Protect Your Best Friend From A Shock Collar

 

Protect your best friend – dogs – from the torture of a shock collar!. I never knew this one but apparently putting such shock collars on dogs by some trainers and individuals is fairly common.

 

You can help put an end to this barbaric practice by signing a petition found through this e-mail address: info@banschockcollars.ca

 

 

Fight Chronic Pain Without Medication

 
Younger Canadians are now facing a life of pain which severely limits their activities and quality of life according to according to reporter Rebecca Lindell of Postmedia Services on December 15, 2010.

In her article "1 in 10 Younger Canadians Experience Chronic Pain".she describes how a sudden injury to a young lady forced her to make drastic changes in her daily activities in order to cope with a life of chronic pain – which she has faced for 26 years. This has forced her to abandon a career in urban planning and survive on a disability pension.

And she is not alone. According to a recent report from Statistic Canada some 10 percent of young Canadian between the years of 12 and 44 years do face lives of chronic pain as a result of back and of her injuries. According to Lindell the Statistics Canada report also showed that some 63 percent of people as a whole are prevented from performing everyday tasks at home, school, and work" as a result of pain.

In the article Dr. May Lunch of the Canadian Pain Society said: "Not only is it causing suffering in people, but its costing Canada big bucks. People living with pain cannot function as well as people who don't have pain. Even when people do manage to drag themselves to work they are not as productive or as focussed or as efficient as they would be if their pain were under better control."

The problem for many of these people is that the medications they take can cause other productions through side effects and the addiction to the medication if they take it over a long term.

There, is though, another way to help your body cope with chronic pain like fibromyalgia and that is through reflexology treatments. The practitioners of this complementary therapy massage pressure points in your feet, hands and other areas to help your body to relax and recover from injuries as well as other health problems without the extensive use of pharmaceutical medications.

Of course you want to talk to your family physician before embarking on any type of complementary care like this I can tell you that reflexology has helped millions of persons throughout the word to recover from or cope with a wide variety of health problems and protect their enjoyment of life

For more information about this story contact Rebecca Lindell at Post Media Services. For more information on Reflexology contact the Canadian Reflexology Society or one of the other associations you can find on-line.


 

Prevent The Death or Injury of Your Baby

 
Although the Canadian federal government is set to enforce guidelines and standards for manufacturers of portable baby beds and other child care products and toys this still leaves parents as the front line of protection when they are buying any of these items.



In a recent article in the Vancouver Sun Post Media reporter Sarah Schmidt quotes the federal Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq who said: Canada' requirements for cribs and cradles are already among the toughest in the world. These changes will make them even tougher."



She was referring to standards that manufacturers will have to meet to eliminate the danger of young babies and toddlers being killed or injured by shearing or pinching parts and other hazards. This follows the death of a two-month old baby boy in Winnipeg Manitoba in February 2009.



Alukkaq assures parents that, "If manufacturers do not voluntarily meet these standards the government could enforce regulations," but that in itself is not a guaranty that some manufacturers or retailers will not try to sell dangerous products to unsuspecting parents – so parents need to be extra vigilant when buying any of these baby products – to ask a lot of questions and check for possible hazards to their babies before buying anything.

[For more information on this topic see the Vancouver Sun December 12, 2010 and thee article "Ottawa Unveils Safety Rules for Bassinet Makers" by Sarah Schmid].


 
Other  dangers to toddlers and young children are  highlighted in the same edition of the Vancouver Sun  in the article "Holiday Hazard from Deadly Toys" from Reuters.



These deadly toys continue to appear  on retailers shelves according to the Public Interest Researach Group or PIRG in its annual "Trouble in Toyland " report. Among the dangers are a Dora the Explorer backpack that contains the toxic chemical bis(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate and a Bib Bang rocket that could cause hearing damage.



In addition to these two  other toys continue to be produced with choking, cutting, blinding and strangulation hazards. According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission in the United Sates, "toy-related injuries sent 250,100 children to U.S. hospital emergency rooms in 2009 and resulted in 12 deaths, including two from choking." And this carnage in Canada and other countries where such toys are sold is not doubt very high as well.



As Jacinda Adams, vice president with Prevent Blindness America said in the article…."at the end of the day, it's up to parents and consumers to be aware …[of the danger]to avoid winding up in the emergency room for Christmas."

[For more information see the Vancouver Sun Dec 1, 2010 and the article, "Holiday Hazard from Deadly toys"].


 

Kid's Poor Sleep Habits Dangerous to Health

If you let your children build poor sleep habits you could be killing them.


According to recent study by a cardiologist at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Ontario, Canada children who don't get enough sleep could suffer from heart disease later and more and more teenagers suffer from sleep deprivation

This in turn, according to Dr;. Brian McCrindle, in a recent report to the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress in Montreal can lead to childhood obesity, which he says, "can lead to premature heart disease.

