available today.

TRENDING TOPICS

06

OP/ED: FAT SHAMING IS BIGOTRY, PURE AND SIMPLE

23

GREEK LIFE: A RELIC OF THE PAST OR A NEEDED TOOL FOR THE FUTURE?

43

TRICK YOUR KIDS INTO EATING HEALTHY

52

DEAR COLLEGE FRESHMAN...

DEPARTMENTS 05

the pulse

09

tech trends

10

gadgetry : safety gadgets all new parents should own

THE CONSUMER’S GUIDE TO ALL THINGS SAFETY

We’re on the Web and in Your Hands.

Welcome to the all-new Living Safer, the same magazine you’ve come to know and love...just with a more inviting look and feel. And while the face may have changed, our pledge to you remains the same: to offer the best in safety information— from new trends and wellness to lifestyle, home and more.

Join the Conversation.

Share and comment on Living Safer stories by joining us on Facebook and Twitter and by visiting LivingSafer.com fb.com/LivingSafer / @livingsafer

TRENDING

by Stephanie Andre

What Matters to You? As of late, many highly controversial, political and hateful events have transpired. From the Charleston shootings to presidential campaigns, America is currently a hotbed for hotly contested thoughts and opinions.

But what matters to you? We want to know.

From ages-old bigotry to the newest notions—including the rise of Caitlyn Jenner and the Transgender community—hatred seems to be at an all-time high. Why is there so much hate?

The Charleston church shootings have shown us that racism is alive and well—not that we necessarily forgot. What do you think about gun laws and legislation? The idea of reformed gun control?

Are you worried about the new U.S.-Cuba diplomacy and whether or not that jeopardizes the safety of U.S. citizens?

How do you believe the 2016 presidential race will shape our country over the next decade?

What about the Supreme Court’s decision on laws regarding gay marriage? Does this really matter in 2015?

An additional theme to this issue of Living Safer stems these hotly debated and discussed topics; hatred, bigotry and racism seem to be more prevalent than ever. However, we also know that not all people are bad. In fact, most people are good. That kindness breeds and teaches the other side of the coin: tolerance.

Later in this issue, we discuss the ideas of teaching your children tolerance and how to be kind. It’s what the world needs now more than ever before.

Email me with your thoughts, opinions and answers at sandre@livingsafer.com.

@LIVINGSAFER / LIVINGSAFER.COM / 5

Fat Shaming

is Bigotry, Pure and Simple

by Bret Hanna

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he “top definition” for fat shaming in the Urban Dictionary is positively Orwellian. To paraphrase that definition, fat shaming is: A term made up by obese people to claim victim status in a male dominated society, instead of taking responsibility for being overweight and doing something about it.

Really? Isn’t it just plain-old being critical of and prejudiced against someone who doesn’t fit the fat shamer’s ideal body image?

While fat shaming is not gender specific, the percentage of women who report that they have been the target of fat shaming seems to be significantly higher than the percentage of men.

While that may lend some credence to the notion that fat shaming is a by-product of a male dominated society, the reports of fat shaming by bigger people of both genders underscores the notion that anyone who is bigger than the “ideal” is fair game for fat shamers. This does not seem to be any truer than in the context of the doctor-patient relationship.

Online reports of patients being shamed by their doctors are off the charts in terms of numbers. But some percentage of those reported cases of shaming may be nothing more than the doctor having poor bedside manners. And some may be the result of poorly communicated, genuine interest in the well-being of a patient whose health is in jeopardy because of morbid obesity.

But at the end-of-the-day, it doesn’t really matter if the perceived fat shaming is the result of actual fat shaming or the insensitivity of a doctor to his patients’ perceptions of themselves as an overweight person. Doctors should always strive to be polite, respectful and constructive in their interactions with their patients about the sensitive issue of weight, while focusing on the negative impacts obesity can have on overall health, as well as providing assistance with weight loss techniques if a patient is open to that assistance.

Outside of a doctor’s office, however, it is hard to imagine when it might be acceptable to comment on a person’s weight. It is certainly

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not appropriate at the office water-cooler, or in a corporate board room or conference room. It is not appropriate at family reunions, weddings, or funerals, or bar and bat mitzvahs. It is not appropriate on planes or trains, or at birthday and holiday parties.

Put simply, it is not appropriate to comment on a person’s weight outside of an appropriate medical setting. This is true even if the intent of commenter is not fat-shaming. The intent of the commenter really doesn’t matter because regardless of the intent, the recipient of the comment, or the intended recipient if the comment is not directed specifically to the recipient (the “passing comment” that is overheard by design), is most likely going to assume the intent is fat shaming.

The reason that the default mode should be refraining from commenting on a person’s weight, is because of all of the potential negative impacts such comments can have on the recipient. Ironically, studies show that one of the most notable negative effects of fat shaming is that those shamed gain weight, instead of losing weight. The theory is that in the face of criticism of their weight and appearance, those shamed binge eat and eat for comfort, rather than internalize the shaming as a motivator to lose weight. The other part of the weight-gain theory is that those shamed feel very selfconscious about exercising in public, so they avoid gyms and other places that people congregate to exercise.

Studies also show that fat shaming can lead to depression, anxiety and negative body image on the part of those shamed. And, also in the ironic category, those who do feel motivated by fat shaming to lose weight, often develop eating disorders such as anorexia, which drives them to the other end of the “unhealthy” scale when it comes to body weight. In sum, nothing good can come from fat shaming.

Please leave discussions of the weight of other people to qualified medical professionals. Find something else to talk about. Something like the weather. @LIVINGSAFER / LIVINGSAFER.COM / 7

Making the world safer one community at a time.

60 for Safety partners with grassroots nonprofit organizations to bring safetyrelated messages to your community. Give us 60 minutes, we'll help make a difference in the life of someone you know.

60forSafety.org fb.com/60forSafety AN INJURY BOARD PROJECT

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TECHNOLOGY

Top Education Apps and Website for School-Aged Children

by Brittany Monbarren

There are now more than 80,000 apps marketed as “educational” apps in the Apple store according to research published in the Psychological Science in the Public Interest. With the majority of the educational apps and websites targeted towards children, it can be difficult to find a quality program for your child. In fact, most of the educational apps and websites available today are nothing more than digital candy. To help parents sift through those “empty-calorie” programs, we’ve put together a list of some quality educational apps and websites for your school-aged child.

Duolingo With Duolingo, your child can learn a new language on-the-go through engaging in the programs mini-challenges that test reading, writing and speaking skills.

Your child can earn digital awards, communicate and compete with other users, and you can monitor their progress after every lesson. This easy-to-use program is appropriate for ages 5 years old and up; and available via app and website (www.duolingo.com).

Bitsboard Rated Top 5 Educational Game in the US App Store, Bitsboard by Alligator Apps is both an app and global platform of millions of teachers, parents, students and lifelong learners. Bitsboard offers free access to a variety of flashcards, games and carefully curated lessons for children (and adults!) to study almost anything for free.

Typing.com Typing.com is a free online typing tutor and keyboarding tutuorial for all skill levels. With the comprehensive typing games, tests and other activities, this site will teach your younger child the typing basics and prepare them for typing assignments. Also, many schools use this program for their keyboarding courses.

DragonBox Algebra DrangonBox is perfect for giving your child a head start in mathematics and algebra. It is designed to secretly teach children algebra by turning it into an intuitive and motivating game. There are two different versions of the app, one for younger children and the other for children 12 and up.

IXL Learning The IXL Learning program makes practicing math and language arts fun! It’s a comprehensive pre-K through 12 math program, as well as language arts for grades 2-8. With more than 4,000 unique and challenging lessons to master, IXL offers a dynamic and enjoyable environment for every learning style. The IXL Learning program is available via app and website (www.ixl.com). @LIVINGSAFER / LIVINGSAFER.COM / 9

Safety Gadgets All New Parents Should Own

by Brittany Monbarren As a parent, it is perfectly natural for you to worry about your baby’s health and safety.

Here are some of the latest gadgets to help keep your baby safe and secure.

Starfish Starfish is a weight-activated seat sensor that is placed in your baby’s car seat. The device automatically connects with your smartphone, sending you notifications when your baby is in his or her seat; and will notify you if you’ve left your baby in the car.

www.studiowhale.com

TempTraq TempTraq is a 24-hour temperature monitor patch that is placed under the arm of your baby. The patch works as a thermometer and continuously senses, records and sends alerts of your child’s temperature to your mobile device.

www.temptraq.com

MonBaby With its built-in sensor, the MonBaby breathing and rollover monitor can track your baby’s breathing rate, movement level and sleep position while sleeping. It also sends notifications to your smartphone.

www.monbaby.com

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Nest Dropcam Pro This is not just your typical baby monitor. The Nest Dropcam Pro is a wireless system that connects with your smartphone and let’s you monitor your baby when you’re at home or away.

www.nest.com

Infant Tub Clean water in. Dirty water out. The infant tub by 4 Moms is an infant bath tub that has a side drain that allows dirty water to drain out, while fresh water flows in. It also has a color-coded digital thermometer, making it easy to set the perfect temperature.

www.4moms.com

BabyGlgl Bottle The BabyGlgl smart baby bottle holder is great for the working parent. This bottle sends notifications to let parents know that their baby was feed, how much was consumed and at what time.

www.slowcontrol.com

@LIVINGSAFER / LIVINGSAFER.COM / 11

WELLNESS

Brain Busters:

Why working the muscle is your key to longevity

by Christopher Petruccelli

@LIVINGSAFER / LIVINGSAFER.COM / 13

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an a common sense lifestyle approach help with brain function? Can exercising your brain help with memory and cognitive function? Many reports point to the conclusion that while you are attempting to create the overall better you by the use of physical and mental exercise, brain function appears to have increased positive results.

Turn to any health article today and the consensus on how to maintain and improve the physical you and stave off the unwanted conditions or symptoms seems to be consistent. Eat better, limit stress, exercise regularly and get adequate rest. It appears for healthy brain function the same seems to hold true.

The combination of healthy living, with a mixture of exercise for both the body and mind, may be just what the doctor ordered for a total healthy you.

Just as regular exercise helps to promote healthy muscles, bones, heart and overall physical well-being, Heidi Goldman with Harvard Health Letter reports that a University of British Colombia study recently identified that aerobic exercise may, in fact, help with the increase in brain growth in areas involving verbal memory and learning. It is, as well, reported that this study comes at an important point in time where a new case of dementia is identified every four seconds globally.

In Psychology Today, Christopher Bergland reports video gaming studies, as well, showed increased uptake in brain MRI studies of older individuals placed on a video gaming regiment versus their counterparts not exposed to the brain challenge of gaming. Numerous studies mentioned showed a link between brain growth and gaming tasks. Assumptions jump to the next logical step of the possibility of the use of gaming or brain challenge training to therapeutically treat psychiatric conditions and even Alzheimer’s dementia.

In a January 2014 report, Bergland identifies that studies indicate doing such things as reading a novel may increase brain connectivity while in opposite watching television, “the least interactive media,” is most likely to reduce ultimate cognitive development.

It appears the word is out that testing and challenging the brain with exercise can be advantageous. Run a quick Internet search for brain games and you will quickly see that there is no shortage of puzzles, memory games, quizzes, card games, language skills, history, mystery, problem solving, word games and many more for your selection.

Additionally, studies show a lifestyle that includes socialization has a positive link to brain function. Elaine Lafay of The Michigan Daily reports that university studies draw a conclusion that social interaction and cognitive function have a direct relationship.

The conclusion holds that people with more social interaction performed better in memory tests and recall questions.

Obviously, a conscious lifestyle choice that includes healthy eating, exercise, reduction in stress and proper rest will create a healthier physical you. The by-product of this lifestyle choice can spill over into unlimited advantages, not only with your body’s ability to stave off or hold in check unwanted medical conditions, but it can also help with maintaining a robust mental thought process.

Choosing to add in the lifestyle choice of regular socialization, increased brain stimulating activities such as video games, reading, and other brain challenging activities, appears to show the possibility of increasing the healthier cognitive you, as well.

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E-cigarettes: Use Triples in Teens – Why?

By Tatum Lindbo he use of electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) is increasing rapidly, and the impact they have on teens is still unknown. So, why are so many teens using them these days? There are many reasons for this new trend and rising concerns from health officials.

