Carbon Monoxide Poisoning

        Carbon Monoxide is an invisible threat to humans. CO is a toxic gas produced by burning a fossil fuel in car engines, fireplaces, stoves and furnaces, without burning the carbon completely out of it. Once in the air, it will remain for about two months. Carbon Monoxide or “CO” is odorless, colorless, tasteless and most importantly poisonous gas for the human body to breathe in. It can be in outdoor or indoor air. Breathing too much CO can cause Carbon Monoxide poisoning; resulting in flu like symptoms like dizziness, weakness, fatigue, vomiting, headache, and passing out. If exposed to too much carbon monoxide, you could die.

         To avoid CO exposure, each homeowner should have a carbon monoxide detector in wall unit form installed somewhere that they can hear it if it were to sound while they are sleeping.

http://www.lowes.com/projects/images/how-tos/Hardware/install-a-carbon-monoxide-and-smoke-detector-inline-where.jpg

The most convenient place for a wall unit to be placed is outside the bedroom door. Each time a new appliance is purchased for your home, you should check for a seal from a national gas-testing agency that guarantees safety from emissions. All appliances that are inside your home should be service checked annually by a technician.  Take precautions like never burning charcoal inside, refraining from using portable gas stoves and back up generators indoors.

         To prevent CO poisoning, the Center for Disease Control  (CDC) engages in CO research activities related to prevention and human behavior regarding precautions involving CO. For example, they determine a recommended safe distance for portable generators to be placed in yards.

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They also try to influence the public’s attitudes and behavior to be safer and take more precautions to ensure safety and minimal exposure.

         Studies through the CDC found that 15%-49% of CO poisoned people have long-term health problems. In Ohio, there were 76 deaths since 1999. North Carolina and Pennsylvania had 83 and 82 deaths, respectively.

Sources: 

http://ephtracking.cdc.gov/showIndicatorPages.action?selectedContentAreaAbbreviation=CO&selectedIndicatorId=39&selectedMeasureId=

http://www.cdc.gov/co/studies.htm

http://www.cdc.gov/co/default.htm

http://www.cdc.gov/co/faqs.htm

Poison

The American Association of Poison Control Centers or AAPCC is health organization and resource that people can turn to for public education in poisons and attempting to decrease sickness and mortality rates that are due to poisonings. These center’s mission is to prevent poisonings, conduct scientific research, treat infected people that are exposed to poisonings. These poisonings can come from plants, animals, medications, household cleaners and other products. There are 55 Poison Control Centers in the United States that offer free and confidential medical help all hours of the day, but , but their main address is 3201 New Mexico Avenue, Suite 330, Washington D.C. 20016. You can contact them at 1-800-222-1222. This 24/7 advice line helps in-home treatment of poisonings to keep you from spending time at the hospital.

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 People can also become certified through the American Association of Poison Control Centers as specialists in poison information. These specialists are always available to the public and private businesses for help. Along with the specialists, there are doctors and physicians that also work for the  Each December, AAPCC publishes their National Poison Data System, which is the only poison information database in the United States. Categories when you call the 1-800 number range from human and animal poison to general information calls. The database can be downloaded for free from the AAPCC website under the National Poison Data System page. The database generates a Current Annual Report that is updated every eight minutes by each of the 55 poison centers with recent poison call-ins. This report gives a large amount of information on the poisoned, including their age and gender distributions, exposure reasons/routes, exposures in pregnancy and other topics.

(https://aapcc.s3.amazonaws.com/images/library/Data_graphic_1.jpg)

According to the Poison Center Data Snapshot, in 2014, almost half of poison exposures taken care of by a poison control center involved children under the age of six! Following young children, adults ages 20-59 were exposed to the second most amount of toxins. Adults 60 and up were exposed to the least amount of poisons, only taking up 6% of the data taken.  Also in 2014, a poison center was called “about every 11 seconds” the snapshot claims. 57% of poison calls revolved around prescribed medications. Most of the poisons that occurred last year took place in a household and were also treated in a household; therefore, saving those households medical expenses.

Heuristics

            The American Marketing Association (AMA) defines heuristics as a proposition that connects an event with an action. Heuristics in advertising, for example, usually make decision making easier for the decision-maker because the advertisement influences the decision-maker in a way that convinces them to purchase the advertised good or service; whereas before, they may not have wanted or needed that good or service in any way.

            As you can see in this advertisement, soda drinks are ten bottles for ten dollars. If you are walking around in a grocery store and see a sign for ten soda drinks for ten dollars, and you then see the price is $1.50 for each soda drink purchased individually, you would know that if you bought ten of them, you would save fifty cents on each drink! That would save you five dollars total, making you think that the ten for ten deal is your best bet, when in reality, you probably do not need ten soda drinks nor would you have even purchased soda drinks in the first place if you had not seen such a bargain on the price!

            This second advertisement in the link above does the same type of convincing that the soda bottle does. In this Duluth (Men’s boxers) advertisement, the comfort, style, fit, support and overall quality are measured. The advertisement doesn’t compare Duluth Men’s boxers with other competing brands, nor does it really tell the viewer much about the boxers at all, but it is convincing enough so that the viewer feels like he needs to purchase his own pair.

            Heuristics in marketing and advertising are meant to be persuasive. They convince the shopper or average person that they need the product, even if the shopper does not indeed need the product or want the product at all in their life prior to seeing the advertisement. Another example could be Mcdonald’s Dinner Box. You receive two cheeseburgers, four small fries, and a ten piece chicken nugget ALL for $9.99. No person needs that much food to fill their stomach.



sources:  https://www.ama.org/resources/Pages/Dictionary.aspx?dLetter=H

http://www.studentpulse.com/articles/180/2/decision-making-factors-that-influence-decision-making-heuristics-used-and-decision-outcomes