Importance of Smoke Alarms in Homes Research Paper

Importance of Smoke Alarms in Homes - Research Paper Example This paper will outline the significance of installing smoke alarms in homes as a means to secure them from risks of potential fires. A fire disaster is a dreaded situation, which can result from gas leaks, short-circuits or overheated appliances. Smoke alarms are very helpful in considerably reducing the chances of fire hazards in homes. However, there are many households that have neglected to install smoke alarms, despite their life-saving potential and low cost, or have been careless in maintaining the installed detectors. Like any other battery-operated device, smoke alarms also require regular maintenance to ensure that they are in good operating condition and have sufficient batteries at the time of a hazardous situation (UL 2011). Effective and reliable smoke alarms are easily available at reasonably low prices; whereas more advanced models can be linked to a security system that automatically notifies the fire department. According to a recent study by the US Fire Administra tion (USFA), the number of household fires has increased on a year-on-year basis by almost 2%, resulting in an overall loss of over 2,500 lives and 6.5 trillion dollars (USFA 2011). Another research, carried out by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) has estimated that 96% of all households have a smoke alarm present, but only 70% of these are in working condition. However, from the 400,000 household fires that have been approximately reported, 72% of the deaths were caused by either an unmaintained or missing smoke alarm (NFPA 2011). Most of these fires also cause injuries, which may result in disfigurement and other mental effects (Miller et al. 1982). A working smoke alarm  doubles  the chances of survival from a fire (NFPA 2011). The majority of fire hazards take place at night, especially when people are asleep and may not detect the spreading smoke or fire. Smoke alarms keep that risk down by alerting everyone in the household when smoke is detected. It helps t he occupants find a safe passage out of their homes, before they become trapped in the fire. Most of the deaths that take place are usually due to suffocation from smoke or other gaseous substances, which are invisible to the human eye and can spread rapidly around the house. Hence, without smoke alarms, smoke is likely to go unnoticed, especially during the night, posing a great threat to the occupants of the house (DOS 2007). However, with a functioning smoke detector, the residents can easily discover and sense if there is smoke spreading in the house and save themselves and their loved ones from possible dangers. Smoke alarms do not prevent fires, but because they provide warnings of small fires, or smokes, that can be easily extinguished, they reduce the number of fires that become serious enough to cause injuries or burns, leading to fatalities. In a recent tragic incident, a family was using a space heater to heat their house. Their house did not have a smoke alarm installed. Unfortunately, the heater malfunctioned, causing a small local fire, which went unnoticed due to the absence of a smoke alarm. The fire spread rapidly, and in a couple of minutes, the fire had engulfed the house completely, trapping the whole family inside it. Sadly, by the time the fire department arrived at the scene, the family members were critically injured. They were immediately shifted to a hospital, where three children succumbed to their injuries and passed away. The parents are still recovering

Social problems Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Social problems - Coursework Example On the other hand, the subjective element of social problems refers to the belief that a certain social condition is harmful to the society, or to a section of the society and it can be changed. Problems such as drug addiction, poverty, crime and pollution do exist. These conditions are not considered as social problems but they can cause a lot of destruction is a society (Eitzen and Zinn 2). What is the difference between norm violations and social conditions as types of social problems? Which is a person blame and which a systems blame approach? Why doe the authors of this book believe the focus should be on social conditions (system blame) rather than norm violations (person blame)? Do you agree with them? Why or why not? As social problems, norm violations tend to assume that there is a standard behavior. People studying norm violations are normally interested in failures in the society criminals, the school dropouts, and the mental ill. On the other hand, norm violations are symptoms of social problems and not the problem itself. For example, deviants are victims who need to entirely carry the blame. The second type of social problems involves conditions that tend to cause material and psychic suffering for some people. In addition, there is the person-blame approach which is the approach of understanding people’s social problems. In this approach, those who deviate are considered as the source of trouble. The authors of this book believe that the focus should be on system blame and not person blame since blaming an individual gives the government a chance to take control of dissidents more easily. In most cases, deviants are normally sent to hospitals or prisons for rehabilitation. It is th erefore right for the authors to base on system blame (Eitzen and Zinn 4). Welfare state capitalism is a type of capitalism is a type of capitalism that has