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E-cigarettes Triple in Use in Teens Almost one in four teens use tobacco in some form, from cigars to pipes to e-cigarettes. Over the past year, the percentage of teens using e-cigarettes tripled. In 2014, 13.4% of high school students used e-cigarettes, which is up from 4.5% in 2013 and 1.5% in 2011.

Although e-cigarettes don’t contain tobacco or create smoke, they still contain addictive nicotine — which can harm brain development and get young people addicted.

Electronic or e-cigarettes are devices designed to mimic cigarettes. The metal tubes are made to look like real cigarettes and contain a cartridge filled with a nicotine-laced liquid that is vaporized by a battery-powered heating element. They come in a variety of flavors, nicotine levels, and claim to be a less dangerous alternative to smoking cigarettes.

Why are E-cigarettes so Popular?

Most teens use e-cigarettes as a form of recreation and do not see them as harmful because little is known about their safety because they’re fairly unregulated by the federal government.

According to the International Vapor Group, e-cigarettes are

“the future of smoking” — and this type of marketing is used to get teens to believe there are benefits to being cool by using e-cigarettes — but they won’t get cancer. Smoking e-cigarettes is the cool thing to do right now, and teens are easily subject to and act upon peer pressure.

Teens are also lured into smoking e-cigarettes by being told they have the following benefits:

No tobacco

No stained teeth

No tar

No odor

No smoke

No smoker’s breath

No ash To most teens, this sounds great. They can still get a nicotine fix without having all of the negative side effects regular smoking has.

Health Factors and Concerns According to a policy made by the American Heart Association, the recent rise in popularity of e-cigarettes threatens to reverse hard-fought progress in the war against smoking. The AHA is concerned about the impact on minors of e-cigarettes, and it has stated that these products may be another entry point for addiction among young people.

The FDA states that “E-cigarettes may contain ingredients that are known to be toxic to humans, and may contain other ingredients that may not be safe.” They also propose that since e-cigarette manufacturers are not required to submit clinical study data, the public has no way of knowing “whether e-cigarettes are safe for their intended use.” The FDA is also concerned that the marketing efforts of e-cigarettes may increase addiction to nicotine — particularly in teens — encouraging them to experiment with real tobacco products.

The Bottom Line Although the impact of e-cigarettes is still unknown, one thing is for certain: nicotine is addictive, and research shows that the earlier a person begins to use an addictive substance, the more likely they are to progress into more serious use.

The effects of substances — whether nicotine or anything else — have a more permanent effect on teen brains, and their effects can be more toxic than they would be to adults. It is important to be sure that teens are kept from developing negative addictive habits that have the potential to lead them to use and become addicted to harmful substances in the future.

@LIVINGSAFER / LIVINGSAFER.COM / 15

Payment Sources for

Non-medical Care

by Danny Feldman

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any people are surprised to learn that health insurance and Medicare cover medical (sometimes referred to as “skilled”) care, but do not cover nonmedical care (sometimes referred to as “non-skilled”).

Medical care includes care provided by doctors, registered nurses and therapists. Non-medical care usually is provided by certified nursing assistants (CNAs) or other caregivers.

Non-medical care consists of all the activities of daily living and can range from light housekeeping, meal preparation and transportation to assistance with bathing/showering, grooming and toileting.

People who are discharged home may receive a few visits a week from a skilled home health agency, but often, they may find they need help to accomplish the most basic activities of living, like taking a bath or shower, getting dressed, cooking, taking the trash out, etc. Medicare and insurance simply do not pay for these critical, but non-medical services. So, other than writing a check yourself, where can a senior find help to pay for these services?

First, the Veteran’s Administration, offers “aid and attendance” benefits of up to approx. $1,800/month for the veteran and $2,100/month for the couple. Certain criteria must be met — the senior must have a need for the services (as evidenced by the senior’s treating physician) and the senior must have served 1 day of active duty during war time as defined by the VA, 90 days of total duty and assets/income must be below certain parameters. There are companies who can help seniors with applying for VA benefits.

Another source of funds is through “long-term care” insurance policies which provide funds for homecare services.

Different providers have different criteria and different benefits, but typically eligibility is determined by the senior’s doctor or the insurance company’s designated RN or nursing service.

Elimination periods apply during which the senior is responsible for payment of the services (usually 30-90 days) and policies vary in the amount of the benefit. Some policies provide a certain amount of coverage a day (usually ranging between $80-$250); some by month; some policies pay up to a certain amount of dollars or for a certain time period; some policies are unlimited.

A third source of funds is through companies which allow a senior to convert life insurance to benefits which can be used to pay homecare. The amount of money available will depend on the amount of the life insurance policy and the senior’s health condition. For example, a senior may be able to convert a $100,000 policy to $25,000 of benefits. And, if the life insurance policy is close to lapsing due to a steep renewal increase, this can be a good way to receive an immediate benefit from a policy someone may have had in place for 50 years or more.

Finally, if a senior owns (or nearly owns) a house then a reverse mortgage may be available to allow the senior to be able to have the funds to pay for care to keep them in their house.

Although home care may seem expensive, in fact, it can be very affordable when compared to the alternatives. In Alabama, most assisted living facilities cost in the range of $3,000$3,500/month.

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A senior obtaining 20 hours of care per week at $18/hour will spend $360/week. So, the monthly cost of obtaining a little help to stay in the home is actually less than half the cost of moving to an assisted living. And, of course, most seniors would prefer to live in their own home as long as they are able to do so safely.

@LIVINGSAFER / LIVINGSAFER.COM / 17

Sleep Apnea and the Dreaded CPAP

By Ken Riley

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leep apnea is a sleep disorder that causes a person to struggle breathing throughout the night during sleep periods. The Greek word “apnea” literally means “without breath.” Many people who have sleep apnea do not even know they are affected by the disorder as most cases go undiagnosed.

Sleep apnea can be caused by a blockage of the airway when soft tissues in the throat collapse and close during sleep, as well as by a failure of the brain to signal the muscles to breathe. Snoring is commonly associated with signs that one may be suffering from sleep apnea. Those who suspect they may be suffering from sleep apnea can be diagnosed by a sleep specialist who can perform a simple sleep study, which is commonly performed in a sleep center or sleep lab.

People with untreated sleep apnea may stop breathing for a minute or more during the night but never fully wake up and notice. They simply feel tired or unrested day in and day out.

Some of the major medical conditions that stem from untreated sleep apnea include stroke, heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes and depression. Other common problems that can manifest from this disease include memory problems, weight gain, headaches and even impotence.

Once diagnosed with sleep apnea, patients have several treatment options. The CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) machine is the preferred non-surgical treatment.

The CPAP machine supplies pressurized air continuously or intermittently into the sleeper’s throat through a mask, which prevents the sleeper’s airway from collapsing. Unfortunately, it is estimated that approximately 40% of those diagnosed with sleep apnea and prescribed CPAP do not comply with consistent use.

Other treatments include surgery, which has a success rate of around 50%. Oral appliances have also proven to be effective with some patients. Lifestyle alterations can greatly reduce the

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incidences of sleep apnea as well. Weight loss is most commonly recommended by physicians followed by positional therapy (sleeping on your side as opposed to your back) and abstinence from alcohol before bedtime. There are new treatments coming online that may become mainstream, but for the time being, the CPAP machine is still king.

Admittedly, using a CPAP machine is not generally comfortable, convenient or glamorous. But the consequences to refusing this therapy as prescribed can be devastating.

Generally speaking, moderate to severe patients are prescribed CPAP. This means that the risk factors for those individuals are elevated and the potential harm that can result is life-shortening or even life-threatening.

Consider that the human brain starts to suffer severe damage after as little as four minutes without oxygen. Now, consider that during episodes throughout the night, a person with sleep apnea can stop breathing for as long as a minute at a time without noticing. This can happen multiple times during one sleep cycle.

As a person’s brain is starved for the requisite air, the oxygen stores are depleted such that someone’s body may simply wear down and be caused to suffer from a heart-related event, stroke or respiratory failure. Because this happens to people while they are asleep, it is many times too late to revive the person once they are discovered. Often times, if the person’s vital functions are able to be revived and stabilized, it is very common for the person to have suffered severe, irreversible brain damage which many times results in coma.

The risks of noncompliance are real and dangerous. If someone you know shows signs of sleep apnea, has been diagnosed with the condition and/or refuses to comply with prescribed treatment, please act immediately to educate that person on the potential devastation that can result from simply not getting diagnosed or not following the doctor’s orders.

@LIVINGSAFER / LIVINGSAFER.COM / 19

Gestational Diabetes Linked to Autism

by Jim Edward iabetes that develops early in pregnancy increases the risk of autism by 40%, according to a large new study of more than 320,000 children and their mothers.

The increased risk may stem from the effects of uncontrolled high blood sugar during a critical window of early brain development, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

“While the increased risk of autism in this study is modest, the findings add to the growing body of research showing that pregnancy is particularly sensitive period for children’s brain development,” comments epidemiologist Michael Rosanoff, Autism Speaks director for public health research.

To provide perspective, the increased autism risk seen with early gestational diabetes translated into roughly seven additional cases per 1,000 pregnancies.

“Rather than spark anxiety, the findings should underscore the importance of comprehensive prenatal care and monitoring for the health of a woman and her baby,” says developmental pediatrician Paul Wang.

The study, led by investigators at Kaiser Permanente and the University of California-Los Angeles Keck School of Medicine.

So, what’s the difference between increasing risk versus causing autism? Gestational diabetes develops in 6 to 7 percent of pregnancies, usually during the last trimester. It often produces no symptoms. So it can easily go unnoticed unless a woman is getting regular prenatal checkups with blood tests.

The new study found no increased autism risk when gestational diabetes develops after 26 weeks of pregnancy. “It was only the less-

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common situation of gestational diabetes arising early in pregnancy that showed an increased risk,” Wang notes.

Autism prevalence was also higher among the children of mothers who entered pregnancy with pre-existing type 2 diabetes. However, the investigators showed that, in this scenario, the increased risk was due to other conditions associated with a mother’s type 2 diabetes. These included being an older mom or having other health conditions such as heart, lung, kidney or liver disease.

By contrast, the increased autism risk seen with early gestational diabetes remained significant even after adjusting for the mother’s age and other health conditions.

The authors propose that the lack of added risk with pre-existing diabetes may be because most obstetricians take care to control known diabetes during pregnancy. All the women in the study were enrolled in a managed healthcare plan (Kaiser Permanente) that provides comprehensive diabetes and prenatal care.

Once detected, gestational diabetes can be effectively managed.

Sometimes diet and exercise are enough, according to American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Sometimes medication is needed as well.

The Bigger Picture A large body of research has shown that diabetes and related metabolic disorders during pregnancy can have long-lasting health effects on children. Studies looking specifically at maternal diabetes and autism have produced mixed results. This may be because earlier studies did not separate out the risk associated with early gestational diabetes (before 26 weeks).

Fashion Faux Pas?

Squatting in ‘skinny’ jeans can damage nerve, muscle fibers in legs and feet

By Lily Grace earing skinny jeans could actually cause bodily harm.

In fact, squatting in “skinny’”jeans for a protracted period of time can damage muscle and nerve fibers in the legs, making it difficult to walk, reveals a case study published online in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery & Psychiatry.

Doctors describe a case of a 35-year-old woman who arrived at the hospital with severe weakness in both her ankles. The previous day she had been helping a relative move houses, and had spent many hours squatting while emptying kitchen cabinets.

She had been wearing tight ‘skinny’ jeans and recalled that these had felt increasingly tight and uncomfortable as the day wore on.

Later that evening, she experienced numbness in her feet and found it difficult to walk, which caused her to trip and fall. Unable to get up, she spent several hours lying on the ground before she was found.

Her calves were so swollen that her jeans had to be cut off her. She couldn’t move her ankles or toes properly and had lost feeling in her lower legs and feet.

Investigations revealed that she had damaged muscle and nerve fibers in her lower legs as a result of prolonged compression while squatting, which her tight jeans had made worse, the doctors suggest.

Her diagnosis? Compartment syndrome, a condition that results from increased pressure in a confined body space, like, from wearing skinny jeans.

She was put on an intravenous drip and after four days she could walk unaided again, and was discharged from the hospital.

