Apartment Safety - Going on Vacation

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WHEN YOU GO ON VACATION

  
·    Remember, unless there is a Cop reading this over your shoulder, YOU ARE NOT SAFE! The police do a pretty good job of SOLVING crimes. They cannot PREVENT crimes. The your safety, the safety of your family, and the protection of your property is YOUR responsibility.

·    One of the times your home is most vulnerable is when it is left empty for an extended period of time. Darkened windows, mail or newspapers collecting and closed windows in hotter weather all advertise your absence to a potential burglar.

·    The best protection for your apartment during your absence is to have a house sitter. A friend you trust staying at your house can take care of your pets and/or plants in addition to making sure the house is inhabited.

·    Have a neighbor check on your apartment while you're away -- turning on lights, radios or TVs and opening and closing curtains will give your apartment the appearance of someone home.

·    If you don't have a friend or neighbor to housesit or check your apartment while you're away -- perhaps even if you do -- you should keep not only lights but a TV or radio on a timer. If you're like me and have your TV on almost all the time you're home [NOTE: I don't watch it, it's just background noise.], the absence of the sound and that glowing light in the windows announces that you're not there.

·    Make sure whoever is checking your apartment while you're away knows how to work your alarm system and who to call in case of a problem.

·    Unless you have a house sitter, stop your mail and any newspaper or other delivery. Nothing announces an empty apartment better than a stack of newspapers or an overflowing mailbox. Ask a nearby neighbor to pick up any packages delivered while you're gone.

·    If you have a garden or plants on your balcony, make sure someone is watering the plants regularly or put the plants where they can't be seen. Plants slowly dying due to lack of water may announce your absence.

·    Check your lease. Many landlords require that you notify them if your apartment is going to be left empty for any period of time (this is so they can enter in case of emergency even if they can't reach you). If you've got a house sitter this isn't necessary.

An Overview of Hazardous Chemicals

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Materials that are extremely hazardous to property, health or the environment (highly toxic gas, explosive, highly water reactive, and pyrophoric materials for example) must not be procured until the necessary permits, administrative, engineering and environmental controls are in place.

Hazardous materials must be stored and used in accordance with numerous regulations including, but not limited to, the Uniform Fire Code and local amendments.

Permits are required for any quantity of highly hazardous material, and for small to moderate quantities of other materials. (For example, a permit is required for any quantity of highly toxic or unstable material and for flammable liquids in quantities in excess of five gallons in a building).
Contact the Fire Department directly or EH&S Facility Safety office (206.543.0465) for assistance.

Rooms where hazardous materials are stored or used in quantities that exceed certain thresholds, and rooms dedicated to storing hazardous materials are required to have a National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) diamond sign on all doors. Call EH&S Facility Safety office at 543-0465 for further information and signs.

<i>Flammable Liquids:</i> The quantity of flammable liquids in a single laboratory stored outside of an approved flammable liquids cabinet must not exceed 10 gallons. All 10 gallons, unless in use, must be stored in approved containers as indicated in the table below.

<i>Peroxide Forming Chemicals:</i> Peroxides may form in some organic compounds by autoxidation. Peroxides can cause serious accidents and, in some circumstances, become low power explosives that can be set off by shock, sparks or other forms of ignition. Some organic compounds form peroxides in a matter of months under the right circumstance. Be aware of organic compounds in your lab and remember to mark the expiration date on each container and review them periodically for disposal. Ether is an example of peroxide forming chemical.

<i>Pyrophoric Material:</i> Pyrophoric material is a material that will spontaneously ignite when it comes into contact with air. This material is only permitted in fire sprinkler protected laboratories in very small quantities (4 pounds aggregate per zone). Potassium metal is an example of a pyrophoric material. Extreme precaution is required when working with this type of material.

<i>Highly Toxic Material:</i> Materials classified as highly toxic are only permitted in small quantities in University buildings (Up to 10 pounds per zone). Highly toxic gas, like Arsine, is not allowed in any quantity without engineering controls and a special permit from the Seattle Fire Department.

<i>Incompatible Materials:</i> Incompatible materials are materials which, when in contact with each other, have the potential to react in a manner that generate heat, fumes, gases, or byproducts which are hazardous. For quantities of greater than 5 pounds or 1/2 gallon, separation by not less than 20 feet, approved cabinets, or a noncombustible partition is required. Smaller quantities should also be isolated whenever practical. A common violation is flammable liquids stored with oxidizers.

