A report based on a year-long trial involving Tasers by the Queensland Police released in July 2009 has revealed that while Tasers are quite effective as an option where force is required, it can also increase the risk of users becoming too reliant on the weapon.
Although effective and safe, according to the report, Tasers can also lead to ‘Taser creep’, the kind of risk wherein users develop the tendency to use the weapon even ‘beyond’ its intended use.  According to Bob Atkinson, Police Commissioner, there is concern regarding police officers who tend to rely too much on the Taser instead of using other alternatives that do not require the use of weapons.  Already, the Ethical Standards Command has established a review panel to keep track of Taser use across regions.

However, there are a few criticism regarding this move.  Jim Coburn, a lawyer specializing in criminal defense, has commented that even with more intense monitoring of Taser use, there is still a risk that misuse will continue.

Coburn also said that there is a need to investigate safety risks regarding Taser use.  Without it, according to him, the police will continue to ignore the dangers of the stun gun and the fact that it could maim or even injure people fatally.  This ignorance could even lead to more frequent use of the Taser and continued obliviousness to its effects.

According to the report, law enforcement officers had used weapons equipped with electric shock functions several times on a single person.  Some accounts even reveal that the Taser was used as many as 10 times on an offender.  According to Atkinson, these multiple uses occurred only with people who were uncontrollable, suicidal or even under the influence of drugs.

The need for control and common sense
To anyone who has a basic understanding of self-defense, anything and everything can be a weapon.  Just exactly how much power is there in a Taser?  Advertised figures say a stun gun can carry as much as 50,000 volts.  When used on a person, however, the average shock averages at just 1,500 volts due to factors such as air and the person’s clothing.

Unfortunately, the low figure does not excuse misuse.  Tasers can be powerful weapons of self-defense and law enforcement.  What’s really needed is proper training, a focus on better procedures for the apprehension and arrest of suspects and the use of more control and common sense.

If only a can of bear spray stands before you and a live, 7-foot tall bear, then you know that there’s a good chance you can come out of the woods alive.  Bear sprays can be effective deterrents against bear attacks and are in fact recommended by many survival experts.  They are also non-lethal self-defense tools so they can be used safely against bears without fear of permanently harming them.  But is bear spray also effective against other animals that might attack, such as dogs?  Or does it contain a stronger formulation that might prove lethal against smaller animals including those that belong to the canine family?  We find out.

What’s in your bear spray?
Bear spray contains a chemical known as OC, which stands for Oleoresin Capsicum.  This is a compound that has irritants and inflammatory ingredients that affect the mucous membranes, such as those found in the eyes, throat and nose.  This causes tears, coughing, gagging, a runny nose and extreme discomfort.  If the substance reaches the eye area, it can even cause temporary blindness.

It is this substance that makes pepper spray a favorite not just for self-defense but also for controlling unruly crowds and preventing an animal attack.  In fact, people who own a can of regular pepper spray may even use it against an attacking animal (be it a bear, a dog or some other wild creature) to protect themselves.

Is it safe to use?
Bear sprays contain the same kind of substance found in pepper sprays.  OC is the irritant found in peppers, which belongs to a family of plants known as capsicum.  By grinding the pepper, capsaicin is obtained, which is then mixed with a natural solvent.  Once the solvent has evaported, a thick, waxy resin is left behind.  This is the oleoresin capsicum, which is then mixed with an emulsifier so it can be turned into a liquid spray.

While highly irritating due to its content, bear sprays are considered non-lethal.  They can stop an attacking bear and distract him by causing irritation and inflammation.  However, the effects are only temporary and will wear out completely in about 5 to 15 minutes.

Although slightly stronger in formulation, bear sprays are also effective on dogs.  They should not, however, be considered an alternative if you only intend to use pepper spray as a deterrent against aggressive dogs.  Bear sprays come with a slightly different formulation than that which is specifically used against dogs.  To ensure that you are safely and effectively protected, make sure to purchase the appropriate formula.