The injury kept her from being able to walk for days, highlighting the hidden dangers of hipster fashion.

“I would certainly say, be cautious about wearing skinny jeans when doing this sort of activity,” study co-author Thomas Kimber, a neurologist at Royal Adelaide Hospital and the University of Adelaide, in Australia, who treated the woman.

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“If she’d been wearing loose, flowing trousers, the muscles could have swelled outward,” Kimber said. But in the skinny jeans, her swollen muscles “had nowhere to go, except down onto the nerves and the blood vessels,” he said.

There have been a handful of reports in which wearing tight pants have compressed nerves in the groin and caused numbness in the thigh. But as far as the researchers know, this was the first report that wearing tight jeans caused damage to these particular nerves and muscles.

A New Trend?

This type of lower leg nerve injury is often caused by compression of the nerves near the top of the calf bones, such as from prolonged squatting.

In the woman’s case, wearing skinny jeans probably made the problem worse by building up pressure in her legs, the researchers said. @LIVINGSAFER / LIVINGSAFER.COM / 21

FIGHTING FOR INJURY PREVENTION AND JUSTICE PRESERVATION ACROSS THE COUNTRY. The Civil Justice Foundation is a national charitable organization dedicated to safeguarding justice for all Americans by strengthening the alliance between trial attorneys and consumer advocacy groups.

It is the only national foundation devoted solely to protecting the individual rights, health and well-being of the injured — providing small but significant grants to the tireless organizations fighting for injury prevention and justice preservation across the country.

How Do We Do It? The Civil Justice Foundation is proud to award grants to grassroots organizations that are at the forefront of the consumer advocacy movement — particularly to groups that have difficulty securing traditional funding because they are newly organized and/or address a controversial issue.

To date, the Foundation has awarded more than $1.4 million to more than 110 of these groups.

www.civiljusticefoundation.org

LIFESTYLE

Fraternities & Sororities

A relic of the past or a needed tool for the future?

by J.R. Whaley and Luke Zhu

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he American Greek fraternity system began with a simple goal: to provide a gathering place for like-minded students to promote scholarships, exchange rhetoric, and explore morality. By restricting memberships to only learned upperclassmen and faculties, the fraternities ensured that their scholarly pursuits were not spoiled by naivety. These fraternities wielded influence and prominence within universities, and sometimes garnered respect and envy from non-members.

Fast-forward to today. The fraternity system looks drastically different. The majority of fraternities are now social in nature. Their rush classes consist of mostly freshmen, typically 18 years of age.

The words “respect” and “prominence” are rarely ever publicly spoken in conjunction with “Greek life.”

At first glance, it seems that today’s fraternities and sororities are plagued with immature, and sometimes malicious, behaviors.

Recently, a group of Sigma Alpha Epsilon members from the University of Oklahoma were captured on video reciting a racist chant. The Kappa Delta Rho fraternity at Pennsylvania State University was suspended by the school for sharing photos of nude and semi-nude women without their knowledge or consent.

Sororities are not immune from boorish behavior either. A group of fraternities and sororities (Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity, Sigma Delta Tau sorority, Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity, Alpha Phi sorority, Chi Psi fraternity and the Delta Gamma sorority) from the University of Michigan reportedly trashed a ski resort, causing hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage.

These reprehensible acts have caused some to view fraternities as a nuisance within universities. Some question if fraternities and sororities have lost sight of the virtues and values envisioned by their founders. Some ask: “Are fraternities and sororities a relic of the past?”

According to a report by the North-American Interfraternity Conference (NIC), a trade association representing 74 International and National men’s fraternities, there are currently 372,090 undergraduate fraternity members. It is unsurprising that a group of this scale will produce a few mischiefs. It is unfortunate, however, that the media tend to sensationalize the negative few and paint the entire fraternity system with broad strokes. Bill Gates once said in an interview, “Headlines in a way are what mislead you because bad news is a headline and gradual improvement is not.” Mr. Gates’ statement appears especially true in the context of fraternities and sororities.

A recent Rolling Stone article, detailing an alleged gang rape that occurred inside a University of Virginia fraternity, was picked up by every major media outlet and began a scathing debate on the dangers of “frats.” This article was later discredited and retracted, however.

Around the same time, the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity at the University of Missouri set the largest single fraternity philanthropy donation record by raising more than $132,000 for the American Cancer Society. This news, regrettably, was only picked up by the local news and did not gain any traction on a national basis.

Digging deeper, it becomes clear that the benefits of the fraternity system go largely unnoticed. According to the NIC, member fraternities raised more than $20.3 million philanthropic dollars for the 2013-2014 academic year. Most fraternities impose strict academic requirements, such as minimum GPAs

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and mandatory study hours. USA Today reports that “college graduation rates are 20% higher among Greeks than non-Greeks.”

Many fraternities also encourage their members to pursue graduate education by offering graduate scholarships. Sigma Chi, for example, offers the Reid Eskridge Grigsby Sigma Chi Law Scholarship for any member attending LSU Law. Fraternities and sororities are also teaming up to prevent sexual violence and abusive relationships among college students.

According to The Washington Post, more than 1,400 fraternity and sorority chapters around the country will participate in an educational program that will teach an estimated 120,000 college students on topics such as bystander intervention, healthy relationships, misconceptions about sexual assault and resources and tips for supporting rape survivors.

The fraternity system today is fighting an uphill public relations battle. In order to prevent the few “bad apples” from tarnishing the reputation of fraternities as a whole, every member must lead by example and hold themselves, and other members, responsible.

Michael Greenberg, 68th Grand Consul of Sigma Chi, advises that there needs to be “greater mentorship and alumni support” within the chapters to prevent young men and women from making bad decisions. Each member, Greenberg goes on to say, should strive to be “more accountable to the rituals and values” of their respective fraternity and sorority.

“If a member makes a mistake,” Greenberg says, “he must take responsibility and make sure to learn from his mistake.”

Greenberg also notes the positive attributes of Greek life such as:

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Greek life provides a moral compass for its members.

Most Greek organizations have a certain belief system or ritual that encourages its members to act appropriately. If members understand and follow these instructions, many of the problems on public display would not occur.

2 Greek life teaches problem solving and conflict resolution.

Being a part of any organization larger than ourselves requires us to navigate situations and come to successful conclusions.

3 Greek life teaches leadership. Being part of an organization allows its members to grow as leaders and then take those learned qualities to their campus and beyond.

4 Greek life teaches responsibility. An appropriately functioning fraternity or sorority holds members accountable for their actions and inactions. This includes academic performance, as well as social behavior.

It is reasonable to expect that college aged students might do dumb things at times. But by implementing broad accountability and internal supervision, fraternities today can not only achieve the expectations set out by their founders, they can, in fact, surpass them. Fraternities and sororities have the structure and tradition in place to instill proper respect, leadership, and social etiquettes to the incoming Generation Z—a generation known for their “selfies,” sense of entitlements, and a distaste for authority. Thus, fraternities and sororities are not relics of the past, but a necessary rite of passage to instill positive attributes in college-aged students.

Know the Dos & Don’ts of

Buying and Selling Safely Online

By Matthew Casey ver the past few years, there has been an increase in the number of crimes against people buying and selling items using online marketplace websites, such as Craigslist.com.

Just in the last six months, an elderly couple in Georgia was killed while trying to purchase their dream car through an ad they saw on Craigslist. In St. Louis, a college student was killed by a person wanting to buy his sports car, which was posted for sale on Craigslist.

Criminals prey on overly trusting victims. They use online marketplaces as a way to gain access to people, their money, and their possessions. But, for every terrible news story about an online

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sale gone wrong, there are thousands of successful transactions every day.

People use these online marketplaces because it is free to post an ad and, in most cases, you can deal with a local person—which eliminates the need for shipping. The popularity of these sites has skyrocketed because people can quickly and easily sell large or small items without holding a full-blown yard sale.

People have been buying and selling their unwanted things for years. Whether you do it through an estate sale, a yard sale, an ad in the local paper, a bulletin board or use an online selling site—the number one rule of engagement remains the same: use common sense. @LIVINGSAFER / LIVINGSAFER.COM / 25

But, keep in mind that if you reply to an email inquiry that person now has your personal email. If you do not want to give out your personal email address, use a disposable email from a site like Mailinator or GishPuppy.

Below is a complete list of common sense precautions you should always follow when buying or selling online:

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Talk to the person over the phone and ask qualifying questions before agreeing to meet at any location.

Nefarious people can hide behind texts and emails. Hearing their voice and how they answer questions will help determine if they are someone with whom you want to do business.

10 Never use money wiring services for payment. This is the payment method of choice for criminals—especially foreign criminals.

Don’t go alone. Bring a person with you to witness the transaction and keep an eye out for your safety. (In both of the aforementioned cases, the victims drove alone to an area they were not familiar with to meet the other party.)

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Insist to meet at a public place such as a police station or a

Check a buyer or seller’s history before doing business with them. Most people know eBay has a rating system for buyers and sellers, so you can gauge their track record.

However, most people don’t know that Craigslist also has a rating system called craigguard.com, which works similarly to the eBay format of providing feedback after a transaction.

well-lit big box store parking lot.

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Bring your cellphone. Inform another person of your plans —where you are going, who you are meeting, what you are selling, and who is going with you.

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Always meet during daylight hours.

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Do not meet in a secluded area.

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Do not invite strangers into your home, and do not go to

12 Never buy anything before viewing the item in person.

And, likewise, be leery of a person wanting to buy something from you sight unseen.

13 GPS-enabled smartphones put a geotag on photos taken with your phone, which has the location of where the photos were taken. The online site may or may not remove this information before uploading a photo. You should always remove geotags from your photos before uploading to any online site.

their home.

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Be cautious when buying or selling high value items.

Accept only cash or money orders.

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Do not give out any personal or financial information.

Craigslist allows you to use a company provided proxy email.

14 If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. If you encounter another party who is not agreeable to your terms and conditions, that is a red flag and you should avoid doing business with that person. Keep searching for the right buyer/ seller—as there are plenty of reputable people using these online selling sites.

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The Lowdown on Your Credit Score

By Mark Bello credit score measures your financial responsibility. It has a huge impact on your financial life whether you are applying for a home loan, car loan, credit card, or a loan to finance college tuition; looking to rent an apartment; getting insurance. It is also used to determine the rate of interest.

There are five factors that influence credit scores:

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Payment history (Paid on time?

History of late payments?)

Type of loan accounts Accumulated debt-to-income ratio Age of customer credit accounts Most recent credit application (When was the last time customer opened a new credit line?)

The higher your credit score, the stronger the indication to lenders that your debt will be repaid as scheduled. That is why you should monitor your credit report and score at least once every 12 months, and why you should know exactly what your credit score is; you must also develop good credit habits to keep those scores as high as possible.

Despite the importance of credit-worthiness and diligent monitoring, a recent survey conducted by the American Bankers Association found that less than half of U.S. consumers know their credit score. Are we Americans afraid to know the truth? Do we think that it is unimportant?

Good reasons to monitor your credit score: It will determine access to credit. Lenders (home, auto, tuition, etc.), look at credit scores to determine risk. When scores are high, a prospective borrower will have an easier time obtaining credit. A poor score could cause a lender to decline the loan application.

It will determine the interest rate you will pay. Not only do credit scores affect loan approval, they often determine interest rates offered. If an applicant has a high credit score, he/she will 28 / LIVING SAFER / VOL 7 ED 2

be offered credit at a lower interest rate than an applicant with a poor credit score.

A high credit score is appealing to landlords.

Landlords often pull the credit history of a prospective tenant to uncover any patterns of late or delinquent payments. No landlord wants the risk of tenants who fail to pay rent. A low credit score is suggestive that the prospective tenant is a high risk and will often result in the denial of a rental application.

A low credit score can mean paying (or paying higher) deposits.

Utility companies — gas, water, electric — offer services upfront, with a promise that the customer will pay the bill in full every billing cycle. With so much at stake, utility companies will often check credit to ensure that the consumer will make good on the promise. A customer with a poor credit score suggests payment lapses or lateness and could result in the requirement of a deposit or co-signer upon default.

Monitoring credit report and score will help detect identity theft. Running regular checks and credit scores will alert consumers to any sudden, negative, changes. Because these changes may have resulted from fraudulent activity, the consumer will know instantly if someone has obtained new credit, rented a house, signed up for utilities, or even gotten a new job in his/her name.

