Lesson in 4 parts on TATAKalikasan, Ateneo de Manila University
87.9 FM Radyo Katipunan, every Thursday) 11 to 12 a.m., July 25, 2024
Special Feature: Typhoon Carina
Disaster Preparedness, Response, and Recovery
(Handa, Laban, Bangon)
Part 1 - Always Be Prepared: Typhoon, Flood, Tsunami,
Earthquake, and Other Disasters
Part 2 - 13 Frankenstein monsters roaming in our midstPart 3 - Our lives are being outrun by Science and Technology!Part 4 - Triumvirates of Doom: (Nuclear, Chemical andBiological Warfare)ANNEX - 10 Fire Prevention Tips You Need to Know Now
Dr Abe V Rotor
Co-host, TATAKalikasan, with Fr JM Manzano SJ, and Prof Emoy Rodolfo, AdMU
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'Carina' damages 45 schools, disrupts upcoming school opening
Cristina Chi - Philstar.com
July 24, 2024 | 7:22pm
MANILA, Philippines — At least 45 public schools across the Philippines have been damaged during the onslaught of Supertyphoon Carina (international name: Gaemi) enhanced by the southwest monsoon, impacting teachers’ and students’ preparations for the school opening five days from now.
The Department of Education on Wednesday said that as of 11 a.m., the estimated cost of the school damages so far tally to at least P308.5 million.
The 45 schools that sustained damages from the torrential rains are spread across eight regions, namely CAR, Region 1, Region 2, Region 3, Region 4-A, Region 4-B, Region 6 Region 8.
The combined effects of the tropical storm and the southwest monsoon dumped a record amount of rainfall on Wednesday, triggering emergency rescue operations as floodwater submerged houses and sank vehicles in major thoroughfares.
Metro Manila has been placed under a state of calamity.
Based on PAGASA’s latest forecast, heavy rainfall in Luzon is expected to continue until Friday, while Carina is projected to exit the Philippine Area of Responsibility by Thursday morning and make its final landfall in Taiwan.
Calls to shift to the traditional academic calendar came after teachers and students expressed health concerns with holding classes during the hot months of March to May. However, climate advocates have warned that extreme weather events remain a year-round threat.
In the previous school year, at least 32 teaching days or a month’s worth of class instruction were lost due to climate-related events, including the soaring temperatures that scorched the Philippines during the dry season, according to the Philippine Institute for Development Studies
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In Afghanistan, a series of earthquakes on October 7, 2023, killed 2,400 people. Several hundreds were reported missing, 1,714 houses destroyed, and 11,066 people left homeless.
On September 8, a 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck central Morocco, with more than 3,000 people confirmed dead, and thousands injured. The disaster was Morocco’s most powerful earthquake in more than a century and its deadliest since 1960
More than 33,000 people have died across Turkey and Syria since a devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake on February 6, 2023.* The quake is one of the strongest to hit the region in more than 100 years. Thousands of buildings collapsed.
On September 8, a 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck central Morocco, with more than 3,000 people confirmed dead, and thousands injured. The disaster was Morocco’s most powerful earthquake in more than a century and its deadliest since 1960
More than 33,000 people have died across Turkey and Syria since a devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake on February 6, 2023.* The quake is one of the strongest to hit the region in more than 100 years. Thousands of buildings collapsed.
Typical flood scenes
This article is an update of an earlier post on how we prepare, respond and recover, in times of calamity. Here is a checklist to follow. Add to this list other necessary measures, particularly those that fit into the conditions of your place.
1. Keep informed and abreast – Radio, TV, Internet, Telephone, neighbors, cellphone. Social media in action.
2. Know at fingertips emergency numbers for disaster, fire, earthquake, police, NDCC, DECS, DOH, others. Be emergency response conscious of evacuation sites, fire exits, hospitals and clinics,
Secure appliances and items (furniture, documents, books, toys, etc) on second floor or on safe area. Move heavy objects away from harm’s way, these include apparador, potted plants, heavy tools, etc.
3. Prepare for power cut off. Set your freezer to the coldest temperature setting to minimize spoilage if the power is cut off. Have on hand flashlight, candles, batteries, etc. Charge cellphones and emergency lights. Have enough LPG during the emergency period. Keep a spare tank. In the province be sure you have sufficient stock of dry firewood.
4. Have your car, motorbike, ready for emergency. If water rises, secure them to higher ground.
Always see to it that they are at tiptop condition.
5. Check windows and doors, walls and roofs. Reinforce and seal them if necessary. Have handy towels, rags and mops. Seal leaking walls and roof even before the typhoon season.
6. Stay at the strongest and safest place in the house if the typhoon gets severe. Keep away from flood water, electrical outlet and wire, china wares and glass windows.
7. Seal off broken window or door with mattress or sofa over as typhoon gets severe. Secure it there with a heavy piece of furniture. Dra
w curtains across the windows to prevent against flying glass. Release trapped pressure by allowing it to escape opposite the direction of wind. My experience is to open a window just enough to maintain equilibrium.
8. Remember that a typhoon has an eye of calm. Don’t be deceived; it may appear that the typhoon has passed. It is only half of it. The winds then pick up again, now in opposite direction.
9. When the typhoon is finally through, check for hazards - broken glass, fallen trees and downed power lines, dangerous damaged structure.
10. Observe hygiene during and after a typhoon. Make sure your drinking water is not contaminated. Boil if necessary. Make sure that food properly prepared and stored. Avoid eating food from roadside vendors. Protect yourself from WILD, acronym for Waterborne, Influenza, Leptospirosis, and Diarrhea. Include Dengue, and other diseases.
11. Give priority attention to infants, children and the elderly. Provide them with whatever measures of safety and comfort. Keep them out of danger. Evacuate, if necessary, before the typhoon strikes.
12. Get rid of breeding grounds of mosquitoes, flies, rats and other vermin. Drain stagnant pools, dispose containers with water. Dispose garbage properly. Use pesticide only if necessary. Application of insecticide, rodenticide, and fumigant needs expert’s supervision.
13. Protect yourself from toxic waste if you are living in an industrial center, these include toxic metals (mercury, lead, cadmium), hydrocarbon compounds, pesticide residues, oil spills.
14. Wear protective clothing like boots when wading in flood water, raincoat, jacket, had hard during clearing and construction, gloves, etc. Be careful with leptospirosis, a disease acquired from rat waste through flood water.
15. Protect yourself from road accidents. Chances are higher during and after a calamity because of fallen trees and poles, damaged and slippery roads, non-functioning traffic lights, obstructions of all sorts.
16. Have your damaged vehicle repaired and cleaned as soon as possible to prevent further damage, specially those submerged in flood. So with other appliances – refrigerators, TV sets, furniture, etc.