An army knife can be a great thing for you to use, whether you are planning out a trip to the wilderness or are simply going to chop up a few things in your hotel room for a quick snack in between meetings. An army knife is also useful as a means of surviving most anywhere, so if you are stuck at work or school and need to stay away from the snow or rain, then you can find a way to stay alive.

There are many different kinds of army knives. The most well known, the Swiss army knife, is probably also the most versatile. It can come in many different colors. For instance, the common red or ruby knives are smaller and can come in different sizes: you can have extra small ones that fit in the smallest pockets but have very few tools, or you can have oodles of tools that are enough for fixing up a house (or even building one!) but that can burn holes in your pocket. There are many knives to buy and choose from, and how you use one depends on what model you get. Moreover, what model you get will depend on what you want to do.

Your army knife will come with a manual, so be sure to read this manual carefully. As you read the manual, explore the different knives and tools in the army knife. The knives will have their own hinges or fingernail digs that will allow you to pull them out, so use these to explore your knives. Be careful, however, and recognize which sides of your knives are sharp. This will allow you to hold the knife expertly and use the tools. It will also keep you from spontaneously chopping your fingers off.

You also need to maintain your army knife. Your tools all work along a hinge, and with no oil, your tools can rust and you will not be able to pull them out quickly. Read about how to maintain your knife and how to clean it. With age, use, and grime, you will make your knife dirty and hard to use, so be sure to maintain it. For this purpose, you will need to get some oils or grease in order to keep your hinges working.

Basically, an army knife will have a bevy of tools, most of them for screwing in screws, opening bottles, pulling corks out of wine bottles, and slicing or cutting. When using your handy screw drivers, maintain a good grip on your army knife, and make sure that the edge of the screw driver is securely fastened onto the grooves in your screw. The same rules apply for nearly all the tools in the army knife: you need to maintain a good grip on your knife, since its lack of torque and the small area in which you can maintain a grip can also limit your movement, not to mention the knife’s functionality. You will want to hold it well, moreover, to avoid it flying out of your grasp and hurting yourself, or anyone close to you.

As people age, their needs change along with their physical capabilities.  More seniors, for example, will require monitoring than they would when they were in their 20s, 30s, 40s or 50s, even if they are in relatively good health.  If you or a member of your family is a senior, there are gadgets you can use that will help keep them safe and secure.  With an elderly personal alarm, help will be a simple automatic call away.

Elderly personal alarms: how they work
Elderly personal alarms are battery-powered alarms that may either be worn or installed in the home.  In case of an emergency, you simply push a button on the device.  This will either sound off an alert so someone nearby can come and help you or it will send out an alert to a remote location, such as a monitoring center.  The monitoring center can call an emergency number on your behalf or alert someone regarding your condition.

What you can expect
Elderly personal alarm systems are monitored 24 hours a day, 7 days a week by a trained staff.  This will ensure that you get help whenever you need it, day or night.  Many services have national coverage, which means you can use the device wherever you are at the moment.

An important thing to remember: always make sure that your personal alarm is loaded with fresh batteries.  This will ensure that you get the help you need when you need it.  Consider professional maintenance as well so any defects or malfunctions are corrected immediately.

What to look for
Consider your needs above all when buying an elderly personal alarm.  Today, you have an excellent array of choices in terms of options on top of the basic features you’ll get upon purchase. Other than a medical alert, the system might also include physical signs monitoring or ambient room temperature monitoring, a very useful feature for bedridden individuals.  Purchase the services that are most important for you and don’t spend money on services you won’t need.

There are also elderly personal alarms that double as security systems.  Some features, for example, offer to monitor intruder alerts, something that can help secure your premises.  There are also others that automatically contact the police in case you find yourself in an emergency or duress situation.

When deciding on an elderly personal alarm, always look for a reliable product and service to back it up.  Remember that it could be your life and health on the line.  A low quality product and an unreliable service could endanger you or your loved one.  Have a representative demonstrate how the service works and check the time it would take for the monitoring center to act after you initially press the emergency button.  Look for an uncomplicated procedure.  The easier it is to use the alarm, the less time you waste.  Check the warranty period as well.