While not claiming yet that poor sleep habits cause heart disease he stresses that poor sleep habits and a lack of proper rest during the night has been associated with more and more teenagers suffering from being overweight and obese he said. This in turn leads to blood pressure and blood cholesterol problems. And new studies have discovered premature artery hardening in obese children.

In addition to this other health problems encountered by obese children and adults (and many obese children become obese adults) include diabetes as well as bone and joint problems.

One of the best ways of course to fight obesity is be more physically active and that is where part of the problems lies according to George Honos, spokesman for the Heart and Stroke Foundation. He said, "lack of sleep alone may not be an independent risk factor for heart disease…but it's a red flag. If [children are] zombies the next day, they're not going to do a lot of sports."

 

[For more information on this topic see the Montreal Gazette Nov. 26, 2010 and the article "Sleepless Kids Prone to Heart Disease" by Charles Fidelman


 

 

Protect Your Home and Family With a Camera

 
In this age when home invasions and break ins are quite common you can discourage such criminal activity or at least make sure you have photographic or video evidence of the criminals involved -- if you have installed a high quality residential camera system.



Many of these systems are wireless and quite easy to install as well as connect to your camera in your home as well as your computer at work, or even your laptop if you are on the road a lot.



You might think that any camera would be easy to take out by someone before they break in or invade your home but while some of these cameras are quite large not all of them. You can also install what is often called a pinhole camera with lenses no larger than the eraser at the end of a pencil and these can be concealed above doorways or windows without much expertise. Of course it is not a bad idea to have one of the certified companies install these for you to make sure the installations and set up are done correctly.



The critical thing in all of this is that you don't just run out and buy the first residential camera system you see. Do your homework. Check out several brands first as well as the services of companies who specialize in such residential camera system installations.



There is a wealth of such information on the Internet such as: www.homesecurity.com, www.surveillancevideo.com, and www.youdoitsecurity.com for starters.

Remember to do your independent research and build a good background knowledge of what is out there in the way of residential security camera systems and ask a lot of in-depth questions when speaking to sales and service people before buying and installing any system.



A security camera system can be a valuable ally in your efforts to protect your property and family – if you go about selecting and installing a system carefully.


 

 

How Well Do Your Know Your Site?

Whether your site is some construction project, an industrial or retail complex or condo tower if you are a professional security officer – or whether it is your home, office, or other place of business how well do you know the layout? In an emergency could you get around it in the dark – without the aid of a flashlight?



You should be able to so you could navigate through the building or area quickly and safely if some emergency did happen and you were caught without a flashlight – or it was too dangerous to let others who had invaded your property know where are.

You should practice this on a regular basis of some sort, particularly if you live or work in an area which has a history of break ins, building invasions, or other problems like power failures etc.



You should know where all the doors lead to and where all the places of refuge can be found. If you frequently work outside in the late night or early morning hours you should know where all the routes inside your site or property lead to as well as what roads or trails lead up to the perimeter of your site or property. You should know where they come from as well as who normally uses these routes – and where they would take you if you had to retreat from the area for some reason. 




And you also want to keep in mind whether roads or trails, or access points  converging on your position from two or more different directions would leave you vulnerable to attack from two directions. Then keep an eye of these routes periodically while you are working – in an alert – not paranoid fashion.



This type of awareness about your property or site should become a habit, particularly for security people stationed in outside area but often it does not All too often you can walk or drive right up behind them from a direction they were not monitoring and catch them completely off guard – particularly guards sitting in their own vehicles listening to the radio or I pods etc.



No, problems do not happen often on most sites, but it takes only one when you are not alert to ruin your day (or night).


 

 

Create The Whole Picture

Create the whole picture when you meet new people; it could be critical to do this.

This was clearly illustrated in a recent incident involving a young Asian man who attempted to hide his true identity when he boarded an airplane headed for Vancouver, B.C., by wearing a mask that created the impression of a very old man. This combined with false identify papers initially helped him slip past trained officer at loading check points who assumed he was this elderly person returning to Canada.

He would have gotten away with this except he made two mistakes: First he forgot to make sure his hands matched his facial features and for some reason he decided to abandon his mask in the airplane's washroom mid flight.

The alert passenger next to him had already alerted the flight crew that something was suspicious about this person because young hands did not match his old facial features so when he emerged from the washroom as a young Asian man the crew immediately alerted the authorities in Vancouver and he was nabbed when the airliner landed.

Who knows how many other people use such disguises. If you read Eye Spy magazine you'll agree that there are probably many, many incidents like this in other settings. And this type of thing can be very hard to detect as any good makeup artist will show you.

I can be done, however, if you get into the habit of capturing or creating the complete picture of the person you are confronting or see – their face, their eyes, -- their hands -- as well as other features and even body language – everything you notice about that person.

Do they create a picture of the person her or she is supposed to be?