17. Have an adequate supply of food and water for the foreseeable period of emergency. No panic buying, please.
18. Medicine cabinet, first aid kit. Check regularly and replenish the needed medical supplies, principally for the treatment of common ailments, and victims of accidents.
19. Protect your home from burglars (akyat bahay). Don't fall unwary victim to rogues. Bad elements of society usually take advantage on the hopeless, like refugees in a calamity.
20. Keep in touch with loved ones, relatives, friends to relieve anxiety. It is timely to text some kind words to the the infirmed, lonely, aged. Offer whatever help you can extend. These are times to exercise neighborliness in action.~
Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda), the strongest storm to make landfall in recorded history, flattened coconut trees like match sticks. 2012
Deadliest Cyclones
Rank | Storm | Dates of impact | Deaths |
1 | September 1881 typhoon | 1881, September 27 | 20,000 |
2 | Haiyan/Yolanda 2013 | 2013, November 7–8 | 6,241 |
3 | Thelma/Uring 1991 | 1991, November 4–7 | 5,101 |
4 | Bopha/Pablo 2012 | 2012, December 2–9 | 1,901 |
5 | Angela Typhoon | 1867, September 22 | 1,800 |
6 | Winnie 2004 | 2004, November 27–29 | 1,593 |
7 | October 1897 Typhoon | 1897, October 7 | 1,500 |
8 | Ike/Nitang 1984 | 1984, September 3–6 | 1,492 |
9 | Fengshen/Frank 2008 | 2008, June 20–23 | 1,410 |
10 | Durian/Reming 2006 | 2006, November 29-December 1 | 1,399 |
Typhoon Lando - Oct 22-28, 2015 - In terms of sheer strength and scope of destruction, Typhoon Lando (international name: Koppu) was the worst storm to hit the Philippines, with USD11 billion loss, 464 death.
Most destructive
Rank | Name | Year | PHP | USD |
1 | Haiyan (Yolanda) | 2013 | 89.6 billion | 2.02 billion |
2 | Bopha (Pablo) | 2012 | 42.2 billion | 1.04 billion |
3 | Rammasun (Glenda) | 2014 | 38.6 billion | 871 million |
4 | Parma (Pepeng) | 2009 | 27.3 billion | 608 million |
5 | Nesat (Pedring) | 2011 | 15 billion | 333 million |
6 | Fengshen (Frank) | 2008 | 13.5 billion | 301 million |
7 | Megi (Juan) | 2010 | 11 billion | 255 million |
8 | Ketsana (Ondoy) | 2009 | 11 billion | 244 million |
9 | Mike (Ruping) | 1990 | 10.8 billion | 241 million |
10 | Angela (Rosing) | 1995 | 10.8 billion | 241 million |
Indian Ocean Tsunami, Dec 26, 2004 (Christmas Tsunami)The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake occurred on 26 December with an epicentre off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia resulting a disastrous tsunami killing 230,000 people in 14 countries, and inundating coastal communities with waves up to 30 metres (100 ft) high. Hardest hit are Sri Lanka, India, and Thailand. With a magnitude of 9.1–9.3, it is the third-largest earthquake ever recorded on a seismograph. Photo of a village in Sumatra
The earthquake had the longest duration of faulting ever observed, between 8.3 and 10 minutes. It caused the entire planet to vibrate as much as 1 centimetre (0.4 inches) and triggered other earthquakes as far away as Alaska. A worldwide humanitarian response amounted to US$14 billion in humanitarian aid.
It was a city known for its beautiful beaches and boasts one of the longest cherry blossom tree tunnels in Japan. But after a tsunami and a nuclear disaster both struck in the space of 12 months, Tomioka near Fukushima was turned into a ghost city.
The earthquake had the longest duration of faulting ever observed, between 8.3 and 10 minutes. It caused the entire planet to vibrate as much as 1 centimetre (0.4 inches) and triggered other earthquakes as far away as Alaska. A worldwide humanitarian response amounted to US$14 billion in humanitarian aid.
Fukushima Japan Tsunami, March 11, 2011
It was a city known for its beautiful beaches and boasts one of the longest cherry blossom tree tunnels in Japan. But after a tsunami and a nuclear disaster both struck in the space of 12 months, Tomioka near Fukushima was turned into a ghost city.More than 15,000 residents living in 6,000 houses were forced to evacuate in March 2011 because of safety fears concerning dangerous radiation levels. Three years on, schools and business are still prevented from returning while parks, playgrounds, roads and the city's train station have been left covered in overgrown grass.
A total of 300,000 people have been evacuated from the east coast of the country since the disasters and 15,884 have died. (Photo shows a boat left on a highway for three years on the outskirts of the deserted city, which was evacuated because of radiation fears following the nuclear disaster.) Acknowledgement: Internet, Wikipedia
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*Do you believe in miracles?
A 10-year-old girl named Cudi was rescued after spending 147 hours trapped under rubble in southern Turkey’s Hatay province. In the same region, a 35-year-old survivor identified as Mustafa Sarıgül was freed from the ruins of a six-story apartment building after 149 hours.
Part 2 - Thirteen (13) Frankenstein monsters
roaming in our midst
"The coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic is the defining global health crisis of our time and the greatest challenge we have faced since World War Two."
Anyone who has read Frankenstein cannot forget the frightful scenario of a monster created in the laboratory that eventually turned against his master and terrorized the world - a reminder of the unpredictable consequences of science-on-the-loose.
We have revived the Frankenstein monster in many forms, such as these.
1. The invention of the atomic bomb and its subsequent progeny - hydrogen bomb, neutron bomb and cobalt bomb - that are far more deadly and destructive, and their stockpiling into a power keg that still exist today even after the Cold War has ended in 1989.
Fukushima Nuclear Disaster, 2011
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Hiroshima atomic bombing, and aftermath, 1945Holocaust, Nazi Concentration Camp in Auschwitz,1944
Scene of Dr Frankenstein and the monster he created (Wikipedia),
based on the celebrated novel by Mary Shelly in the 19th century
3. Organ transplantation and replacement which is leading us farther and farther to a new frontier called bionics; a combination of the rational being and the robot, natural and artificial intelligence.
4. Genetically modified organisms (GMO) whereby it is possible to combine genes of organisms outside their kind, irrespective of species - or kingdom, for that matter. Bt Corn carries the gene protein of a bacterium - Bacillius thuringiensis - that parasitizes caterpillars that feed on corn crop. New strange life variations are sprouting defying identity and classification. They are nameless like the monster created by Frankenstein.
5. Mega-industrialization that has resulted not only in the demise of natural environments (ecosystems) and many species of organisms, but the destruction of the ozone layer and the gradual and steady buildup of atmospheric gases and temperature known as global warming. Global warming has alarming effects in changing climate patterns worldwide, spawning more frequent and more destructive force majeure from drought to flood to typhoons and tornadoes.