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Age is never a strong deterrent to hardened crooks and other criminals. That’s why it’s never too late for any woman to learn how to properly defend herself from all kinds of threat.

Self-Defense for All Generations
In Lawrence Parks and Recreations, a three-hour self-defense class on the afternoon was attended by a family of three-generations: Christine Winters, her daughter Lori Howard, and her young granddaughter Tanner.

The instructor herself proved that not even size could be a hindrance to learning self-defense; Mandana Hurt was forty-five years old and petite at five-foot-one. Also helping her teach her female students was not just her husband but her pre-teen daughter Natasha as well.

Each class began with a warning: no flashy moves would be taught and pain was sure to follow. Students were then summarily taught how to pinch, choke, stomp, bunch, block, and kick their attackers.

Hurt, who also taught science at Central Junior High School during the day, also imparted other important self-defense prevention tactics to her students. She taught them to be aware of their surroundings, remember locking the door, and even why it was best to stand at the side of a tree when they were loading stuff in the trunk of their cars.

Having taught self-defense lessons for eighteen years, Hurt had noticed how attendance rose and fell, usually hitting the highest point when local attacks were also on the rise.

Other Self-Defense Tips for Women
Attacks will most often catch you by surprise and unarmed as well. But if you have the will to survive then there are many ways when you can still defend yourself.

Practice makes perfect
If you’ve got self-defense skills, don’t let them become rusty. Practice regularly so that if you do end up in danger, you won’t suffer even a second of doubt or confusion as to what you should do next.

Look for substitute weapons
You may be out of pepper spray, your Taser is still charging, but that doesn’t mean you have to fight weaponless. Perfume, hair brushes, and lipsticks can all be excellent weapons when used properly.

Hit strategically
Don’t waste time and effort with wild strikes. If you are going to fight, make sure that you target vulnerable areas like eyes, throats, and groin. Decide which angle it’s best for you to strike.

Be prepared
Never underestimate your attacker. Do not hesitate when you strike and never show your fear. Once you let your fears get to you, your attacker will immediately have the upper hand!

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image credit to sxc.hu

In today’s dangerous times, it is no longer a choice but more of a necessity for a woman to know how to properly defense herself. But besides self-defense skills, presence of mind is just as important: when you are unarmed and trapped, being aware of your situation is your best weapon for saving your life.

It Pays to be Late ¦ Sometimes
Take, for instance, the true story of a young woman who was running late for her exams and about to be mugged. A man had suddenly come up to her, demanding money, to which she replied without missing a beat, Ask me later! I’m running late for my test. And lucky for her, she had been let go without trouble either because the mugger was sympathetic or, and this is more likely, she had just happened to take her attacker by surprise.

Learn the Magic Words to Save Your Life
Words, they say, are more powerful than swords. There are cases in which women had used mere words to scare their attackers off by bluffing about having a stun gun with them or knowing martial arts.

Words of wisdom from your father may also come in handy; one father advises his daughter about learning how to hold her liquor: this, he says, will save her from unsavory people who would try to get her drunk before having their wicked way with her. Another father has an even more sage and eloquent device to his daughter: don’t be stupid. Blunt, but true!

What Else You Can Do to Save Your Life
Of course, there are also times when words are just not enough to hold your attacker off. In such cases, here are a few more things you could do.

Arm yourself
Why bluff when you don’t have to? Stun guns, pepper sprays, and even pocket knives are perfect because they’re compact and often come in deceptive shapes and forms for you to surprise your attacker.

Pay attention
Let your instincts be your guide. If you sense something wrong, leave. Be aware of your situation. Know what’s happening around you. It might help you notice signs of trouble early enough to save yourself.

Don’t let them know you’re scared
Many a female has saved herself just by acting tough and maintaining eye contact with their would-be attacker.

Be resourceful
There’s never a chance an attacker could catch you unarmed if you’re resourceful. Your belt, scarf, or even your jacket can double as a whip. Coins and other small objects can be thrown on your attacker’s face to render him temporarily blind. Even if it’s not pepper, spraying perfume or any other liquid besides water directly at a person’s eyes would still hurt. Anything and everything could be of use to you as long as you don’t panic.