Reporting such theft instantly will minimize damage and pain. A national credit reporting company can help stop credit fraud and prevent future misuse of identity. If you discover you’re a victim of identity theft, it’s a good idea to monitor your credit and report damaging and fraudulent information as it appears. You can also add a fraud alert to your credit report.

Additionally, if your credit card and/or other personal information has been compromised due to a data breach, it is a good idea to pull your credit report.

To get and keep a good credit score, pay all your loans on time, make sure information in your credit report is correct, and don’t use any more credit that you absolutely need.

How do you obtain a credit report and what does it cost?

Under federal law you are entitled to a copy of your credit report annually from all three credit reporting agencies —

Experian®, Equifax® and TransUnion®. Because each reporting agency collects and records information in different ways; each may not have ‘the same information about your credit history.

Obtain a credit report from each one. For example, Experian reports on-time rent payments; Equifax and TransUnion only report negative rent data. Experian has status details for each closed or transferred account. Equifax lists open and closed accounts separately which is convenient for anyone not quite sure about their financial situation. Consumers can also view which accounts have been closed and why. TransUnion has the most detailed employment section. It lists company name, position and date hired.

This is important because it shows potential lenders how long a consumer has been with his/her current employer. Applicants with two years or more of employment history at their current employer are more likely to be approved for credit.

While you can obtain all three reports at once, you can also space out report receipts to one every four months. Credit reports can often change multiple times a year because the consumer uses existing credit or opens new credit accounts. Relocation, a job change or transfer can also cause reporting changes. Thus, spacing out reports will assist in assuring accurate information over the longer haul.

Consumers may request reports at four-month intervals by visiting www. annualcreditreport.com. Complete personal information and choose to view one report instead of all three.

In four months, log on again; choose a different bureau’s report to view. Four months later, request a report from the remaining bureau.

What should you look for once you obtain your credit report?

It is important to make sure all information is accurate.

Studies have found as many as four in five credit reports actually contain errors; 25% of these mistakes are egregious enough to cost someone a loan. Errors exist on credit reports for a many reasons. Maybe you used a shortened version of your name (Chris versus Christopher) on a credit application, or maybe your lender transposed two numbers of your Social Security number. Your payments could be applied to the wrong account, or someone else’s payments could be applied to yours.

Catching mistakes early is extremely important because some errors may be difficult to repair. If you find a mistake in your credit report, write to both the consumer reporting agency and the creditor that provided the information, if applicable. Tell them what you think is wrong and why. Include copies of any documents that support your position.

Given the ease in which you can obtain your credit report and score, there is no reason not to review it on a regular basis. Because your credit score follows you forever and plays a major role in your financial health and well-being, in the end, what matters most is that you use credit responsibly, keep debts low, pay your bills on time, and monitor your reports.

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Seatbelt Usage Decades of Data Prove They Save Lives

By Sheila Hiestand

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ince the 1980s, all states and commonwealths across the country have implemented both mandatory seat belt laws and child restraint laws, except New Hampshire. While each state differs, the general rule is that drivers and passengers in the front seats must be wearing seat belts, and that children under certain ages and weights must be in child safety seats.

Some states can stop you outright for the sole failure to wear your seat belt (primary enforcement), while others must have another grounds for detaining you before they can add the seat belt citation. Whatever the laws, they seem to be working.

Per the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, seat belts saved an estimated 12,174 lives in 2012. Based upon their studies they have also found that front seat drivers and passengers who wear the full three-point restraint reduce their risk of fatal injury by 60% in SUVs, vans and pickups, and 45% in cars.

Perhaps most informative is the finding that most fatalities occur to occupants who are not restrained, according to IIHS. Young adults have the highest crash-related injury rates of all adults.

As noted above, some states have had higher success with avoiding injury by allowing primary enforcement (allowing a stop

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for the sole violation of failing to wear a seat belt). Bottom line, research by both the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention and the insurance industry support the mantra that “Seatbelts Save Lives.”

It is time to acknowledge the safety and efficacy of seat belts, and to teach our children and our families, by example, that a motor vehicle should not be started until everyone is safely belted in. Gone are the days of lying in the back of the station wagon or sitting in the open bed of a pickup. The realities are much more gruesome than any fond memories that we of the older generation may have. This is not a question of choice and freedoms. It is a mandate of safety.

As summer vacation is upon us, and we all trek into the wild for family outings, please remember these statistics, the laws requiring seatbelt usage, and the findings of the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. As they say, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure—and the slight inconvenience of a seat belt is well worth your life and the lives of the people you love. Be safe out there and have a terrific summer.

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Do You Know How to Choose the Right

Running Shoe?

by Jim Edward

hese days, who isn’t a runner? It’s quite the rage: from 5k and marathons to running clubs and theme races, it seems like everyone’s getting in on the action.

Whether a novice or experienced runner, do you know what’s right for your feet? How do you know which running shoes are right for you? Here are some thoughts, courtesy of WebMD.

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Know Your Running Profile The best first step in finding the right running shoes is knowing what you will be doing with them, says Bruce Wilk, physical therapist and owner of The Runner’s High, a running specialty store in Miami. Are you a jogger or a runner? Do you run 15 miles a week or 25? Do you run on trails, asphalt, or a treadmill?

Are you training for a race?

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Identify Your Running Style Know how you run, says Wilk. It’s important to determine where a person first comes in contact with the ground. Is it the outside of the heel? Is it at the inside of the forefoot?

If you’re a forefoot runner, you should be wearing a running shoe like the Nike Vomero, which has most of its cushion in front. If you run from heel to toe, the Asics Gel Kayano might be the right running shoe for you.

Be sure to identify any injuries you have developed from running, as well. Problems like shin splints, blisters, tendonitis, and plantar fasciitis often can be reversed with the proper fitting running shoes.

Not only the size, but the shape of our feet change over time, she adds. If your foot flattens, for example, you may need to change the type of shoe you buy from one designed for stability to one with motion control.

Dress the Part Don’t go shopping for a new pair of running shoes wearing a suit, or flip-flops and no socks, says Isphording. “Wear what you would wear to run,” she says, “especially wear the right sock. And if you have special shoe inserts or orthotics, bring those along, too.”

Forget Fashion Know Your Arch The shape of your arch helps determine whether you pronate (roll to the inside of the foot), supinate (roll to the outside of the foot) or remain pretty neutral when you run.

Supinators (sometimes called underpronators) are rare, says Wilk. Many more people overpronate, which can lead to lots of overuse injuries.

“Get to know your arch,” says exercise physiologist Jesse Pittsley, PhD, director of exercise science at Winston-Salem State University in North Carolina. “If a person has really flat feet, they’re going to need more of a stability shoe but with a higher arch, they’ll need more of a curved shoe.”

Many stores that sell running shoes will give you a “wet test,” that is, they moisten the bottom of your foot and have you make an imprint on a sidewalk or dark piece of paper to determine the size of your arch.

Test 360 Degrees When you are being fitted for running shoes, it’s not only important that there is enough space in the toe box when you stand, your whole foot should fit on the platform of the shoe, Wilk says.

The running shoe shouldn’t squeeze the foot, and the entire width of the foot should be touching the base of the shoe.

Shop Late Feet swell during the day, says Julie Isphording, a former Olympic runner and organizer of Cincinnati’s historic Thanksgiving Day Race.

They also swell during a run, so trying on running shoes when your feet are at their largest is going to give you the most comfortable fit.

Bring Your Old Shoes When you are shopping for a new pair of running shoes, bring your old ones along, Isphording says. No, you don’t get to have them resoled or trade them in, but you can help the salesperson determine what kind of running shoes you need by having him look at the pair you’ve been wearing. The salesperson will look at the way your old shoe is worn to confirm your running patterns.

Get Measured Feet actually change as we age, says Isphording. “As adults,” she says, “we rarely have our foot measured because we just assume we know our size.”

Determining your shoe size is essential for a comfortable fit. Keep in mind, too, that the size you wear in a Saucony shoe may not be the size you wear in an Adidas shoe.

Be careful about buying a shoe for looks, warns Wilk.

“The average time a consumer takes to pick out a pair of running shoes is about 10 to 15 seconds,” says Wilk.

Knowing that, he says shoe manufacturers will use characteristics like looks, weight (lightness) and cushion to sell shoes because these are tactile factors that appeal to consumers.

Don’t Overdue It Even if you find out you are a pronator with flat feet and weak ankles, you may not necessarily want to buy the stiffest, bulkiest— what people in the industry call the “motion control”—shoe, suggests Pittsley.

“The human body was made to move,” he says. “If the shoe is too bulky, it almost causes the shoe to compensate for your weaknesses. A person should be able to control his own ankles and should be able to control the shock (the natural occurrence of the foot hitting the surface) a little,” he says. “If you do it all with the shoe, it’s like crutches to you.”

In other words, he says, you may be doing yourself a disservice by getting an injury prevention running shoe before you actually need it: “Medium-weight trainers might satisfy many people.”

Try, Try, Try Once a salesperson can narrow down the type of runner you are and the type of foot you have, he or she will likely have several options for you. Try them all, says Isphording. Don’t rush. Take your time trying on and testing shoes.

Test Drive Most good specialty running stores will have a treadmill in the store where you can try out your shoes. If there’s no treadmill, ask to run somewhere close by. Trying on a shoe is much different than running in it. After all, you don’t just sit in a car and decide you want to buy it, you start the engine and take it around the block.

This is a key step in the process, he says. Wilk asks customers to run at pace and then asks these questions: How does the shoe feel on initial contact? How does it transition? Is there anything that’s rubbing you wrong or hitting wrong on the shoe?

Shoe Odometer “Always date your shoes when you buy them,” says Isphording.

Don’t keep them longer than six months or 500 miles. “Even if they still look pretty, throw them away,” she says. There is a high risk of injury when running with worn out shoes. @LIVINGSAFER / LIVINGSAFER.COM / 33

COVER

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by Peter J. Leiss, P.E.

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ncreasing vehicle safety is an ongoing effort of industry and government engineers. Today, we have unprecedented access to information on how a vehicle performs in crash testing. This information allows the general public the ability to make informed choices when purchasing a vehicle, whether it is new or used. In this article we will decipher what the tests mean, how to use them when comparing vehicles, and other safety systems that are available today.

The science of protecting occupants from injury and death in collisions is referred to as Crashworthiness. Crashworthiness principles have been studied and countermeasures developed for decades. These principles center around maintaining adequate occupant survival space, providing proper restraint throughout a collision, dissipating crash forces, and preventing post collision fuel fed fires.

Vehicles today are equipped with an extraordinary amount of hardware and software designed to reduce the amount of collisions we have and when a collision occurs reducing the risk of serious injury and death to the occupants. There are a dizzying array of alphabet soup monikers applied to these technologies, and possibly some confusion as to what they actually do.

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T​he National Highway Transportation Safety Administration and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, for starters.

The NHTSA enacted the 5-Star program in 1978 to make it easier for consumers to know and compare the crash test performance of a vehicle. This 5-Star rating system is applied to frontal and side crash testing and rollover resistance. The NHTSA does not assign a 5-Star rating for roof crush resistance or the availability of electronic driver aids such as frontal crash detection and prevention.

For the 2011 model year, the NHTSA introduced tougher tests and scoring methods for the 5-Star rating system. When comparing vehicle scores, it is not possible to directly compare a 2010 model year vehicle with a 2011 model year vehicle.

NHTSA 5-Star ratings can be viewed at www.safercar.gov.

IIHS, a nonprofit organization that operates independently of the auto manufacturers and the federal government to lower occupant injury and property damage claims through safer vehicles, has its own test facilities and crash test procedures.

The IIHS has a 4-step rating system for all of their tests.

From best to worst, they are Good, Average, Marginal and Poor. IIHS posts photos, videos and tests information, such as crush, forces measured on the test dummies, and available safety features for a vehicle on their website. The IIHS also complies its Top Safety Pick and Top Safety Pick + vehicle every model year. To be included in these lists, a vehicle must perform well in all IIHS tests. I​IHS ratings can be viewed at www.iihs.org.

5-STAR, GOOD, TOP SAFETY PICK – SAFE IS SAFE, RIGHT?