6. Urbanization leading to the growth of megacities which continue to destroy the homeostasis of rural-urban relationship, spawning poverty and leading to the degradation of human life at the source of migration on one hand, and at the burgeoning centers on the other.
7. Population explosion setting a record of 7.7 billion people today and doubling in less than fifty years if left unchecked - indeed a grim reminder of the ghost of Malthus two hundred years ago (Malthusian Theory), and a proof that the natural laws that govern survival has been radically changed. (Internet photos)
8. Consumerism on which capitalism flourishes in the guise of progress and the good life, but in effect creates massive pollution, imbalance of the economy of nations, dividing them into power-wealth categories, and have and have-not, loss of values, and abusive exploitation of resources at the expense of Planet Earth.
9. Gold rush syndrome resulting in the Tragedy of the Commons, a principle that is based on Chaucer's Pardoner's Tale, a story that illustrates that greediness and wanton destruction has always a tragic end, as evidenced today by the declining fish catch in the ocean, dwindling freshwater supply, logged over forests, spent farms and pastures, near exhaustion of fossil fuels, and the like.
10. While ecumenism bridges religions, cultism is divisive and segregative. There is a rise of the so-called hybrid religions which have lost their dogmatic identities, and are gaining popularity as a kind of religious liberation. On the other hand, more and more people around the world are drawn into the world of nones (people who have lost faith in organized religions) - if not the atheism, particularly those overwhelmed by the influence of postmodern living.
7. Population explosion setting a record of 7.7 billion people today and doubling in less than fifty years if left unchecked - indeed a grim reminder of the ghost of Malthus two hundred years ago (Malthusian Theory), and a proof that the natural laws that govern survival has been radically changed. (Internet photos)
8. Consumerism on which capitalism flourishes in the guise of progress and the good life, but in effect creates massive pollution, imbalance of the economy of nations, dividing them into power-wealth categories, and have and have-not, loss of values, and abusive exploitation of resources at the expense of Planet Earth.
9. Gold rush syndrome resulting in the Tragedy of the Commons, a principle that is based on Chaucer's Pardoner's Tale, a story that illustrates that greediness and wanton destruction has always a tragic end, as evidenced today by the declining fish catch in the ocean, dwindling freshwater supply, logged over forests, spent farms and pastures, near exhaustion of fossil fuels, and the like.
10. While ecumenism bridges religions, cultism is divisive and segregative. There is a rise of the so-called hybrid religions which have lost their dogmatic identities, and are gaining popularity as a kind of religious liberation. On the other hand, more and more people around the world are drawn into the world of nones (people who have lost faith in organized religions) - if not the atheism, particularly those overwhelmed by the influence of postmodern living.
11. Substance Abuse comprises of prohibited drugs, alcohol and tobacco.
12. Corona Virus Pandemic (COVID-19)
Coronavirus pandemic continues to grip the world
"I don't believe that this infection really is being transmitted in waves. It's more like a coronavirus forest fire where in fact, it just burns, burns and burns. But then as soon as you let up the break, then it all comes back again." CBS News, Oct 13, 2020
13. Massive pollution worldwide on land , water and air as a result of population explosion, rapid industrialization, rise of megacities, destructive agriculture, unabated affluence, among other factors in the way we live today in a postmodern world, seemingly untenable by present governance and management.
Industrialization greatly contributes to climate change, acid rain and health problems; plastics being non-biodegradable "survives the age of the earth."
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“One of the first conditions of happiness is that the link between man and nature shall not be broken.” —Leo Tolstoy
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These 13 attributes of a modern Frankenstein haunt modern man and his society today exacerbated by his aim at globalization. The shrinking of the planet into a global village so to speak, through scientific breakthroughs, expansion of commerce and industry, opening of new frontiers of human settlement and habitation which sooner or later include the building of cities under the sea and in space, and the proliferation of multimedia making information accessible anywhere in any place of the globe - all these make the avenging monster closer to his creator, and therefore making him vulnerable to its evil intent. Such is the story of Mary Shelley's fiction that has a tragic ending - the destruction of both monster which never bore a name, and its creator - the young genius, Frankenstein. ~
Part 3 - Our lives are being outrun
by Science and Technology!
Dedicated to Peace in the current Russian War on Ukraine.In advanced meditative observance of the 77th anniversary of the Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan
In our age of modern science and technology, of automation and computerization, of globalization and space travel, will we finally find peace and prosperity?
Dr Abe V Rotor
On August 6, 1945, the US dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, following up three days later with another bomb on Nagasaki. As per records, approximately 80,000 people were killed directly by the explosion of the atom bomb. Another 35,000 were injured and maimed for life. By the end of 1945, another estimated 60,000 people lost their lives under the impact of harmful radiations emanating from Little Boy. By the end of 1945, Little Boy had killed more than 1,40,000 people in Hiroshima, which turned into heaps of mangled concrete and metal.
A self-examination on the real meaning of life
the way we live in today.
The first challenge is to keep up with the pace of scientific and technological change. At its present rate, we are virtually grappling with the pole vault to cope with the leaps and bounds of discoveries and inventions which are pushing us to change our ways, and our very lives.
It is no longer us who dictate science and technology; it is science and technology that dictates us.
The second challenge calls for a conventional approach. It is to find the means with which to cushion the impact of rapid change of science and technology on our lives by clinging on some anchor of values. If we have a choice of priorities, of looking back at history and tradition, or by simply standing rationally firm to what is good not only to us but for all mankind, then we just can not become easy victims of “progress”.
Our lives are being outrun by Science and Technology
The second challenge calls for a conventional approach. It is to find the means with which to cushion the impact of rapid change of science and technology on our lives by clinging on some anchor of values. If we have a choice of priorities, of looking back at history and tradition, or by simply standing rationally firm to what is good not only to us but for all mankind, then we just can not become easy victims of “progress”.
Our lives are being outrun by Science and Technology
In so short a time – virtually just within a life span of many of us in the elder generation - the world witnessed three important unprecedented discoveries which have changed human life and our society forever. There is no turning back now. Science and technology marked the milestone of no return, a point of irreversibility as we race for industrialization, and plunge into the “third wave” of progress
The three scientific breakthroughs are
1. Splitting of the atom (nuclear power, atomic bomb);
2. Invention of the microchip (electronics, computers); and
3. Cracking the DNA code (Human Genome Project, genetic engineering).
The applications of these breakthroughs cannot be overemphasized. as we witness today or in the near future the following:
1. Man’s landing on the moon;
2. Information highway via satellites and the Internet;
3. Cloning and genetically modified organisms (GMO);
4. Universities without walls (distance education);
5. Robotics and nanobotics (microscopic robots);
6. Frankenfoods, (modified foods);
7. Test tube babies, menopausal childbirth;
8. Gene therapy and immunotherapy;
9. Extended life span (now 78 years on the average, to 140 by 2500); and
10. Cryonics or human hibernation, which prepares man for space travel.
We just can not be bystanders, an advice as old as the Renaissance, when Shakespeare said, “The world’s a stage, each one of us has a role to play.” We are participants in this “modern” drama of life heretofore known only in fiction.