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image credit to mememeandme

Anyone can be a victim. As such, it doesn’t matter how old a person is or what race he belongs to. A person is always better off knowing how to defend himself if calling 911 proves to be impossible.

Who Says Old People are Pushovers?
In Charlotte, North Carolina, seniors are learning a new use for their canes. At the Atria Merry Wood senior living center, the elderly are benefiting from a self-defense class that’s specially designed for their age – and their use of canes. Combat Cane classes teach the art of cane-fu, a self-defense tactic that would not only save them from the bad guys but are great for exercising and their self-confidence, too!

Although students of the recently introduced cane-fu classes were still somewhat reticent about using their newly acquired skills with the cane, experts have noted the positive effects of the workout on the seniors’ mental acuity as well as heart and lung activity.

Combat cane classes focused on hitting target areas like eyes, throat, and groin. Afterwards, voluntary pairs were selected for mock battles. Euphemisms like dot the eyes, which referred to eye-poking, were used in respect of their students’ advanced age.

Other self-defense tips were also imparted. The seniors were particularly delighted at learning non-physical tactics to avoid trouble and deter attackers. They were advised not to reveal their fear, shout and use foul language, if necessary, just to show they weren’t an easy victim.

Westerns Learn the Eastern Way of Self-Defense
A West Scope center teaches young students how to defend their selves with a little-known Indonesian martial art called “poekoelan tjimindie tulen”. Besides teaching self-defense maneuvers, it also taught kids important values like respect for one’s self and others.

Kids in the center were barefoot, wore white shirts, loose-fitting white pants, and belts of different colors. They learned jabs and kicks, which altogether helped build their physical and emotional confidence.

The same Indonesian martial art style is also taught in public schools in Portland and Beaverton as well as in free clinics. Pronounced as pu-ku-lan chi-min-dee tu-len, the martial art focused on instilling “compassionate balanced action” in the kids.

Prior to the physical lessons, kids were also taught basic self-defense techniques like trusting their gut in order to identify potentially “bad”situations and do what they can to avoid trouble. They were also taught how to defend themselves verbally at first and to use physical force only as a last resort.

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There are numerous ways for a woman to defend herself from all kinds of attack. In some situations, however, such ways could end up with the attacker’s death. If you don’t want that on your conscience, here are a few tips to protect yourself without taking another person’s life.

Focus on Escaping
The only time there’d actually be a viable possibility for you to kill your offender is when both of you are involved in a direct confrontation. But why would you want to do that in the first place? Consider only getting in a tussle with your offender as a last resort. What you should focus instead is finding a way to safety and escaping as physically intact as possible.

Give a Warning
If you are confident about your self-defense skills but are loathe to use it unless necessary, give a warning to your offender! Now, this doesn’t mean laying all your cards down the table but suffice to say, just let him know that you are capable of defending yourself and that you don’t want to hurt him but if he forces you to then you would not hesitate.

If you are under attack against a bully, these words may be more than enough to make him hesitate. Bullies, after all, prefer fighting those who are weak. But if you show yourself to be strong, you won’t appeal to them as a victim. Those precious seconds of hesitation could be more than enough to save your life!

Target Vulnerable but not Life-threatening Areas
If direct confrontation is inevitable and you are worried about ending up killing your offender, the next thing to focus on are areas which will effectively weaken or disarm him but will not cost him his life.

For male attackers, the genital area is of course the most vulnerable. A strong, well-aimed kick could effectively put a stop to his attack. Make sure, however, that you really have the element of surprise working for you because most attackers are prepared against such tactics.

Aim to make him unconscious. Use hard blunt objects to hit your attacker on the head; aim well, strike hard, and you can render your attacker unconscious. Do not use pointed objects; your panic and confusion could make you inadvertently hit him using the pointed side and this could cause greater damage and, in worst case scenario, the death of your attacker.

And of course, don’t forget to scream and do what you can to call for help. This could make your offender panic and leave you alone!

