DENNIS LANANE: Safety first for Triad members

August 26, 2008 01:18 am

— A lot of interesting information was presented to Triad members last week concerning safety. Becky Bathhauer, of the Anderson Fire Department, was guest speaker and covered a lot of important issues, including emergency evacuation plans and fire safety.
It is important for everybody to have a plan for evacuation, especially seniors. Seniors all too often have mobility limitations that younger people do not have. Some are on walkers or have to depend on wheel chairs. Some may be on portable oxygen tanks. Whether these people live in nursing homes or assisted living and/or independent living facilities or in their own homes, they should have an evacuation plan. Regardless of age, they need to practice that plan occasionally to make sure it still is sufficient to get everybody out. Evacuation plans should be presented to the local fire departments for their approval.
Senior housing facilities are cracking down on smoking inside their apartments. Some people who refuse to comply are being evicted. The reason is that a lot of people in these facilities are on oxygen. In case of a fire the oxygen could place a lot of innocent people in danger.
Should you have a battery or a hard-wired smoke detector? One advantage to a hard-wired smoke detector is that they can be installed so that if one goes off, they all go off. Should you have a fire in your basement and have hard-wired smoke detectors in the basement and in your second-floor bedroom, they would both go off. This would not be true with battery-operated smoke detectors.
One Triad member raised the question of people on oxygen and smoking and visiting public places like restaurants who also place innocent consumers in danger. Triad may form a committee to urge our local council members and other legislators to study new regulations or laws.
We expect to have some people from the fire departments; consumers and some Madison County elected officials to join this committee.

United Senior Action Chapter
Matthew Greenwood and Robin Grant put on a presentation to the local United Senior Action Chapter about how to lower your prescription drugs costs. They talked about using generic medicines. These drugs are safe, effective and a lower-cost alternative to brand name drugs. The same holds true for over-the-counter drugs as well as prescription drugs.
Generic drugs are approved by the Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA); the government agency tests all medications to make sure they are safe and effective. Many people do not know about generic drugs because the generic companies do not spend millions of dollars in advertising. That is one reason they are cheaper but just as effective. Generic drugs have been used by doctors for over 30 years.
Generic drugs usually have fewer side effects and unknown risks than brand name drugs. New brand name drugs have been around longer and if their side effects are too many or too serious they end up being pulled off the market before generic drugs can be manufactured.
Another solution to the high costs of prescription drugs in our country is fixing the Medicare Part D plan. It was written by lobbyists for the pharmaceutical and insurance companies. This was verified on a “60 Minutes” program that was critical of how the Medicare Part D Plan was passed by Congress. U.S. Rep. Dan Burton, who appeared on this show, also voiced his discontent with the Medicare Part D Plan.
We need to vote for congressmen and a president of the United States who have gone on the record in favor of wanting to fix Medicare Part D so people can afford it.

Dennis Lanane is chairman of Madison County Triad. He can be reached by e-mail at qparadigm@iquest.net.

Copyright © 1999-2008 cnhi, inc.