COMPARING DIFFERENT VEHICLES' RATINGS

The NHTSA and the IIHS both have frontal and side impact crash tests procedures. The tests are widely different in procedure and what they tell consumers about the ability of the vehicle to protect its occupants in a collision. There is no direct comparison, to evaluate the safety of a vehicle and one must look at both sets of ratings.

Also, the IIHS tests and rates vehicles for roof crush resistance, a measure of how well a vehicle will protect its occupants in a roll-over collision and rates the forward crash mitigation systems, if available. The NHTSA has no 5-Star rating for either type of these tests.

Frontal crash testing—whether it’s performed by NHTSA or IIHS—involves a moving test vehicle striking an immovable barrier. The barrier can be flat, contoured, rigid, deformable, angled, offset to one side, or completely overlap the front of the test vehicle.

Because the test car is moving and the barrier is anchored, the frontal test results can only be compared between vehicles of similar weight. In frontal impacts physics always wins; all things being equal except weight the heavier vehicle will have less damage and decreased risk of occupant injury. Side crash testing usually involves the test vehicle at rest being struck by a moving deformable barrier (MDB). Because the test vehicle is stationary, the effects of its mass are eliminated and these test results can be compared between all vehicles.

STANDARD VS. OPTIONAL Some safety systems are initially only available as optional equipment or only available on certain models of a vehicle.

Whether buying a new or used vehicle it is important to know what features are on the particular vehicle you are buying. A new car is easier to confirm because the equipment is laid out on the window sticker.

On a used car, it may be difficult to tell exactly what equipment the vehicle is equipped with. A servicing dealer of that make should be able to tell you what equipment that vehicle has if you give them the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN). Some manufacturers may have this information available from their website as well.

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FRONTAL IMPACT TESTING The NHTSA and IIHS have different test procedures for frontal crash tests. The 5-Star test procedure consists of the test vehicle striking a rigid barrier head on with the full width of the vehicle at 35 MPH. The IIHS has 2 frontal crash tests, the moderate overlap and the small overlap.

The moderate overlap test procedure consists of the test vehicle striking a deformable barrier shaped in the profile of a vehicle bumper, lights, and hood with 40% of the vehicle’s front end at 40 MPH. The 40% overlap forces the vehicle

SIDE IMPACT TESTING According to the IIHS, about one-third of vehicular deaths occur in side impacts. Providing protection for vehicle occupants in side impact collisions presents a challenge to vehicle engineers.

Compared with frontal impacts, there is a relatively shallow crumple zone for deformation between the occupants and the vehicle structure, and consequently less time to discern and deploy countermeasures such as airbags to prevent injuries from occurring. In IIHS crash testing without side airbags, it is not uncommon for the struck side dummies head to travel through the window frame and strike the MDB.

to dissipate the crash force with only one frontal structural rail instead of both, creating a much higher stress on the struck side structure than a full overlap collision. The small overlap test consists of the test vehicle striking a rigid barrier mimicking a vehicle, pole, or tree with only a 25% overlap of the front end at 40 MPH. This test is extremely demanding of the vehicles occupant safety cage, seatbelts, and airbags. With the small overlap the frontal structural rails are not engaged requiring the vehicle’s suspension, A-pillar, dash panel, floor, side, and roof structures to dissipate the crash force and hold the instrument panel in place so the driver airbag is directed at the driver and the angles towards the middle of the car.

A stiff side and roof structure combine to protect the occupant from injury by maintaining survival space, and dissipating the force of the collision away from the occupant.

Safety cage designs, such as those used by Volvo, Mercedes, and Subaru for decades, are the forefront of side impact occupant protection. In addition to energy absorbing side structures, the side impact airbag has proven to be one of the most effective methods of improving vehicle crashworthiness in side impact collisions.

Widespread implementation of side impact airbags began in the 1990s and was not limited exclusively to luxury manufacturers. A combination head/torso seat mounted side airbag was introduced as standard equipment on the 1999 Hyundai Sonata. In 2012, more than 95% of passenger vehicles sold in the U.S. were equipped with side impact airbags as standard equipment.

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NHTSA SIDE IMPACT TESTING Starting in 1994, dynamic testing with a MDB was phased into fleet certification requirements of side impact protection. Since its inception, the ability of the MDB to relate to real-world collisions has been subject to debate due to its “bumper” profile height that is several inches lower than a typical truck or SUV bumper.

The lower bumper height increases the likelihood that collision forces will be applied to the relatively strong rocker panel structure of the struck vehicle, potentially misrepresenting the likelihood of devastating injuries caused by cabin intrusion of higher truck/SUV bumpers. In 2009, side impact protection was changed to include an oblique angle pole impact, new dummies, and new injury metrics.

IIHS SIDE IMPACT TEST The IIHS devised a side impact test and ratings criteria and began using it in the evaluation of vehicles in 2003.

The IIHS test regimen differs from the FMVSS 214 in test speed, impact angle, and MDB design.

The IIHS MDB design was modeled to simulate a light truck or SUV; the “bumper” profile is 4 inches higher off the ground, the “face” is 12 inches taller and stiffer, and it weighs an additional 300 pounds as compared to the NHTSA MDB. The IIHS rates each vehicle’s performance in their side impact testing based on injury criteria to the ATD and the performance of the vehicle’s structure as measured by the intrusion profile.

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THE SAFETY EFFECTS OF HEADPROTECTING SIDE AIRBAGS There are two types of side airbags, those mounted to the interior roof rail, called side curtain airbags and those mounted to the seat frame, simply called side airbags. Side airbags deploy from the outer side of the seat and generally only protect the pelvis and torso, although some are large enough to also protect the head. Side curtain airbags deploy from the roof downward and protect the head and also offer some ejection mitigation in roll-over collisions.

The graphic here illustrates the significant decrease in head injury potential that head protecting side airbags offer. A Head Injury Criteria (HIC) over 1,000 indicates a high probability of a serious injury occurring. The lower the HIC score, the less risk there is of a head injury occurring.

ELECTRONIC DRIVER AIDS In the past two decades, the increase in available sensing and computing power has made crash avoidance systems feasible from both a technological and financial stand point. The ability of different control modules within the vehicle to communicate quicker and with more data being shared, along with advances such as drive-by-wire throttle control, electric assisted power steering, and sensors such as radar and laser cameras, has allowed manufactures to develop electronic driver aids that can alert the driver of a possible hazard and even react before the driver can to avoid or lessen the severity of a collision.

Electronic Stability Control (ESC) may be the single most effective automotive crash avoidance technology available in the last 15 years. ESC is an electro-mechanical system that senses the driver’s intended path and the vehicle’s actual path and uses brake and throttle control to alter the actual path to meet the intended path.

ESC systems can brake each wheel individually and reduce engine output to correct a yaw or plow-out when the system senses the intended and actual paths are not the same.

Anti-Lock braking and traction control are incorporated into most if not all ESC systems. ESC systems can also contain enhanced driver aids, such as rollover mitigation and trailer sway dampening.

A recent study on ESC effectiveness by Charles Farmer in 2010 found that ESC is associated with a 33% reduction in fatal crash risk, with a 53% reduction in SUVs. Forward collision detection and mitigation systems have become prevalent over the last five years. These systems can detect a vehicle or object in front of the vehicle, decipher if that vehicle or object is a hazard, and warn the driver sometimes before the driver can even see the hazard.

Advanced systems will reduce engine power and enact the brake system to the level needed up to a full ABS-assisted panic stop if the driver takes no action themselves.

These systems have been cited in studies conducted by the IIHS to provide a reduction in frontal collisions, although the reduction does vary by manufacturer.

Blind spot detection warning systems alert the driver to vehicles in their blind spot prior to changing lanes.

Lane departure systems can warn you when the vehicle is getting close to and crossing into a different lane. A few of the systems can return your vehicle to the lane you were in through the ESC or electrically assisted power steering system.

Peter J Leiss, P.E., is the crash practice group leader and vehicle engineering expert at Robson Forensic.

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by Jaime Jackson Safety is obviously a top priority in choosing the right vehicle for you and your family. Some important systems to look for in vehicles include: Crash Avoidance Technology, electronic stability control (ESC), advanced side airbags, rollover bags, laminated glass, pre-tensioners, and good tires.

Recent Developments Crash Avoidance Technology (CAT) is becoming commonplace. Uber, Google, and Tesla—not particularly known for their auto manufacturing—are making strides in autonomous vehicle technology, and both the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and National Highway 40 / LIVING SAFER / VOL 7 ED 2

Transportation Safety Administration are working CAT features into their testing and evaluations.

The vast majority of manufacturers in the U.S. are now making CAT technology optional in their 2015 lines. BMW, for instance, has provided optional forward collision warning, autobrake, lane departure warning, adaptive headlights, and blind spot detection in almost every 2015 vehicle. And costs are not necessarily prohibitive. BMW’s “Driver Assistance Plus” package, which includes speed limit information displayed on the dash, lane departure warning, forward collision warning, dynamic brake support and automatic emergency braking, can be added on to many of its 2015 vehicles for as little as $700.

THE HALLMARK OF NEW VEHICLE SAFETY

IIHS has created a new program for evaluating the performance of front crash prevention systems to raise consumer awareness of safety options and encourage auto manufacturers to adopt and continue developing this technology. By way of background, front crash prevention systems generally include one or more of the following features:

Forward Collision Warning – The most passive of the front crash avoidance technology. This system utilizes camera, radar, and/or laser equipment for object recognition and speed detection, to determine whether the relative speed between a vehicle and object in the road presents a risk of impending collision. The driver may receive a visual, audio, or haptic warning, signaling the need to apply the brakes.

neck injuries because there was no side-impact airbags. Verify that your vehicle is equipped with side airbags. You will help to ensure the safety of everyone with you.

Laminated Glass

Dynamic Brake Support – A hybrid of passive and active front crash avoidance technology. This system pre-conditions the brakes automatically when a collision is detected, so that when the driver applies the brakes even slightly, the full braking power is applied to shorten the vehicle’s stopping distance.

Even though windshields must be made out of laminated glass, there is no equivalent requirement for side and rear windows. Side and rear windows are often made out of tempered glass, which is much easier to penetrate than laminated glass. The majority of cars only have laminated glass in the windshield; however, there has been an increase in the use of laminated glass in other windows. Choose a vehicle that is equipped with laminated glass in all windows.

Automatic Emergency Braking – The most active of the

Understand the Importance of Pre-Tensioners

front crash avoidance technology. When a critical situation is detected, the vehicle’s brakes are automatically engaged with full braking potential to either completely prevent a front collision, or at least slow the vehicle down and mitigate the severity of the collision.

With rollover crashes claiming about 10,000 lives every year and a multitude of catastrophic injuries, rollover prevention has become a priority in vehicle safety. Choosing a vehicle equipped with an ESC system can help reduce rollovers.

These systems use microprocessors and sensors, “to determine when a vehicle is beginning to skid and to automatically engage the brakes or individual wheels, and often to also modulate acceleration, to help stabilize the vehicle and bring it back under the driver’s control.”

Advocates are supportive of ESC since these systems are more effective than human corrections because ESC can interpret “the information, in most cases, before the average driver or even the above average driver can sense the problem.”

Although pre-tensioning technology has existed for years, it has only recently been incorporated as a vehicle safety feature, making it a possible defect claim for non-inclusion of this technology. These systems sense a possible collision “seconds in advance and activates pre-crash measures.”

When these systems sense a possible collision, they activate the tension in the seat belt system to hold the occupant in place. Some advanced systems move a seat from a reclined position to an upright position just before the impact.

Side Airbags Though most vehicles are now equipped with side airbags, you’d be surprised to learn that some cars, family minivans and other SUVs still do not offer side airbags behind the first row.

Unfortunately, this is a widely unrecognized safety issue, and, as a result, misled or uninformed owners and renters of cars alike are being affected. This is also an area of product liability litigation where claims are simply being missed.

People are being catastrophically injured in side-impact car accidents where the rear-seated occupants sustain head or

Check Your Tires Before — and During — Road Trip Maintain proper tire inflation. Tire failures can be caused by a variety of factors, including: under or over-inflation, poor maintenance, tire aging, or a design or manufacturing defect.