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image credit to newhousedesign

It’s a surprising fact that many people still regard the workplace as one of the safest places.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  In fact, many accidents occur at one’s place of work, causing employees many hours of downtime and costing companies millions of dollars in insurance coverage.  If you want to keep yourself or your employees safe at work, here are some workplace safety tips you must keep in mind:

Be aware of exits and entrances
Always be aware of the location of doors, windows and emergency exits at your place of work, whether it’s an office building, a plant, a warehouse or a home office. Determine the viability of these areas as effective exits in case of an emergency.

Try to familiarize yourself with these areas so that you know exactly where to go even if there’s smoke, heavy traffic or absolute panic.  Make sure that these exits are accessible for everyone to use and that workers are aware of them.

Handle electric gadgets and appliances carefully
Don’t do anything at the office that you would consider unsafe at home.  Be especially careful with electric appliances at the office.  Check proper usage instructions and make sure you use the equipment as directed. Don’t try to repair equipment yourself.  If something malfunctions, call the attention of the right department instead.

Wear safety equipment
Some workplaces, by the nature of the industry they belong in, can be hazardous.  Floors in the office pantry, for example, can be slippery or construction areas can have falling debris.  Even ordinary office fixtures such as stairs, elevators, overhead cabinets and electrical outlets can pose a danger if you’re not careful. If you work in places where there are personal or physical hazards, follow safety protocols and regulations that are in place.

Regularly check your workplace for hazards
An important workplace safety tip to remember is to be always vigilant regarding your work area. Check for faulty office equipment, furniture or office appliances that may pose possible threats and other possible sources of physical harm.  Check your desk, chair, cabinets and gadgets as well.

Implement and/or participate in safety practices
Every workplace should have its own set of safety practice procedures.  Be aware of what these are at your place of work.  If you don’t have a safety procedure in place yet, consider having a team of workers to handle this.  Concerted efforts work best in this regard and the more employees are involved, the safer it will be for everyone.

image credits to sxc.hu

All over the United States, new state laws for public safety have come into effect. They’ve been formulated, enacted, and enforced for your sake, but they won’t do you any good if you’re not aware of them. Now, if you live in Oregon, here are a couple of new public safety laws you should learn.

All-Terrain Vehicles
Senate Bill 101 encompasses only ATV’s used for recreational purposes on public lands and do not include those used on private land as well as those used in forestry, agriculture, farming, and nurseries.

The new law poses new requirements for ATV drivers below sixteen years old. Youth drivers are required to obtain an ATV safety education card by finishing a safety education course. They must also comply with minimum physical requirements in regard with the grip and brake reach as well as leg length necessary for the ATV they’re driving.

Anti-Litter and Recycling
In 1971, citizens had been required to make nickel deposits for specified beverages to encourage recycling and prevent littering. At the stroke of midnight on the first day of 2009, that list had just been expanded to carbonated soft drinks, beer, and non-flavored and flavored water.

A Bottle Bill Task Force had also been formed to provide recommendations for further improvement on the bill. The state’s Department of Environmental Quality estimates that less than 13 billion containers would be recycled and reused in the next twenty years.

Prison Sentences
Upon gaining the approval of more than sixty percent of the state’s voters, Ballot Measure 57 is finally in effect. The new law enacts longer prison sentences for repeat drug offenders as well as those convicted of property and high-level crimes. Consequently, Ballot Measure 57 also forbids courts from imposing shorter sentences than those stated by the said law.

The new law, however, isn’t all about prison sentences. It also requires the Department of Corrections to establish grant programs and provide additional funding to enable local governments to offer rehabilitation and corrective treatment for repeat drug and alcohol offenders. The same treatment may also be directly provided by the DEC to certain addicted criminals.

Smoke-free Campaign
To protect its citizens from the admittedly harsh and undeserving effects of secondhand smoke, the state of Oregon has now banned smoking in as much as 75% of motel and hotel sleeping rooms as well as all indoor workplaces and breakrooms, bowling centers, bingo halls, restaurants, and bars. Moreover, businesses are required to ensure that a 10-feet smoke-free zone is maintained around their ventilation systems, doors, and windows. Violators could incur fines ranging from $500 to $2,000 per day.