Virtually there is no place to escape from our high tech world. Imagine life if there were no cell phone, cable TV, video-games, malls, hospitals, e-mail, solar watch, MRT/LRT, ATM, and the like. And if we think about today’s process in making many products we use everyday - from ball pens to cars – imagine computers and robots at work in place of man.
Scenario: You are awakened by a quartz clock. You switch on the light, tune in the TV or radio, take a shower, pick up the phone, cook breakfast, read the morning paper, dress up, take the elevator, drive the car, etc, etc, etc. All this is not surprising to most of us.
But hear this. The milk you drink is genetically modified (human embryo hormone was injected into the cow to produce more milk), the corn flakes you eat comes from BT corn (corn with a gene of a bacterium – Bacillus thuringiensis), your potato and onion are irradiated for longer shelf life, your lettuce carries a trace of dioxin, the deadliest toxin ever synthesized, your tuna carries a residue of mercury, the microwave emits rays that are not good to health, the paint in your condominium contains lead, plastic deteriorates into microplastics and nanoplatics, and you may not know you are absorbing the by-products, synthetic fabric is the cause of your allergy, there is nitrate (salitre) in corned beef and in tocino, MSG (sodium mono-glutamate) in noodle, aspartame in soft drinks, sulfite in sugar, potassium bromide in bread. And the list goes on, ad infinitum.
Again we ask, “Where will all this lead us to?”
Well, read again Dylan Thomas poem, “Do not go gentle into the night” purporting everyone to become vigilant and not settle into comfort and take a license for freedom. It is the road often trodden. Why can't we take the road less trodden?
This masterpiece reflects an experience the boy Dylan had one Christmas. He was given a beautiful book that told him everything about the wasp, a relative of the bee. Everything about the insect - except “Why?” And the boy wondered, “Is this all?” Rage builds up the more we ask “Why?” – and we find no satisfactory answer.
Does it strike you sometimes that knowledge – even the knowledge we obtained from the university - does not bring true satisfaction - much less enlightenment? It is because our education, especially in science and technology, emphasizes the “How?” rather than the “Why?” Instead of searching for meaning we are searching for causes, or cause-and-effect. As we study phenomena we seem to underestimate the question, “Why?” which is the foundation of values.
Search for life’s meaning or values on a historical perspective
Maybe it would be good to our searching mind to reflect on life’s meaning or values on a historical perspective. Consider these
1. Socrates model, the right to seek, to awaken from ignorance. (birth of the university)
2. Communal enterprise which gave the vitality of the Renaissance, brought West to conquer the East (colonizing and civilizing)
3. Voltarism – “reach for knowledge and share the experience of civilization”. (Post-Alexandrian concept of one civilization, one world)
4. Enlightenment spawned by the French revolution (birth of democracy and nationalism). Trilogy of the French Revolution: Liberty, Equality, Fraternity
5. Capitalism-consumerism, the world is a global village (economics today).
We have been disciples of Voltaire too long, believing that the greatest achievement of mankind is civilization. We do not dispute that civilization is a prerequisite of progress. But recently we began to raise disturbing questions.
Before going farther let me interject a tale of B. Traven, The Treasure of Sierra Madre which is reminiscent of an earlier story, The Pardoner’s Tale by Chaucer. In both tales, the plot is about men who meet by accident and join together in search for gold. They take mortal risks for one another in their community of search. But when they find the gold, they are filled with suspicion and end up fighting each other - and losing their treasure in the process. This syndrome still haunts us today.
Now let us consider these issues.
1. Two world wars, nuclear armaments, unending armed conflicts, and now Russian War on Ukraaine
2. Domino effect spawned by super economies which toppled the lesser economies (Asian crisis)
3. “How the Other Half (of the population) Dies” (a book exposing inequitable distribution of wealth, as the reason of mass hunger and poverty, by Susan George)
4. “Silent Spring” (a book by Rachel Carson, an expose’ of deadly chemicals, specially pesticides, which are destroying wildlife and the environment)
5. Pollution, global warming, Ozone hole, and now Plastic pollution in air, water and land, and the making of Plastic Continent and Islands. These are consequences of man’s quest for a better life through industrialization
6. COVID-19, AIDS, EBOLA, Wide-spread Cancer, drug abuse, all on worldwide scale.
7. Mass poverty, widespread ignorance, broken homes, erosion of values
8. Destruction of the ecosystems
9. “You do not find sacredness anymore,” Rise of "nones" - no organized religions.
10. “Death of privacy,” A question of "brotherhood. self respect, community, "
The deleterious by-products of today’s science and technology exacerbate the problems of mankind. Paradoxically, science and technology have not successfully eradicated the ancient scourge of mankind – disease, poverty and ignorance. While man may have a grasp of history and his society he has apparently lost control of his destiny. ~
The three scientific breakthroughs are
1. Splitting of the atom (nuclear power, atomic bomb);
2. Invention of the microchip (electronics, computers); and
3. Cracking the DNA code (Human Genome Project, genetic engineering).
The applications of these breakthroughs cannot be overemphasized. as we witness today or in the near future the following:
1. Man’s landing on the moon;
2. Information highway via satellites and the Internet;
3. Cloning and genetically modified organisms (GMO);
4. Universities without walls (distance education);
5. Robotics and nanobotics (microscopic robots);
6. Frankenfoods, (modified foods);
7. Test tube babies, menopausal childbirth;
8. Gene therapy and immunotherapy;
9. Extended life span (now 78 years on the average, to 140 by 2500); and
10. Cryonics or human hibernation, which prepares man for space travel.
We just can not be bystanders, an advice as old as the Renaissance, when Shakespeare said, “The world’s a stage, each one of us has a role to play.” We are participants in this “modern” drama of life heretofore known only in fiction.
Virtually there is no place to escape from our high tech world. Imagine life if there were no cell phone, cable TV, video-games, malls, hospitals, e-mail, solar watch, MRT/LRT, ATM, and the like. And if we think about today’s process in making many products we use everyday - from ball pens to cars – imagine computers and robots at work in place of man.
Scenario: You are awakened by a quartz clock. You switch on the light, tune in the TV or radio, take a shower, pick up the phone, cook breakfast, read the morning paper, dress up, take the elevator, drive the car, etc, etc, etc. All this is not surprising to most of us.