The key is to maintain proper tire pressure, which can be tricky in the summertime as heat causes the air inside the tire to expand and overinflate. In an overinflated tire, the center section of the tread balloons outward, focusing weight on the center of the tire. Conversely, driving on underinflated tires causes the sidewall to bulge and wear unevenly, reducing tire life and potentially leading to a sudden tire failure.

Additionally, make sure you have good tread. Tires with inadequate tread, which have been driven past their useful life and that are overly worn, can fail without notice and lead to a rollover or catastrophic accident. Tread naturally wears down over time, and, tires with uneven tread wear or minimal remaining tread should be removed and replaced. Keeping a watchful eye can lower your risk of a tire failure and prevent needless tragedy.

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NUTRITION

How to Trick Your Kids Into Eating Healthy

By Shayna Slater

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ut I don’t like it;” “it looks gross;” “it smells funny;” and my favorite,“ But daddy doesn’t eat it.” If your house is anything like mine, meal and snack time can be exhausting.

Now, I am all for my kids having junk food once in awhile but I try, sometimes in vain, to make the majority of their food healthy choices. Trust me, I am not perfect. My 4-year-old would knock me over for a cheese curl but I have figured out some ways to incorporate healthy foods into his picky diet.

Disguise, Disguise, Disguise – Anything that I can disguise or hide is a plus. You can put a lot of different purees into spaghetti sauce, which is a favorite of mine. You can puree vegetables, such as carrots, onions, peppers, etc., and add them to your spaghetti sauce to sneak in some extra veggies under the radar.

You can even add mashed cauliflower to macaroni and cheese.

The added vegetables don’t affect the appearance so your children should never be the wiser. You can also substitute ground chicken or turkey for ground beef in pastas, tacos, etc. A small switch can make a big difference.

We are also pretty lucky now with our food choices. There are pastas made with spinach, carrots and beets. There are high fiber, organic versions of frozen waffles and pancakes. There are even baked chips, dried fruit chips and low sugar organic juice. Now, I wouldn’t consider all of these things “healthy,” but if your child wants “junk food,” try to buy the healthier version. So instead of the regular cheese curls, give them the baked organic cheese curls. Just don’t tell them it’s the healthier version. In a lot of instances, my children now prefer the healthier options.

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Get Creative (cookie cutter highly recommended) –

There are ton of cookie cutter options now and for some reason, food cut into the shape of a dinosaur is much more likely to be eaten in my house. The same goes for fruits and vegetables.

If I cut them up into fun shapes they are more likely to be eaten.

You can also get great ideas online where you can finds pictures and sometimes step-by-step instructions on making grapes into caterpillars, Clementine’s into jack-o-lanterns, bananas into snow men and vegetables into rocket ships. Without a doubt, these things can take extra time that busy parents may not have. I generally try to make these a weekend project when I have more time and can also involve my children.

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Just Try a Bite – I often negotiate more with my children than I do at work. However, I have found that if I tell my 4year-old that he only has to try a bite, instead of an entire serving of something, that he is more apt to try it. I guess a bite seems less intimidating. Sometimes this works in my favor and he likes the one bite and will continue eating and sometimes the one bite is all he will take.

Either way, he tried it. I am a firm believer in the more you can get them to try, the more chance there is that they will find additional foods they like. For instance, my son loves celery (even I am not sure how that one happened) but he has refused to try peanut butter. However, a TV show he was watching showed kids making “ants on a log.” Of course, he then wanted to make them.

The catch (there is always a catch), was if we made them that he had to at least try them. He did and decided he LOVES peanut butter (raisins, not so much). All in all, a win.

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Let them help – My son loves to help me cook. It often doesn’t last long, but he is always very excited to show off what “he made.” If he helps to make dinner or a snack, he also seems to be more willing to try the food he helped to prepare.

Get them involved and excited about the food and maybe that will lead to a more willing taste tester.

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Lead by Example – A few years ago I cut out all juice

and soda. Without intending to, my son caught on and now almost solely drinks water. I didn’t force it upon him. I didn’t stop buying juice but he just phased it out like I did. I think that kids, especially younger ones like mine, emulate what they see.

If I am eating an apple, he wants to share it with me. Trying to be cognizant of your eating habits will also affect your child’s eating habits.

With numerous fast-food restaurants on just about every corner and commercials that show kids eating every type of chip, frozen pizza, soda or candy, it can be hard to point our kids in the direction of healthy food. However, habits are formed early so incorporating healthier choices now may have a lasting impact.

Bad News Diet Soda Drinkers

New study suggests beverage is harmful to your waistline after all

by Lily Grace rinking too much diet soda is bad for you. Plain and simple. In fact, a new study states just that.

In this study—published in the Journal of American Geriatrics—the researchers examined 749 participants of MexicanAmerican and European-American descent taken from the San Antonio Longitudinal Study of Aging (SALSA). All of the individuals were aged 65 and above when the study began in the mid-1990s.

The data, which span 9.4 years, included diet soda consumption, waist circumference, height and weight. The information was collected four times throughout the study with three follow-ups.

Based from the data, the researchers found that older adults who did not drink diet soda had an average increase of 0.30 inches in waist circumference at each follow up. Older adults who drank diet soda every day, however, had an average increase of 1.20 inches. In participants who occasionally drank diet soda, their waist circumference increased by an average of 0.69 inches.

“The SALSA study shows that increasing diet soda intake was associated with escalating abdominal obesity, which may increase cardiometabolic risk in older adults,” said lead author Sharon Fowler, MPH, from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. “The burden of metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular disease, along with healthcare costs, is great in the ever-increasing senior population.”

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Although the study did not find a cause-and-effect relationship, the researchers are recommending older adults to avoid drinking diet soda. Belly fat in particular can be extremely detrimental to one’s health. An increase in abdominal fat can lead to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and inflammation.

“People who are already at cardiometabolic risk because they have higher BMIs are really in double or triple jeopardy,” said the study’s senior author, Helen Hazuda, MD, professor of medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. “When they think they’re doing something good by drinking artificially sweetened beverages, it’s actually totally counterproductive.”

This study adds to the growing number of studies that have found a link between diet soda and health risks.

“It’s important to recognize that this observational study looked at an aging population— those over 65 at the beginning of the study, who are already at risk of weight gain and cardiovascular disease—and then made conclusions based on associations,” the American Beverage Association said in a statement. “However, many trying to lose or control their weight look for ways to reduce calories, including with their beverage choices.” @LIVINGSAFER / LIVINGSAFER.COM / 45

with nutrition labels? It’s coming

by Lily Grace ave you ever noticed that bottled water has a caloric count on it, but your favorite beer bottle does not?

In fact, most alcohol isn’t even regulated by the FDA, but is under the jurisdiction of the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB), an arm of the Treasury Department.

Well, fear not. Nutrition facts may finally be coming. Finally, you will have the correct caloric count when adding them to your favorite calorie-counting app!

In March 2015, Diageo, the world’s biggest alcohol manufacturer—the parent company of Smirnoff, Captain Morgan, Ketel One, Bailey’s, Tanqueray, Guinness, and more—announced that it will be adding nutritional labels to all its brands. In light of this, it seems likely that others would quickly follow suit. In fact, in Europe, the movement has already begun.

So back to our initial thought? Why don’t we list caloric counts on our alcohol? Here are some FAQs from Eatclean.com to assist:

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Why aren’t there nutritional labels on booze in the first place?

The answer dates back to the end of Prohibition. Lawmakers recognized the money in tax revenue from alcohol sales, so they left the regulation of most booze up to the Treasury. (The FDA only regulates wine and hard cider with less than 7% alcohol—why bother, right?—and beer not made from barley or hops). And since the Treasury isn’t charged with protecting anyone’s health, no labeling has ever been required. Not that consumers haven’t tried to change things: The Center for Science in the Public Interest tried for decades to petition the TTB, all to no avail.

and food dye Yellow #5, which must be disclosed because some people are sensitive to them. But listing other common food allergens is not required. Finally, slapping calories on labels is required only for beers that are marketed as “light.” For all others, it’s optional.

What can you do until calorie counts show up on booze?

Ballpark your intake using these generic stats: A 12-ounce beer has about 150 calories; a 5-ounce glass of wine has 120 calories; and 1.5 ounces of hard liquor has 100 calories.

But there’s a lot more to a drink than the number of calories it contains—a glass of water has the same number of calories as a Diet Coke, but that’s about all they have in common. Many manufacturers list full nutritional information and ingredient for their products online. Here’s a quick list of who offers what: »» Anheuser Busch: alcohol content, basic nutrition stats, and ingredients »» Boston Beer Company: alcohol content and calories »» Corona: alcohol content and calories »» Diageo (parent company of Bailey’s, Captain Morgan, Guinness, Johnnie Walker, Ketel One, Red Stripe, Smirnoff, and dozens more): alcohol content, basic nutrition stats, and ingredients »» Heineken: alcohol content, calories, and ingredients »» Jack Daniels: calories

What does the TTB require to be listed on booze? Distilled spirits and wines with more than 14% alcohol have to display alcohol content—for all beers and wines with less than 14% alcohol, that’s optional. It’s also up to booze manufacturers to choose whether they list ingredients, with the exception of sulfites

»» MillerCoors: alcohol content and basic nutrition stats »» Pabst Blue Ribbon: alcohol content, calories, and carbs »» Rolling Rock: basic nutrition stats »» Sierra Nevada: alcohol content and basic nutrition stats @LIVINGSAFER / LIVINGSAFER.COM / 47

F A M I LY

What the World Needs Now …

Is Tolerance

By Stephanie Andre

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o one is born knowing how to hate. Hate and intolerance are learned behaviors, and it’s up to us, as parents, to right the ship. If we want to make the world a more understanding place, we need to start with children.

They are impressionable and still forming their perceptions of the world. Promoting tolerance isn’t just about religious and racial differences—although obviously important—but also regarding gender, physical/intellectual disabilities, size, shape, and everything in between.

Tolerance breeds new ideas, experiences and energy. Our kids can learn so much by becoming educated on how others in the world live. If willing, tolerance opens doors in business, education, travel, leisure, lifestyle, art, plus other areas of life.

Tolerance is not about accepting bad behavior, but accepting “people” for who they are and treating those how “you” wish to be treated. Remind your kids of this consistently.

Being tolerant of differences doesn’t mean sacrificing your own heritage or beliefs. We can be proud and stand by those beliefs 100% while continuing to celebrate the differences of others.

The tolerance level that parents possess naturally teaches their kids the same message. Children closely watch and imitate

us, even before they can speak. Kids will mirror the values and attitudes of those they love and look up to.

Here are some ways to help you raise a tolerant and accepting child, according to the Matador Network.

Promote openness and respect by demonstrating empathy and compassion through your words and actions. Besides not letting your child bully or tease someone else, watch what you say yourself! Treat others with respect, and your child will, too. Even comments about your own body (I feel fat, my brown/red/blonde hair is so ugly) can lead a child to make judgments about people in the world around him or her.

Encourage self-confidence. A child who is confident about him/ herself will be more likely to embrace differences and see the value in others.

Honor traditions and learn about others’ traditions.

Celebrate your family’s traditions and explore other holiday and religious celebrations that are outside of your own traditions and comfort zone.

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“

Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood.

Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.

Give them experiences with diverse populations. Sign your child up for summer camp, a workshop, or child care with a diverse group of kids. In my school district, we have a peer model program in our special education preschool classes so that typically developing 4 year olds in the community have the opportunity to go to preschool with children with special needs.

Both the typically developing and the children with special needs can learn acceptance.

Travel with your kids (or move to another state or country).

Allowing your children to grow a new and different environment will at the very least broaden their worldview and help them understand that people around the world are different.

Talk about differences respectfully. Talk about the differences among your family and friends (hair color, skin color, personal likes and dislikes), and use the opportunity to talk about how it’s good that people are different. You could also discuss how people are the same as well (i.e. you have blonde hair and your friend has brown hair, but you are both girls and you both have two eyes, two ears, one mouth, etc.).

Respond to children’s questions, even if you don’t have a “good” answer. Kids can ask hard questions, but your silence can teach a child that it’s not okay to talk about differences or “uncomfortable” topics. Even if you don’t know what to say, tell him or her that you will get back to them later with an answer.

And be sure that you do.