<i>Flammable Liquids and Basements:</i> The International Fire Code prohibits storage of flammable liquids in basements. However, there are two general exceptions as follows that apply to the University of Washington:

Existing grandfathered Class H Occupancy rooms (i.e., chemical stockrooms design specifically for bulk storage of flammable liquids). New Class H occupancy rooms for flammable liquids are not allowed in basements.

Your waste will be picked up in two to four weeks. Please plan ahead and be patient. Each waste item must be tracked from the point of generation to incineration, and we do the paperwork for hundreds of containers of waste every week. Chemicals that are corrosive, flammable, toxic, or explosive are by legal definition "hazardous". Some additional chemicals are handled as hazardous waste because they are carcinogenic, persistent in the environment, or are not allowed in the trash because they generate dusts or other hazard. Large volumes of waste or numbers of containers may take longer to collect due to the long time it takes to process the chemicals (it usually takes an hour to process one Chemical Collection Request) and the limited space on our trucks. Routine collection requests are faster because much of the paperwork is done already. If your waste is accumulated improperly (according the above guidelines), we will stop to discuss the problem with you if you are present. We will not pick up your waste until the problem has been corrected.

All new employees as well as anyone rusty on the basics of hazardous waste management should take this training. It covers hazardous waste definitions, labeling, storage, and disposal and includes a short quiz, all of which should take only ten to twenty minutes to complete. If you pass the quiz, you may request a certificate of completion for your training records at any job that you are working at.

All in One Hidden Digital Video Recorders

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Should you need to use hidden digital video recorders, and you need to have more than one, then you definitely want to consider using a quad all-in-one system. These hidden digital video recorders are great because not only can you operate multiple cameras, you can control them all from one sleek, compact unit. The multiplexer and the recorder are combined, so it does not matter where you place it.

These wonderful hidden digital video recorders have no tapes to worry about; you can set it up and forget it until you want to review a video. There is no replacing worn out old tapes, no rewinding, no fuss, no muss, and that means no down time, and more importantly, no leaving your place unprotected while it is out for maintenance. Because it is a quad switcher, you can view all four cameras at the same time on one screen.

This system also allows you to set your hidden digital video recorders for continuous recording over a twenty-four hour period, or you can set it to be alarm activated, so that the cameras only switch on when an alarm is sounded. This feature will extend the over all recording time. Plus one of the most beautiful things about this system is that you can record and playback simultaneously. No need to stop recording just to access previously recorded material, and the handy search functions allow you to do frame-by-frame viewing, view the alarm events or you can use fast playback. And you can record as slow as one frame every ten seconds or a fast as fifteen frames per second.

Additional Features of a Home Security Alarm System

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The most basic home security alarm systems include a control panel, a keypad, a siren, access monitors and, in the case of monitored systems, an off site control station. These basic features are adequate for simple home protection against burglars but some people may opt for more advanced home security alarm systems that incorporate more advanced features. Home security alarm systems may include a smoke detection system, glass break detectors, panic buttons and motion detectors.

When most people think of a home security alarm system, they think of a burglar alarm system. While it is true that the primary function of a home security alarm system is to protect your home and your possessions from burglars, this is not the only function of home security alarm systems. As the name home security alarm system implies, the system is devised to protect your home. This includes protecting your home from damage due to fires. For this reason, many people have a smoke detection system linked to their home security alarm system. This will sound an alarm and alert the control station if smoke is detected.

Glass break detectors are another advanced feature that some individuals like to include in their home security alarm system. These systems are able to identify the sound of glass breaking and will activate the home security alarm system when this sound is identified. This is helpful because most home security alarm systems include access monitors that determine when doors or windows or opened. This makes your home vulnerable to burglars who break a window rather than opening the window to access the home. Installing glass break detectors in your home security alarm system will minimize this problem.

Panic buttons are another optional feature in a home security alarm system. These are hand held devices that can be placed in strategic locations throughout the house. These panic buttons enable the homeowner to send and immediate message that they are in trouble to the monitoring center. This alarm can be sent silently or can be an audible siren that sounds throughout the house.

Another feature that many individuals elect to incorporate into their home security alarm system is a set of motion detectors. These motion detectors act as a second line of defense in the home security alarm system. If the burglar is able to enter your home without triggering the alarm, the motion detectors will sense that he has entered your home and will trip the alarm, thus sounding the siren and sending a message to the monitoring center if your system is monitored.

Your home security alarm system can be as simple or as complex as you want it to be. Incorporating some of the more advanced features into your home security alarm system can provide your home with better protection. These home security alarm features can be very valuable in the case where a burglar knows how to work around the confines of a standard home security alarm system.