But hear this. The milk you drink is genetically modified (human embryo hormone was injected into the cow to produce more milk), the corn flakes you eat comes from BT corn (corn with a gene of a bacterium – Bacillus thuringiensis), your potato and onion are irradiated for longer shelf life, your lettuce carries a trace of dioxin, the deadliest toxin ever synthesized, your tuna carries a residue of mercury, the microwave emits rays that are not good to health, the paint in your condominium contains lead, plastic deteriorates into microplastics and nanoplatics, and you may not know you are absorbing the by-products, synthetic fabric is the cause of your allergy, there is nitrate (salitre) in corned beef and in tocino, MSG (sodium mono-glutamate) in noodle, aspartame in soft drinks, sulfite in sugar, potassium bromide in bread. And the list goes on, ad infinitum.
Again we ask, “Where will all this lead us to?”
Well, read again Dylan Thomas poem, “Do not go gentle into the night” purporting everyone to become vigilant and not settle into comfort and take a license for freedom. It is the road often trodden. Why can't we take the road less trodden?
This masterpiece reflects an experience the boy Dylan had one Christmas. He was given a beautiful book that told him everything about the wasp, a relative of the bee. Everything about the insect - except “Why?” And the boy wondered, “Is this all?” Rage builds up the more we ask “Why?” – and we find no satisfactory answer.
Does it strike you sometimes that knowledge – even the knowledge we obtained from the university - does not bring true satisfaction - much less enlightenment? It is because our education, especially in science and technology, emphasizes the “How?” rather than the “Why?” Instead of searching for meaning we are searching for causes, or cause-and-effect. As we study phenomena we seem to underestimate the question, “Why?” which is the foundation of values.
Search for life’s meaning or values on a historical perspective
Maybe it would be good to our searching mind to reflect on life’s meaning or values on a historical perspective. Consider these
1. Socrates model, the right to seek, to awaken from ignorance. (birth of the university)
2. Communal enterprise which gave the vitality of the Renaissance, brought West to conquer the East (colonizing and civilizing)
3. Voltarism – “reach for knowledge and share the experience of civilization”. (Post-Alexandrian concept of one civilization, one world)
4. Enlightenment spawned by the French revolution (birth of democracy and nationalism). Trilogy of the French Revolution: Liberty, Equality, Fraternity
5. Capitalism-consumerism, the world is a global village (economics today).
We have been disciples of Voltaire too long, believing that the greatest achievement of mankind is civilization. We do not dispute that civilization is a prerequisite of progress. But recently we began to raise disturbing questions.
Before going farther let me interject a tale of B. Traven, The Treasure of Sierra Madre which is reminiscent of an earlier story, The Pardoner’s Tale by Chaucer. In both tales, the plot is about men who meet by accident and join together in search for gold. They take mortal risks for one another in their community of search. But when they find the gold, they are filled with suspicion and end up fighting each other - and losing their treasure in the process. This syndrome still haunts us today.
Now let us consider these issues.
1. Two world wars, nuclear armaments, unending armed conflicts, and now Russian War on Ukraaine
2. Domino effect spawned by super economies which toppled the lesser economies (Asian crisis)
3. “How the Other Half (of the population) Dies” (a book exposing inequitable distribution of wealth, as the reason of mass hunger and poverty, by Susan George)
4. “Silent Spring” (a book by Rachel Carson, an expose’ of deadly chemicals, specially pesticides, which are destroying wildlife and the environment)
5. Pollution, global warming, Ozone hole, and now Plastic pollution in air, water and land, and the making of Plastic Continent and Islands. These are consequences of man’s quest for a better life through industrialization
6. COVID-19, AIDS, EBOLA, Wide-spread Cancer, drug abuse, all on worldwide scale.
7. Mass poverty, widespread ignorance, broken homes, erosion of values
8. Destruction of the ecosystems
9. “You do not find sacredness anymore,” Rise of "nones" - no organized religions.
10. “Death of privacy,” A question of "brotherhood. self respect, community, "
The deleterious by-products of today’s science and technology exacerbate the problems of mankind. Paradoxically, science and technology have not successfully eradicated the ancient scourge of mankind – disease, poverty and ignorance. While man may have a grasp of history and his society he has apparently lost control of his destiny. ~
Hiroshima (left) and Nagasaki in ruins and today
(Internet Photos)
Part 4 - Triumvirates of Doom
(Nuclear, Chemical and Biological Warfare)
In our modern world an all-out war is likely to employ all kinds of warfare – nuclear, chemical and biological.
City Ruins, made of termite's nest remnants mounted
on acrylic painting by AVRotor 2020
Hypothetical model of the Corona Virus, cause of the current COVID-19 pandemic. Model by AVRotor 2020- As a precaution the US government has accelerated the delivery of 40 million doses of smallpox vaccine to add to the 15.4 million doses already stored. These will be enough to inoculate every American. One drawback is the possibility of side effects of the vaccine particularly to those receiving other medical treatments such as chemotherapy.
- African killer bees (Apis mellifera scutellata) claimed to have escaped from a laboratory have interbred with the domestic species creating an equally deadly hybrid that now threatens the US after spreading throughout Brazil, Central America and Mexico. A colony is made up of some 70,000 ferocious bees with the queen bee reproducing up to 5,000 a day to maintain this enormous population.
As I ponder over these scenarios I remember when I was a child seeing many people who were survivors of smallpox epidemic. The center of the epidemic was a town whose population was decimated. The mere mention of its name rings the sad memory of the early 1900s’ disaster. Lapog became virtually synonymous with the name of the dreaded disease. It was later renamed San Juan (Ilocos Sur).
My father told me that of the eight siblings in the family, only two of them survived the disease. Uncle Leo who was the oldest miraculously survived, and my dad who was the youngest was born after the epidemic had subsided.
In my mind I still can picture the faces of a dozen survivors. Pockmarks cover their faces, and may also cover the body, arms and legs, including the ears, nose, eyelids and lips which become somehow disfigured. Fingers and toes are deformed in serious cases.
But I remember how these survivors continued to live normal lives. I remember them as happy and hardworking in spite of the traumatic experiences they went through. Psychologists say there are many survivors of tragic experiences who find the new lease in life a new opportunity. Stories on how whole communities rise with these survivors uplift the spirit. I saw this miracle happen in the family and community I was brought up. Many people in many places I believe, can overcome painful experiences with this kind of spirit.
Conquest and Diseases
Christopher Columbus and his men allegedly introduced syphilis in the New World. The meeting of East and West during the era of colonization also resulted in the exchange of diseases. James Michener’s novel, Hawaii, relates how smallpox caused death and sufferings to the natives. To the novel’s principal character, the Reverend Hale, it was a manifestation of God’s wrath on the sinful and the non-converts. While this incident helped him in his mission, the end proved that the English missionary was wrong - that God is not a God of vengeance. Whole settlements in the New World just perished to indigenous diseases that were unknown in their countries of origin. Scientists explain that these pioneers lacked the natural immunity to the diseases, in the same manner that diseases introduced into the Old World killed many people similarly because they did not have the natural resistance. This is the basis why for many years until recently, the World Health Organization and many countries required the vaccination of travelers against certain diseases as a requirement in obtaining passports and visas.