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— Marie Curie

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Don’t Raise a Little Jerk

By Stephanie Andre y son is approaching 11. I love him more than anything in the world, but sometimes he can be a jerk. And no, I’m not kidding. He can be a real pain in the you-knowwhat. And I hate it. I worry that the sweet child I used to have is gone forever. I worry we are failing as parents to make sure he walks the right path and becomes the man we know he can be.

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I know he’s generally kind (although his sister would disagree), but he also has moments of meanness that bother me. Following are methods and ways for all of us to make sure we raise the anti-jerk.

Understand Development — There are sensitive periods for social and emotional intelligence. Levine’s Teach Your Children Well is a great place to start to get an idea about what is going on in a child’s brain and how you can respond to that particular stage of development.

Observe — You will come get to truly know a child’s personality through observation. Watch him with other people and as he journeys on his own. That way, you can cater your interactions and responses to that specific child. Intervening too soon can be detrimental.

Guide — Allow the child to lead his own learning. Guide the child as he explores the world at his own pace. Encourage questions.

Ask questions. Point out how his behavior impacts others whether positive or negative.

Respect the Child — Don’t be a dictator. A child being told what to do is less likely to “do” and to “embrace” that act.

Self Discovery — Allow for the child to discover the joy of being kind. Like with reading, if you give the child space to develop and discover reading on his own, you will have a lifelong lover of reading.

Model — Seems simple, right? Not until I had children did I notice how impolite I was to my husband. Saying “thank you” and “please,” actually matters.

Create an Environment — Place books in your home that teach children mindfulness and kindness. Do yoga or meditation with children to help them center and be calm. Have a peace or quiet corner for a child to reflect or to resolve conflict.

Talk about Reality — Expose children to the good, the bad, and the ugly. There are children in the world that go without every day.

Forget about toys, these children go to bed hungry!

Provide Opportunities — Along the same lines as exposure, do good together. Find family oriented service projects in your community. A child can practice kindness in these situations and develop empathy.

Be Concrete — Children are concrete learners. They need to be hands on. The learning needs to be tangible. Something as simple as a Kindness Jar goes a long way.

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Dear College Freshman…

By Cade Parian een there. Done that. LOL. I graduated high school and started college in the ancient year of AD 1996.

Yeah, I know, a lot of you were born that year. There were no dinosaurs and yes the cellphone was invented. OMG, it was an exciting time. FWIW, I already had my life planned out.

My college major had been chosen. I was BF/GF with someone already attending the school, and we were going to be together 4EAE. She was in a sorority on campus so I already knew that every fraternity was awaiting my arrival. I mean, let’s face it, I knew that I was going to be the big man on campus. My life was all figured out. Then college began…

FYI, it did not go as I had planned.

It is now your turn. You are embarking on the same journey I began 18 years ago. Some of you spent countless hours studying for the SAT and AP classes. Maybe you’re attending Ivy League schools and other prestigious private institutions of higher learning. However, most of you were like me, and spent more time doing the “social” activities in high school than the academic side of things. You are attending state universities, community colleges, junior colleges and technical schools close to home. Here is your first gut check. You are all on equal footing. Ivy League vs. technical school? Every single one of you has the same title: College freshman.

The next paragraphs are some of the things that I wish I had known while making the transition to college life. Look, folks, I am not your dad (at least I don’t think so). I am definitely not your (or anyone else’s) life advisor. Just hear me out.

I am going to go ahead and get this out of the way. Things have changed a little since I began college. Mainly, there were no cellphone cameras. Had there been, I could publish a 500page New York Times best-selling picture book of “Things I Did (That You Should Not Do) in College.” However, those crazy things are exactly what makes the college experience so phenomenal. In choosing to be a college student, you should embrace the lifestyle totally.

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YOU HAVE TO CUT THE CORD. If your mom or dad is looking over your shoulder at this magazine, I assume they just passed out. I am not talking about that cord. I am talking about high school. High school friends and memories are not far behind.

The football games, house parties and church youth trips still rise to the top of your brain. I want you to do something uncomfortable. Pack them up in a file folder in your brain and put them away. Now, don’t forget all of those high school memories. You will need them later.

NEXT, DON’T ALLOW WORRY TO OVERTAKE YOUR LIFE IN COLLEGE. When it grabs hold of you, it is hard to shake.

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Throwing that many people into one collective space, there is bound to be endless drama. Whether it is getting a 100 on a mid-term or finding a date to semiformal, there will be people that constantly worry about things that seem larger than life.

Guess what. Those are not major life decisions. To be honest, I have never met a person that could not overcome making a 75 on an exam or being forced on a blind date with a guy that looks like an ogre. Actually, my wife ended up marrying that ogre. Me! BE A FREE SOUL UPON SETTING FOOT ON YOUR COLLEGE CAMPUS. Not in a 1960s hippie way, but let yourself take in every single moment of the college experience. There will be lots of opportunities and activities to fill your time. Take advantage of them when they come along. Better yet, don’t wait on those opportunities and activities to arise, get your butt off the futon and find them. There are boundless new experiences on college campuses. Envision it as a mini-city that offers everything desired to serve as a launching pad to identify your true self.

HAVE NO REGRETS. Once you graduate from undergrad, there is no going back. Sure you can get another degree, but there will never be another time that you are entering college right after high school. We have all heard someone say that “things don’t often come along twice in life.” If you’re like me, you roll your eyes. It is true, though. Did you not take that chemistry class because you heard it was hard? Who knows, you may have found a love for chemistry in that class. Did you not go to the community service project put on by the college? You missed out on an opportunity to help someone. Not want to go to formal with the geek? Well, now he is a billionaire. You get my drift.

Welcome to the club of college students. Get your work done.

Find your true self. Be curious. Dance like a fool when everyone is watching. Scream at the top of your lungs so everyone can hear. Speak your mind. Most importantly, graduate!

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etting a driver’s license is an exciting rite of passage for every teenager. For parents, it’s an emotional tug-o-war. We want our kids to mature and become independent, but at the same time we fear for their safety and for our wallets — as insurance premiums skyrocket.

The insurance industry builds pricing platforms around statistics and risk. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, teen drivers between 16 and 19 years old are three times more likely to crash than drivers 20 years and older.

After age 25, insurance rates level out and start to decrease.

Here are some helpful FAQs regarding teens and insurance coverage.

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Insuring

Teen Drivers

by Matthew Devoti

My teen just got a permit, do I need to add them to my policy?

Many states offer a graduated license program.

Missouri, for example, allows 15-year-olds to take a written test and then drive under a restricted permit.

The ‘permit driver’ is then required to log a certain 54 / LIVING SAFER / VOL 7 ED 2

number of hours behind the wheel over the next year (with a licensed driver) before they can take the additional testing and ‘graduate’ to a full license.

In general, most states only require coverage once a driver is fully licensed, so a permit driver does not need to be added to a policy. Obviously, any car they are permitted to drive must have the state required minimum insurance coverages.

If a teen had an accident as a permit holder, they would be covered under the vehicles policy assuming the policy is in force, the premiums are paid, and they had permission to drive it. It’s important to note that some providers will only cover a permit driver IF they are driving with a licensed parent.

When my child is fully licensed, do they need their own policy or can they be added to my vehicle policy?

Automobile insurance is specific to the automobile. The person who owns the vehicle must carry the insurance policy on the vehicle. Any fully licensed driver in your household who is a regular user of the vehicle must be added to the policy. It is much more expensive for a teenager to carry their own insurance policy.

So, even if you buy a car for your teen — you will save money if you title the car in your name and purchase the insurance policy in your name; then add them to the policy as a regular user of the vehicle.

Do teen drivers have to be insured on all vehicles in the household?

Most states don’t require car-matching, meaning all licensed drivers in a household will be covered to drive all cars in that household unless explicitly excluded from a specific vehicle. If you live in a state where car-matching is required, you can specify who the primary driver will be for each vehicle.

Do I need to adjust my policy if my teen gets a job delivering pizzas?

What can my teen do to reduce their rates?

That depends on your policy. Most personal car insurance policies won’t cover you if you’re transporting goods or people in exchange for a wage. If you plan to take a pizza delivery job, or any kind of delivery job, check with your car insurance company first. Though getting the additional coverage necessary to protect you while delivering pizzas might mean a rate increase, it’ll ensure optimal protection. This depends on the policy.

Most personal car insurance policies won’t cover a person if they are transporting goods or people for a wage. Getting the additional coverage necessary to take this type of job may increase rates, but it will ensure optimal coverage in the event of an accident.

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Maintain good grades.

Many car insurance companies offer good student discounts. The exact requirements and the amount of the discount depends on the provider. The majority of companies require the student to be under 25 years old, enrolled in school full-time, and have a GPA of at least 3.0.

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Do I have to keep my college student on my policy while they are away at school? What about when they are home for the summer?

Keep a clean driving record free of accidents and violations.

Parents can promote safe driving by establishing rules for cell phones, passengers and car use.

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Take an approved driver’s education course.

4

Drive an appropriate type of vehicle.

The best vehicles for teen drivers are newer with larger bodies for enhanced safety features and improved crash protection. Definitely steer clear of sports or performance cars and SUVs.

This depends on the insurance provider, but is definitely worth investigating as it could lower rates significantly. Some companies will give a resident student discount if a child goes to college and is living at least 100 miles away from their primary residence.

Some companies will only require the full coverage if a child is home for more than 30 days at a time.

Teens can improve their chances of finding cheap car insurance rates through the following:

@LIVINGSAFER / LIVINGSAFER.COM / 55

Put Down the Electronics!

14 ways to get your kids to go outside

By Jim Edward e get it. These days, it’s all about smartphones, tablets and video games. Rarely are kids just playing til mom and dad have to call them in because it’s dark outside.

This is the generation of emojis, YouTube, selfies and more.

But it’s summer—how do you get your kids to want to go outside? Here are some thoughts from Sparkpeople to help encourage your children to put down the electronics and start on some outdoor adventures.

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1

If you live in a house, create a child-friendly backyard.

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Give children a place on the porch, deck or in the bedroom where they can display nature treasures they find and want to keep.

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Provide simple tools to aid discovery. Kids love tools!

Include a bug box, trowel, magnifier, etc.

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When you take children to parks and other natural areas, allow them to explore. Let them decide which trails to take.

Stay nearby for safety, but don’t interfere or help unless asked.

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If you have an appropriate area, let older children build a campfire in the backyard. Set safety rules, then stay away while they and their friends discuss hot topics. Check for safety by looking out the window or wandering out to ask if they need more snacks.

Put out bird feeders that can be seen easily from windows.

Let children help feed the birds. Keep a bird book by the window to help them identify what they see.

Make up challenges for children to do outside, similar to the “Survivor” television show. This is a guaranteed kid pleaser, especially if there is a reward (a gift of time with Mom or Dad, or perhaps a night off from helping with the dishes).

Encourage plenty of time outside. Consider taking a walk to the library, store or post office instead of driving.

If a child asks or remarks about a landmark or natural feature you drive past often, find out more about it and go for a visit.

Take advantage of the natural resources available in your area. Take children canoeing, kayaking or fishing.

Take a few leaves from different trees while the children are not looking. Give them the leaves and ask them to find which trees they came from.

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Provide a tree identification book to help kids learn about the trees in their own neighborhood.

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In the fall, leave the fallen leaves down for awhile so kids can run around and shuffle through them.

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Rake up a big leaf pile and let them demolish it. If they’re not pre-schoolers, leave the rake out so they can rebuild it if they want.

@LIVINGSAFER / LIVINGSAFER.COM / 57

HYGIENE KITS AVAILABLE KITS Guiltless Giving has three different size kits to choose from. Zack donates additional kits to every order so as to pay it forward.

CONTENTS Guiltless Giving kits can contain up to the following: a toothbrush, toothpaste, soap,

HELPING THE HELPLESS‌ ONE KIT AT A TIME. Zack Gooding founded Guiltless Giving in October 2006. When he started the company six years ago, rd

he was a 9-year old 3 grader.

The idea evolved from a 3rd Grade invention project that led to Zack receiving 2nd place in the San Diego Young Inventors Contest.

deodorant, a comb, shaving cream,

From that point on, Zack was

razor, pair of knit gloves and a resealable

persistent in creating his company,

bag for storage and safe-keeping.

Guiltless Giving, with the purpose of helping those that are homeless.

