Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Health and Safety Challenge #7

Our final challenge for the Health and Safety week is renewing your commitment to safety. It is all too easy to just say "It won't happen to me" and do something without thinking. In looking over some reports from injuries we get complacent and lose focus on the potential problems. Other times we having training things that we cut corners or don't even think of what we are doing and use poor judgement. All of which opens up the chance the something could happen that shouldn't of because we didn't stop and take a moment to think about our actions.

Try to keep these things in mind:
1) Wear your PPE. It is there to protect you and need to have it on and being worn correctly.
2) Buckle Up!! Just holding that truck a split second longer so you can buckle up could mean life or death.
3) Remember, if our feet are on the street, the vest is on our chest.
4) Use common sense. I know that comments about some people just don't have any, but we all have it. We just need to use it.

Friday, June 25, 2010

Health and Safety Challenge #6

Counting today's challenge we only have two challenges left. Has anyone tried to follow along all week? If you have been following along, how are you doing? Feeling any different?

The challenge for today one for people to work on tonight and into the weekend and it deals with alcohol. Actually it should be for both alcohol and drug use but really hope that it will just pertain to the alcohol. In this heat yes it is nice to sit back and grab a cold one and enjoy but it is about one of the worst things we could do for ourselves. The alcohol needs to be in moderation and for every drink you have try to take in at least a glass of water so you don't dehydrate. Best case would be not to drink for a while but I'm a realist and know that probably isn't going to happen. So at least try to cut back and drink water to go along with it. Plus eating food will help, don't drink on an empty stomach.

Health and Safety Challenge #5

This one could be one of the easiest challenges for the week. This challenge is one to try and relax yourself. To many times the hustle and bustle of everyday life gets to be to much and we need a break. So find yourself a nice cool, quiet place to sit and relax. Put on some of your favorite music and just work on taking on some nice deep breathes and close your eyes and like Happy Gilmore, find your happy place. Just taking a few minutes and relaxing will make the day seem to go a little bit smoother.

Health and Safety Challenge #4

This one goes out to those who are smokers and tobacco users. Try and go a day without having to light one up or put in that chew. Smoking causes lung damage and we need our lungs to breathe, even more so in our field of work. Over time between the smoke exposure from the cigarettes and fire calls increases the risk of lung cancer. This can drastically reduce your time spent in the fire service and life in general.
If one day is to hard, then try and cut it back by at least half and try to continue until you can say you have gone a whole day, then shoot for two days, and so on.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Health and Safety Challenge #3

So if you have been doing the challenges upto this point, you should know where the bathrooms are by know. Drinking more water equals more trips to the restroom.

Challenge for today is to change out some food. Try to exchange your candy bar or bag of chips for some fresh fruit or vegetables. This is a great time of year to find a lot of the fruits and veggies in season. So find one you like or one that you have wanted to try and enjoy!! Then wash it down with some more water and headed out for another walk.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Health and Safety Challenge #2

For your next challenge, try to make the time to be active. Try and go for a walk, go for a jog, or even hop on your bike and go for a bike ride. Shoot for 30 minutes worth of activity. Then when you get home make sure that you drink plenty of water to rehydrate yourself. While you are drinking your water and relaxing, make sure you log your activity in the Healthy Firefighter if you are still keeping track of your hours. Try and do this a couple times this week and work in Challenge #1.

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Health and Safety Challenge #1

Today is the official start to the Health and Safety week. I will try to come up with a challenge for people to try and see if you can do it and then stay with it.

The first challenge is try to cut back or cut out soft drinks. If you are able to cut back or cut out the number of soft drinks you have in a day, you are taking in less sugar! Try to drink more water instead. Try this for at least the week and see if you can tell a difference at the end of the week.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Safety Week

Next week is the Health and Safety week. We tried to do some of the activities a couple weeks ago at drill and really all we got done was having a lecture on healthy eating by the nutritionist from Hy-Vee. That was a good class and did seem to spark some interest from those who attended but my guess is that no one took that class and went home and said, "I'm going to make some changes!" Am I right?
We all have to look at ourselves in the mirror and decide if we are who we truly want to be. We are here because we want to serve our community and because to us this is fun. We enjoy being firefighters and medics. But on the other side of the coin, the jobs we do are very dangerous and can cause serious injury or death if we don't pay attention to what we are doing. Now most everyone would automatically probably think of something going wrong on the fireground as the number 1 thing that could do something to us. Actually, about 50% of the deaths each year are from heart attacks or strokes. That is not saying how many people have chest pain or something similar that is not reported each year. The Health and Safety week is trying to stop and make us think about us this year. How can we change ourselves to make us more fit and prepared to continue doing what we enjoy doing?
Couple things I would like to see people do to:
1) Watch what you eat. I am guilty of this as much as the next person. I have done better the last couple months on making better choices and eating smaller portions. The better you eat the better your body feels and has the right nutrients it needs to give us the energy we need.
2) Watch what you drink. Now that we are into the warmer months, you should be drinking plenty of water. If you are on the fire scene and have not had any water to drink prior, you are probably already dehydrated and playing catch up. That means longer time for your body to recover and longer time that you are sitting on the sideline watching others doing the work. So make sure that you are drinking water and try to cut back on the pops and alcohol.
3) Get more exercise. This might mean that you go for a walk or a run. It doesn't mean that you have to run a marathon or anything but it does mean get up and do an activity of some sort. We have weights and a treadmill here at the station that could always use more activity but if you can do something outside, great. JUST DO SOMETHING!!
4) Rest. Make sure that you are getting adequate sleep at night. This might sound funny and don't see how that ties into what we are doing but if you are tired, your body doesn't respond the way it should and is drawing energy that you could use to do the work.

I just want people to be aware that as much as we try and make sure the fireground is safe for everyone to be on, it is up to you to make sure that you are safe to be on the fireground. Doing something for yourself and try to come up with a plan to make sure that you are "Fit For Duty!"

Training clip