"Throughout history, war has been the scourge of man, the evidence of man’s inhumanity to man. It is the antithesis of culture and civilization that are supposed to uphold the dignity of man and his society." -avr
These are of course incidents that we can dismiss as force majeure or historical events, which our faith and culture may accept. But what about in the case of war when man is pitted against man, nation against nation?
Man’s Inhumanity to Man
How different it is to think about war. Since biblical times war has always been associated with inhumanity – man’s inhumanity to man. It is the antithesis of culture, of civilization, the very institution that is supposed to eliminate this treat to society. Ironically war has plagued every civilization, and many a great civilization has been the center of human conflict like the epicenter of an earthquake. According to the historian Gibbon twelve great civilizations that include the Greek and Roman civilizations fell because of war. They never recovered again.
History is not replete of the fact that the more civilized societies have been the cause of the loss of peace, if not the whole destruction of the less civilized ones. The great Spanish conquistadors forever destroyed the great civilizations of the Aztecs and the Mayas, in the same way that the pioneers in the West forever destroyed the American Indians.
Early Biological Warfare
How The West Was Won, is a story of the destruction of the American Indian civilization which had been flourishing for many centuries. The natives fought fiercely at the European invaders and defended their “nation” for years. But the pioneers knew exactly the key to their victory over the powerful Indian tribes - to annihilate the buffaloes, millions of them that roamed the Great Plains or what is known as the prairies. Because buffaloes provided the Indians their basic needs from food to shelter, famine ensued and the great American Indian civilization was ultimately reduced into marginal settlements. Buffalo Bill is reported to have killed more than three hundred buffaloes in a single day for which he earned his name and “reputation.”
What if China’s threat to send one million Chinese to fight and die in Vietnam had come true? I heard of this story during the Chinese-Vietnam conflict that preceded the Vietnam war. Should such unthinkable strategy happen, the task of burying the dead alone, more so in controlling pestilence, would certainly render the enemy country defenseless and economically bankrupt. On the part of the triumphant country it shall have somehow reduced pressure on its burgeoning population and rid the misfits. Many believe that war is a purification process of a society. Definitely it is not. The Germans lost thousands of scientists in World War II. Many soldiers who died in the Vietnam War were among the finest of the youth of their time in their respective countries.
Agent orange was used as defoliant to flush out Vietcong guerrillas from their
stronghold in jungles during the Vietnam war.
But man has not had lessons enough. And war in its most ugly form using chemicals, biological agents, nuclear and ultramodern tools, is with us and it is all over the world now. For nuclear arsenals alone, the world’s total stockpile has the capacity to kill three times the whole population of the world. The world is witness to the recent wars in Iraq, Bosnia and Macedonia, Uganda and Angola and Afghanistan. It is happening with the Tamil Guerillas in Sri Lanka, along the Pakistan-Indian border, the Basques guerrillas, the IRA in Northern Ireland, and other parts of the world. It is happening in our home ground with the Abu Sayyaf and the NDF-NPA. War has many faces indeed.
War Without Borders
Something unexpected and different happened. On September 11, 2005 year the World Trade Center, a 110-storey twin-tower was erased from the skyscraper map in matters of minutes shortly after two planes commandeered by terrorists smashed into the superstructure signaling the vulnerability of our present system of capitalism. It challenged the economic powers of the world, particularly America.
The world woke up into a new age hitherto unpredicted - the age of Terrorism and the birth of a new nation without political boundary, but an invisible organizational network with its tentacles reaching global proportion.
This time intrusion into the enemy’s territory or defining the place of battle does not follow the conventional rules anymore. In fact there are no specific rules when we refer to the modus operandi of terrorists. Scenarios of war have thus changed after the September 11 attack.
This article concentrates on the tools of biological warfare. Here are some of them.
First there is anthrax, the most serious and the first to hit the headlines after the bombing of the World Trade Center. It leads a dozen of similarly devastating epidemics of biological warfare potential.
Second, there is an attempt to revive bubonic plague that killed one-third of the world’s population in the Middle Ages. It was the Japanese who experimented in the making of bubonic flea bombs intended to spread the plague in major USA cities. The project was to breed the fleas which harbor the plague bacteria in its body, then scatter these to infest rats and other animals in the target area where they in turn multiply and transmit the pathogen to the residents. The bomb was successfully tested in China with hundreds of Chinese succumbing to the bubonic plague bacteria. Preparations were then made to attack the US. But the US had decided to drop the first atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The bubonic flea bombs were never used. Japan hastily removed all the evidences of its evil experiment even before its surrender to the US.
Biological warfare intends to use germs with historical epidemic background. Here is an outline of the basic facts about these most important potential epidemic diseases.
Anthrax
• Also known as malignant pustule, malignant edema or woodsorters’ disease
• Most common in South America, Australia, Africa and Russia
• Highly infectious disease of animals, occurring especially in cattle, sheep and other ruminants, horses and mules as well.
• Transmitted to humans through contact with any part of the inside or outside of the animal carrying the infectious agent
• Caused by Bacillus anthracis whose spores which are resistant to disinfectants and heat, may remain infectious even after 15 years in soil. Grazing animals can accumulate spores contained in the droppings of infected animals
• Humans acquire the disease through cut or wound of the skin, by eating infected meat, or by breathing in the spores contained in the dust emanating from the sick animal’s hide or hair
• Skin infection characterized by severe itching and appearance of boil, usually on the arm, face and neck. The inflamed area grows into an ulcer called a malignant pustule, which eventually bursts and produced a black scab. Fever, nausea and swelling of the lymph glands are accompanying symptoms
• Internal anthrax acquired through inhalation results in acute pneumonia. When infected meat is ingested symptoms of acute gastroenteritis occur
• Anthrax is effectively treated with antibiotics. Immunization against the disease has been made possible through the use of vaccine. Effective livestock management is key to the control in the spread of the disease.
Bubonic Plague
o Known as the Black Death in the Middle Ages which ravaged Europe and Asia
o In some places as many as two-thirds of the entire population died
o So-called from the blackening spots which broke out from the skin during the course of the disease
o Characteristic symptoms are fever and swelling of the lymph nodes mainly the groin and armpit
o It is caused by the plague bacillus (Pasteurella pestis) which is transmitted from sick rats (Rattus rattus norvigicus) to humans by flea bites (Xenopsylola chopis)
Small pox
• Highly contagious, often fatal that once ravaged mankind in epidemics. Just one infected person could cause the virus to radiate from a family to a neighborhood to a city in a matter of months.