GOVERNMENTAL SUPPORT Included is an information card with the 800 numbers for the homeless to get information on government assistance.

Zack is featured on CNN, CNN Headline News, Channel 10 San Diego, and more.

WWW.GUILTLESSGIVING.COM

HOME

Do I Rent or Buy?

Location, finances, situation all factors

By Lily Grace

@LIVINGSAFER / LIVINGSAFER.COM / 59

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uying a home in 2015 is not the same done deal as it was 10 years ago. With many on the fence about the benefits of investing in a home, the facts remain that purchasing a home is a sound investment—for the right person.

While the housing crisis may have prompted a more cautious approach by buyers who are more realistic about the level of equity they can build in their homes, the drive to be a homeowner remains strong. It’s mostly about freedom, according to Zillow. It’s more about the ability to paint the walls whatever color you want, or know that a landlord is not going to raise your rent or ask you to leave, they say.

Here are a few points to consider when deciding whether homeownership or renting makes better sense for you.

Reasons to Rent: »» Flexibility. Renting allows you to explore an area before making the longer-term commitment to homeownership. Unless you are certain about a specific neighborhood, renting allows time for research and discovery. »» Career uncertainty. If you think you might need to move in the near future, or are mulling job changes that span several areas of town or are located elsewhere in the country, you might want to rent. Buying ties you down to a greater extent.

»» Creative control. You like dozens of pictures on the wall?

Well, hammer away—they are your walls now. Go ahead and paint them mango! Wish you had another room? Go ahead and add one. »» Maintenance choices. If you live in a house, you can decide how to approach maintenance, either doing it yourself or picking your own contractor. If you live in a condominium or homeowners’ association, you may pay a monthly fee to have maintenance work covered by the association’s contractors.

While a home is a good investment—and let’s face it, you have to live somewhere—many financial experts caution against purchasing a home simply as an investment.

Historically, real estate market increases have been slow and steady, not the meteoric spikes seen between 1998 and 2008, when the economy buckled. Some experts like to point out that while housing prices and declines are cyclical, the stock market, on the other hand, had generated average annual returns of between 8 and 10 percent pretty steadily for decades. While those stock market gains may be less secure now, even conservative money planners try to deliver 5 to 7 percent returns, which is better than home value increases in many U.S. housing markets.

»» Income uncertainty. If you expect a pay hike or cut in the near future, that can change your borrowing ability as well as impact your ability to pay a mortgage. »» Bad credit. Creating a history of on-time rental payments can help you build the sort of credit you’ll need to qualify for a mortgage. »» No maintenance expenses. When a pipe leaks, you don’t head to the store; you head for the telephone and call the landlord. »» Utilities (sometimes) included. In some instances, the landlord may pay for many utilities such as water, sewer, garbage, and, in some cases, even heat and hot water. »» But there is a downside, too: You may have no control over the fluctuation of your rent, a big-budget item that can change often.

Long-term budgeting becomes more difficult.

Reasons to Buy: »» Equity. When you pay rent, you are paying your landlord’s mortgage or adding equity to his or her bank account. However, when you have a home mortgage, you increase your degree of ownership in your home with every payment. A general rule is that if you intend to stay in your property for at least five to seven years, the costs of purchasing the home are more likely to be offset by accrued equity and increased housing value. In the event that equity in the home grows to more than a 20-to-80 percent loan-to-value ratio, you will be able to borrow against your equity in the home. »» Tax deductions. You can deduct mortgage interest as well as your property taxes. Uncle Sam doesn’t give renters this bonus.

Not only that, but if you meet certain requirements the IRS won’t apply a “capital gains” tax on your profits from the sale of your home. You can keep the first $250,000 in profit you make when selling the home if you’re single, or the first $500,000 if married.

In addition, those who work from home may be eligible to take deductions for their home office and portions of utilities.

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But is renting cheaper?

This is not an inconsequential question. Whether renting or buying is more cost effective depends on your market, where you choose to live and whether you like to do home improvement and maintenance projects yourself.

Homes cost money; Appliances break, roofs leak, and if you own, you are the lucky soul who gets to pay the bill. If you are renting, landlords pay the plumber and roofer.

That is why many homeowners who have taken out a mortgage in order to buy do so in anticipation of the tax breaks that come with homeownership. Depending on your tax bracket, a first-time purchaser’s 1040 tax-deductions can heavily subsidize many of the expenses you have poured into your new home.

Also, since a 30-year fixed mortgage comes with an amortization schedule with the highest interest payments coming in the first years of the loan repayment, mortgage holders have been able to claim deductions in the early stages of ownership.

When life hands you LEMONS… Clean your house!

by Diane Fultz

o one wants a car that is a lemon, but a cleaning product that’s a lemon? Yes, please! Are you worried about the chemicals in your cleaning products? Lemon juice can be combined with a few basic ingredients to make all-natural cleaning products without the lingering artificial fragrance.

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Window Cleaner - Mix ½ cup lemon juice and 2 cups water in a spray bottle.

All Purpose Cleaner - 2 tbsp borax, ¼ cup lemon juice, 2 cups hot water. Combine in spray bottle.

Furniture Polish - Mix ½ cup of lemon juice with 1 cup of olive oil. Dab onto a cloth and rub into wood surfaces.

Oven cleaner - Mix two parts vinegar to one part lemon juice. Spray this solution onto the bottom or sides of your oven and let sit for five minutes. Then sprinkle on a liberal amount of baking soda and let sit for ten minutes.

Most of the mess will wipe off without scrubbing.

Dishwashing Detergent Booster - Add a teaspoon of lemon juice to your dishwater to boost the degreasing power of your dishwashing detergent.

Dishwasher Deodorizer - Put one cup of lemon juice or other dishwasher-safe vessel on the bottom rack of your dishwasher.

Run the rinse cycle for a clean, funk-free dishwasher.

Bleach Alternative - Add ½ cup of lemon juice to your load of white laundry instead of bleach. It will leave your clothes white and smelling of lemons and won’t burn your skin if you splash it onto yourself.

Mold or Mildew Remover - Apply lemon juice full strength onto affected areas with a sponge or plastic scrubbing pad.

Lime Scale Remover - Squeeze or spray lemon juice on bathroom surfaces that have a scale build-up. Leave on for several minutes before wiping with a wet cloth.

Toilet Bowl Cleaner - For normal toilet bowl cleaning, use a solution of two parts borax to one part lemon juice. For a stubborn

ring, mix borax and enough lemon juice to make a paste. Wet ring and rub on the paste. Let paste sit for several hours before scrubbing.

Shower Door Cleaner - Dip half a lemon in coarse salt and use to scrub your shower doors. The salt scrubs while the acid in the lemon dissolves the deposits.

Additional tips for using lemons: »» To get the most juice out of a lemon, roll it on the countertop and then microwave it for ten seconds. »» When you have finished cleaning with the lemons, grind up the rinds in the garbage disposal to deodorize any lurking food odors. »» When using a lemon to scrub out a sink or shower doors, use both sides! The skin side releases more lemon oils and increases the lemon fragrance. »» For the best value, buy lemons in bulk rather than individually. @LIVINGSAFER / LIVINGSAFER.COM / 61

Insect Season is Here

BE AWARE OF PESTICIDE RISKS

By Wayne Parsons pring and summer are known as “bug” seasons. Pest control advertisements are at a peak and frightening images of life-size cockroaches and termites fill the television screens. Are you afraid of insects? Before spraying a pesticide consider the risks to you and your family from pesticide use.

The risk of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is connected to exposure to organophosphate pesticides, according to “Lymphoma risk and occupational exposure to pesticides: results of the Epilymph study (2013).” The pesticide, “fipronil, used in residential termite treatment and in agriculture,” has been linked to honey bee death and banned in some European countries.

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In Louisiana, a lawsuit filed by shrimp farms claimed that fipronil used in agriculture washed into the water system and wiped out the shrimp population. In “Reported Residential Pesticide Use and Breast Cancer Risk on Long Island, New York” (2006), pesticide use and breast cancer was reported to be connected. The U.S. uses more than 2.2 billion pounds of pesticides annually, or 8 pounds for every man, woman and child. The pest industry does not mention the health risks of pesticides that will be introduced into the air, carpets, walls and soil in and around a home.

It takes a while for a cancer to develop in the human body. The small organs of children concentrate pesticides and the children

carry them for a long time because of their youth. Children develop leukemia, sarcomas and brain tumors from pesticide exposure. In animal studies, most pesticides degrade the developing nervous system including motor and mental function. Pesticides may compromise infants’ immune systems increasing risk of illness. It is almost impossible to prove pesticides caused a person’s cancer.

Could it be that the chemical industry knows that and realizes that it will not be held accountable? If no one is accountable then no one is safe.

Here are some tips to avoid pesticides. In “Family eats organic for just two weeks, removes nearly all pesticides from body” eating organic groceries for 2 weeks eliminated pesticides in a family in Sweden: Before starting the diet, mother Anette explained that she did not normally buy organic food for the household.

“It costs more than conventional food and we’re a big family,” she said.

The researchers measured the levels of plant growth regulators chlormequat chloride, mepiquat, 3-PBA and cleaning agent TCP in urine samples taken from each family member before and after their two weeks of organic eating.

Before the experiment, middle child Evelina’s urine was showing nearly five nanograms of chlormequat chloride per millilitre. After eating only organic foods for two weeks, the chemical was unable to be detected in her sample.

The most profound effects were found in toddler Charlie’s samples. Despite his urine before the experiment showing high levels of all four of the chemicals, after the experiment none of the substances were detected.

Eat organic.

Be smart about termites. Use physical termite barriers or a “baiting system.” Don’t tent the house.

Three types of termites exist: subterranean, drywood and dampwood. All live in colonies and are very difficult to eliminate.

Drywood termites have colonies of 300 to 500 termites and do little damage. Some homes are “tented” and pesticide-laden gas is put into the house to kill termites and roaches. Tenting a house is overkill to rid the house of drywood termites. They are found in furniture and leave small piles of wood pellets. To stop drywood termites replace damaged wood or spot treat with a non-pesticide.

Subterranean termites live in large nests in the soil and forage the soil to find wood. They are blind, do not go into the open air, do not sleep and cause more property damage in the world than floods, fires, wind and earthquakes combined. Tenting a house doesn’t stop subterranean termites.

Before construction, the soil is usually soaked with at least 300 gallons of pesticides and retreated over the life of the home by soaking the soil around the house and drilling through the foundation in the kitchen and bathrooms to inject more pesticide. These treatments are unnecessary and can be completely avoided.

By using a “physical” termite barrier, no pesticide is used. A stainless steel wire mesh barrier system, such as Termimesh , and a graded rock barrier, such as Basaltic Termite Barrier (BTB), provide pesticide-free protection for the life of the building.

Another healthy approach is using a “baiting” system, such as the Sentricon system. The termites go into a bait station and are exposed to a chemical that they take back to the colony that makes the colony fail. The same type of system can be used to deal with cockroaches and ants. Pesticides are ineffective against subterranean termites but are used almost exclusively by builders and pest control companies because they are inexpensive.

Reducing pesticide use and eating pesticide-free food is an important step in protecting a person’s health.

@LIVINGSAFER / LIVINGSAFER.COM / 63

DOs & DON’Ts of...

INSTALLING A CAR SEAT the

­­­by Brittany Monbarren

Buy the seat based on safety and the correct size, not for the colors or stroller it comes with.

Read the manual and follow installation instructions.

Buy a used car seat.

Ignore height and weight guidelines.

DO

Leave the harness straps loose.

Visit your local police, fire or Child Passenger Safety Technicians to ensure that the installation is correct.

Move kids to the next stage car seat prematurely.

Choose a car seat with a five-point harness.

Make sure the harness straps are correctly positioned for your child’s height and the car seat’s direction.

DON’T Allow your child to adjust the harness.

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Ignore the reviews and recalls on car seats.

LOCAL LAWYERS

L ENDIN G A HA ND Membership and Unity

Good Works, Large & Small

We meet throughout the year to reconnect on all matters business and personal.

IB members work tirelessly to better their own local communities - through both IB initiatives as well as their own.

members share is the drive to succeed, to participate and become part of a select group of like-minded firms.

For more information or to find a representative in your area, visit injuryboard.org.