We are about to shift to Daylight Savings Time, when we go to bed on Saturday night we should be moving our clocks forward an hour to be sure that they are right when we wake up on Sunday morning. The local fire house is also reminding us to check the batteries in our smoke detectors. Now is the time for us to check the smoke detectors for our aging relatives as well. This will serve safety in at least two ways. We will be sure that there is a working battery in a working smoke detector for our relatives. We will also keep them off of ladders.
If we don’t change the batteries twice a year (spring and fall) they will fail at some time. It seems perversity that they fail in the middle of the night but there is a solid scientific reason for this, when a battery is weak it will fail when the temperature drops as it does at night. Be sure that your aging relative knows that the smoke detector will make a chirping noise when the battery is dying. I can’t tell you how many times I have visited a patient in their home to find the smoke detector chirping and the patient without any idea what the noise is. Also, as we age our hearing will often decline and we may not hear the chirp.
It is never appropriate to remove the dead (dying) battery to stop the noise and do nothing to re-establish the smoke detector. The presence of a working smoke detector has saved many lives in the past and will save many in the future.
If your loved ones smoke, please take the time to be sure that they do not smoke in bed and that they handle the ashtrays safely. If you can get them to stop smoking they will be safer, their lungs will work more effectively, they will be burning less money and food will taste better. All this will only work if they are willing to make the effort.
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