• Smallpox cannot be treated effectively once symptoms begin. 30 percent of those infected will die.
• WHO declared the eradicated of smallpox in 1980. Routine immunization for protection against the disease was stopped as early as 1971.
• First signs: chills and high fever, severe headache and backache, followed by rash which eventually covers the entire body and turns into pus-filled blisters
• The blisters in turn dry up to form scabs which very often leave pockmarks.
• The disease may be accompanied by vomiting, convulsion and diarrhea Complications include other skin infections such as boils and abscesses, ear infections, pneumonia and heart failure
• Disease is not transmitted by animals
• Disease has been eliminated through world wide vaccination programs, although a mild form still exist in Ethiopia
• The disease has been largely eliminated by extermination of rats. Antibiotics such as oxytetracycline, streptomycin and chloramphenicol are effective in its treatment
Other Potential Bio-Warfare Organisms
There are many organisms that can be used in biological warfare. A terrorist attack aimed at crops and livestock would be less dramatic but might cause more disruption in the long run.
Potato Blight – also called late blight, a worldwide serious disease of potato and tomato in cool humid countries caused by a fungus, Phyhtopthora infestans In Ireland 30 percent of the population starved to death, died of typhoid fever that followed - or emigrated during the period 1845 to 1860. Tomato blight caused by the same fungus destroyed 50 percent of the crop in Eastern US in 1946.
Rust Fungi - There are species of Puccinia affecting cereals and among them which is Puccinia graminis tritici consists of 200 such races to which wheat varieties are differentially susceptible. Although rust fungi are host specific and can only complete their life cycle in the presence of alternate host such as barberry in wheat rust, the potential fore biological warfare is great to consider that cereals comprise the staple of the mankind. The narrowing down of varieties for commercial cultivation exposes greater danger of rust diseases to spread out into epidemics.
Salmonella - In 1984 a cult in Oregon set off a wave of food poisonings. Gastroenteritis caused by natural contamination and careless food handling afflicts millions and results in 5000 deaths each year. Salmonella is a large group of rod shaped bacteria that invade the gastrointestinal tract, among them typhoid and paratyphoid germs.
Antibiotics are recommended to combat Salmonella infection. A recent incident happened in Rizal when hundreds of children who ate spoiled spaghetti were hospitalized. The religious group, which sponsored the feeding program, admitted fault to the incident. A similar case also happened two years ago. The owner of seven-eleven apologized for the incident and paid the victims.
Foot-and-Mouth Disease – The disease affects hoof animals from hogs to cattle. Its natural occurrence is worldwide and we have our own season in the Philippines that is during summer. Although the pathogen is not transmitted from animals to humans, losses incurred are usually heavy with the infected animal economically worthless.
Like in the case of mad cow disease, and chicken flu that affects humans, the infected animals are destroyed to prevent infection. Quarantine and an extreme sanitation program are the best defense in curbing the spread of the disease.
Mad Cow Disease – It is called bovine spongiform encephalopathy or BSE that has been determined in 1996 to infect humans in the form of a new variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD). Eighty people in Britain have died of CJD and there is no data to show how many more will die because there are initial signs of acquiring the disease are not clear and that the gestation period of the virus before it reaches the brain is up to 15 years. It originated in Britain crippling the country’s giant cattle industry, then spread to the European and now it has reached Japan threatening some 4.6 million cows.
Other biological warfare agents include potato beetles, which Britain suspected the Germans for dropping small cardboard bombs filled with the beetle pest on English potato fields. In the 1980s Tamil militants threatened to target Sri Lankan tea and rubber plantations with plant pathogens.
HIV-AIDS – So far 17 million have died and at least 25 million may follow. The heart of the epidemic is at the lower quadrant of Africa. AIDS is anti-Darwinian – it is society’s fittest who die, not the frailest, thus leaving the children and old behind. But recently more and more children become victims. There are 3.7 million children who have died of AIDS and AIDS has orphaned 12 million children.
An estimated 8.8 million adults in Africa are infected with HIV/AIDS and in the seven countries in Africa 1 out of 5 is living with HIV and 3.8 millions Africans are infected every year. There are 36 million adults and children in the world living with HIV/AIDS. Bioterrorism may be eyeing at the spread of the disease in the industrialized countries through the blood donation and immunization channels, other means notwithstanding.
Ebola (PHOTO, EBOLA VIRUS) – It is a highly virulent disease caused by a virus that originated in Africa infecting human and primates. Much of the information about the disease is a mystery but one thing sure is that it is almost one hundred percent fatal once a person gets the virus.Contact of any kind, and even only through inhalation, the virus can be acquired in no time. One incident showed a member of a religious congregation who had been treating ebola patients suddenly died. Ignoring warnings other members attended her funeral. One of them got the virus and died later.
African Giant Snail (Achatina fulica) – brought by the Japanese to the Philippine during WW II. Pest of garden and field crops. Damage can lead to crop loss and consequently starvation. The pest persists to this day but seldom develops into epidemic proportion. The introduced Golden Kuhol thought to provide livelihood on the farm became a major pest affecting more than 50 percent of our lowland ricefields.
Protection Guidelines
Here are guidelines to protect yourself.
1. Keep distance from possible sources of biochemical materials such as spores of the deadly anthrax. Be wary of suspicious parcels.
2. Get help from authorities to get rid of suspicious looking materials. Curiosity kills the cat.
3. Be familiar with the locations of Bomb Shelters (PHOTO). Such shelters are found in big cities like New York, Tokyo and Tel Aviv. We do not have one in Manila, but there are places and buildings you can find temporary shelter in case of attack.
4. Don’t loiter in centralized air-conditioned places like malls. Avoid crowds and busy streets if you can.
5. Early symptoms should be treated immediately by a doctor. Anthrax for example has flu-like symptoms.
6. Keep resistance high all the time. Good rest, balanced diet, regular exercise are key to resistance against diseases.
7. Don’t be a victim of psychological war. Terrorism thrives on it. We have yet to coin a word for biochemical phobia.
8. Like Boy Scouts, remember “Always be Prepared” – for your own protection. Equally important be prepared always to help other people.
On September 11 (9/11) many people thought Third World War had started. Well, the big wars we know started small. In our modern world an all out war is likely to employ all kinds of warfare – chemical and biological – and worst is the use of nuclear weapons. There are no defined borders and everyone is a potential victim. It will be difficult to detect the enemy and the tools of war he will use. The “morning after” exposes further destruction. Nuclear weapons have long years of half-life. It means radioactive materials will continue to kill, to make people sick. Even to this day, there are people in Japan where the atomic bombs were dropped 45 years dying due to radioactive fallout.
This is also true with bacterial spores. They have the capacity to re-infect and cause a second or third wave of epidemic. Even after the white flag is raised, still many people continue to get sick and die – physically and psychologically. In many cases it is beyond medicine to cure – or science to explain.
In early 1960s I was part of a research program at UPLB, then UP College of Agriculture, in promoting modern agriculture to farmers. Among the farm chemicals I handled were herbicides. By coincidence the US was developing a chemical called Orange Agent that I found out later was to be used in Vietnam. While this chemical can maim or cause death, its intended use is as a defoliant. By spraying the chemical trees lose their leaves, in fact their entire crown. When this happens a jungle would easily catch fire and in no time spreads out flushing the Vietcong guerillas from their hideouts.
It was my first encounter with biological warfare. The memory does not only linger, it has remained fresh.
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PERFECT BIO-WEAPON
The "perfect biological weapon" would have these characteristics:
· Be infectious and contagious in a large percentage of those expose· Cause severe long-term debilitation or death of the infected organism
· Have few available antidotes, preventives or cures
· Be easily deliverable to the area or population targeted
· Have low likelihood of causing damage to those using the agent
THE USUAL SUSPECTS
Some candidates for use as biological warfare agents include Anthrax, Smallpox, Viral hemorrhagic Fevers (Ebola, etc.), and Pneumonic Plague.
Some candidates for use as biological warfare agents include Anthrax, Smallpox, Viral hemorrhagic Fevers (Ebola, etc.), and Pneumonic Plague.
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Dr Abe V Rotor - Award-winning author of "The Living with Nature Handbook" (Gintong Aklat Award 2003) and "Living with Nature in Our Times" (National Book Award 2008); Recipient Father Jose P Burgos Achievement Award (2016); professor, University of Santo Tomas, De La Salle University-D; columnist Bannawag Magazine, former Director, National Food Authority; and Consultant on food and agriculture, Senate of the Philippines.
MONEYMAX EDITORIAL TEAM
(Internet) Last updated March 21, 2023
What are the Goals of Fire Prevention?
A fire prevention program is considered successful when these three goals are met:
1. Prevent the loss of life
2. Protect properties from damage
3. Avoid downtimes caused by operational disruptions
What is a Fire Triangle?
For a fire to ignite and maintain combustion, three elements are needed: fuel, heat, and oxygen.
When at least one of these is missing or is present but only at low levels, a fire can’t start or spread. That’s why one of the basic strategies for preventing fire is to isolate sources of fuel or heat. Needless to say, removing oxygen from the equation is most of the time nearly impossible
What are the Top 10 Fire Prevention Tips to Remember?
Here are 10 fire safety tips for keeping your home or workplace safe from disasters:
1. Avoid Electrical Overloading
Overloading your circuits is a big fire hazard—this is one of the most important fire safety reminders you shouldn't overlook. Avoid plugging too many devices into your electrical outlets to keep them from overheating and catching fire.
High energy-consuming appliances like refrigerators and air conditioners should also have their own outlets to prevent electrical overloading at home.
Also, practice unplugging your devices and appliances when not in use. It's a good practice whether you’re just going to bed for a few hours or leaving your home or workplace for an extended period.
2. Check Electrical Connections for Faulty Wiring
Faulty electrical wiring can cause a fire. To prevent it, have a licensed electrician periodically check your appliances for exposed or worn-out wires.
Even on your own, you can easily spot some signs of damaged wiring, including out-of-place flickers and a burnt smell. When you spot frayed wires, damaged sockets, or defective electrical equipment, have them fixed or replaced immediately.
3. Fireproof Your Kitchen
You can never get too many fire safety tips in the kitchen, which can be a fire hazard all on its own if not properly maintained.
Whatever you do in the kitchen, don’t leave a gas stove on unattended. Even if you have to leave momentarily, just turn off the stove until you can attend to it again.
Another crucial fire safety tip is to not lean over open flames when wearing loose clothing to keep it from catching fire. Also, keep your cooking area free of combustible objects like potholders and towels.
Lastly, after using charcoal for cooking, make sure to extinguish the embers completely.
4. Turn Off Gas Tanks When Not in Use
It only takes an errant spark to cause your gas tank to ignite. To avoid a terrible accident, close your liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) every after use. It's one of the most important safety tips for fire prevention that you must take to heart.
Also, constantly check the LPG for any leak or damage to avoid not only fire but also health risks.
5. Keep Your Light Sources Secured
This is another of those fire safety tips that seem easy to do but are still somehow ignored.
It’s common for Filipinos to light candles or gasera (kerosene kamp) during a power outage. If this is something you do as well, make sure that you use sturdy candle holders that can keep your candles in place. Also, look for a clear spot where candles and gaseras won’t be tipped over.
Also, keep your candles away from things that can easily catch fire, including curtains, carpets, bedsheets, and paper.
For safety against fire, use a rechargeable lamp or flashlight as an alternative light source during a power outage.
6. Remove Common Fire Hazards
Not all fire hazards are blatantly noticeable. A pile of leaves in your front yard looks harmless until extreme heat turns it into a bonfire.
Sometimes, what sets off a fire could be a stack of old newspapers, a mound of empty plastic bottles, or a clump of overgrown shrubs.
Fires are hard to foresee, so some people prepare for the unexpected. For example, they get mortgage redemption insurance to ensure that their outstanding mortgage debt is paid in the event of total disability or death during a fire. It may sound grim, but it’s actually a good measure in addition to fire prevention.
7. Practice Good Housekeeping Habits
This is one of the top 10 fire safety tips at home that you can incorporate into your lifestyle. Practicing good housekeeping habits not only prevents fire but also improves your overall well-being.
As a rule of thumb, keep aisles, walkways, and stairways clear of any trash. Having clean and clear pathways at home or in the office can prevent the spread of fire. It also gives people enough space to move and evacuate during emergencies.
Properly labeling items is also a good exercise to avoid misplacing flammable substances and corrosive liquids.
8. Observe Proper Smoking Etiquette
If you’re tempted to smoke inside the house, just don’t—unless you have a designated smoking area at home designed to prevent fires.
Smoking in bed should be avoided at all costs. Linens and mattresses can catch fire easily, so you want to stay as far away from them as possible when smoking.
Also, use an ashtray to crush your cigarette stubs and dispose of them properly, ideally after dousing them with water.
9. Install Smoke Alarms
Fires can happen anytime, so it’s good to have smoke alarms in place to alert you when a fire breaks out.When a smoke alarm rings, it’s not yet too late. There’s still a lot to do. However, depending on the situation, smoke alarms sometimes do nothing but announce impending doom.
In such situations, it’ll give you a little peace of mind to have a contingency plan like fire insurance to protect yourself financially in the aftermath of a fire.
10. Get a Fire Extinguisher
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