Respiratory system

Oxygen, the giver of life on our planet.  Without it we would be a planet void of any of the wonderful and beautiful things we have now.  Almost every living thing on the planet has to have oxygen in some way to survive.  Even our water contains oxygen that fish use to survive.  So let’s take a look at the human respiratory system and how it helps us.

Most people only think of our lungs being the source of our breathing but our respiratory system is actually much more than that.  Our sinuses are the start of the process of breathing as they help control the temperature and humidity of the air entering our lungs.  After the sinuses have done their job, the air passes through our trachea (windpipe) which helps to filter the air a little and divides it up into the 2 different lungs via bronchial tubes which collect the mucus from the air (mucus that was made by the filtering process).  And from there the filtered and oxygenated air is moved into our blood stream with the process reversed for the release of the carbon dioxide.

Our respiratory system is also dual controlled meaning, we do it both consciously and unconsciously.  Only a few other critters out there can do the same, i.e. whales and dolphins.  It seems odd that we can control one of the functions needed to maintain life but not others, like our heart rate, but because it is a dual control system, our brain can take over if we try to hold our breath too long.

Having a dual control of our breathing is actually very beneficial to us, because it allows us to do things that, if we had no control of the breathing, we wouldn’t or couldn’t do, i.e. swimming under water.  By being able to control our breaths, we can make ourselves slow down and relax when we are in a tense situation, and control how angry or upset we might become.  Slowing down our breathing allows us to lower our blood pressure (something to think about when you go to the doctor, and he has to take a reading).

Well now you’ve learned a bit about how our respiratory system works and why it’s important to maintain it and keep it functioning properly.  Without our lungs we wouldn’t be able to survive to enjoy this wonderful planet we live on.

CPR facts and trivia

Ok let’s try something new this week.  This week we’ll do a bit of trivia for those trivia buffs out there.  Who knows when one of these little bits of interesting facts might be on “Jeopardy” or even “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?”  Ok, so here goes.

1)      When was the first reported recommendation for the use of mouth to mouth for drowning victims, and where was it at?  Believe it or not, the first time it was recommended was in Paris, France back in 1740.

2)      Where and who gave the first documented chest compressions?  This took place over 150 years later in 1891 by Dr. Friedrich Maas, but it was 12 years later, in 1903, when Dr. George Crile performed the first successful use of the compressions.  The following year Dr. Crile also performed the first closed chest cardiac massage.

3)      Who holds the claim for figuring out that expired air (the outgoing breaths we use for mouth to mouth) would work just as well for oxygenation?  That claim to fame goes to James Elam, in 1954, over 200 years after it was first recommended back in France.  Two years later James and his partner, Peter Safar, invent mouth to mouth as we know it today.  The following year the US military adopts it as a way to revive unresponsive victims.

4)      When was the first program established for emergency dispatchers to use over the phone instructions for CPR and where?  It was begun in King County, Washington back in 1981, and was so successful that every dispatcher now has the ability to handle that over the phone.

5)      When was the first introduction of pediatric CPR?  That wasn’t addressed until 1988, cosponsored with The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).  Apparently, it wasn’t something many people thought about until that point in time.

6)      What year did the American Heart Association (AHA) make significant changes to the compression to ventilation requirements?  That happened in 2005 at the International Consensus on ECC and CPR Science with Treatment Recommendations (CoSTR) Conference.  They changed the amount of times you do compressions before you ventilate the victim as well as added in some AED changes as well.  Three years later they recommended any adult giving assistance to a fallen bystander to only do chest compressions until certified help arrives. 

Ok, so there is a bit of CPR facts you may never have known and now can stump your friends with some of the newest bit of trivia you just learned.  Check out the AHA website for more facts of CPR we may not have gone over here.  That site is www.heart.org and is where we found the facts we listed here today.

Truck Safety

Pop quiz time on trucking safety.  Let’s put on our thinking caps and see what we know in this true/false quiz.  I hope you have a pen or pencil handy.

1)      True or False:  Using two fingers for the landing gear is the best thing to do to save time.

2)      True or False: It’s safe to work on the opposite side of the load while a fork lift unloads from the other side.

3)      True or False:  It’s safe to lean backwards while climbing down a ladder on a trailer.

4)      True or False:  Using a ramp that’s not pinned or is uneven is just as safe as anything else.

5)      True or False:  You can use a cellphone anywhere you want at any time after you park your truck.

 

Ok put your pencils down and let’s see how you did.

1)      False:  Using only two fingers for the landing gear IS NOT a wise thing to do.  This causes you to rush and can result in serious injuries to the face.  One trucker had his nose broken when he leaned in too close while using only two fingers.  A very painful lesson to learn the hard way.

2)      False:  You want to stay clear of your load while it is being unloaded by a forklift as the load could become loose and fall on you.  A trucker lost his life by doing just that as the load shifted and fell on him.

3)      False: You want to keep yourself straight and tall while climbing down ladders as when you lean backwards you risk injury to yourself.  You could slip and break bones when you land and risk of death from the fall as well depending on the height from which you fell.  A trucker learned that lesson the hard way on a dark, cold morning when he was leaning back and slipped between the rungs and fell backwards and broke 7 ribs.

4)      False: Using an unpinned ramp or one that is not even can cause injury to the trucker.  If the ramp is unpinned it could become loose from the vibrations and even if you have walked it several times one of those could have you on the ground with injuries.  And with it uneven you again risk injuries because the load could become unstable and fall taking you with it.

5)      False:  After you park your truck, you should make sure that you are in a safe area before using your phone.  If you decide to stand beside or behind your truck talking on it you risk not being seen by a forklift that may have been sent to unload or one that is carrying a load from another truck. 

Ok so we have learned 5 very valuable lessons for today as sadly many truckers have learned these lessons the hard way including death.  We hope that you remember these safety lessons and practice them while you are out and doing your job.

Name that Drug!!

It is that time again . . . time to play “Name That Drug”. Okay, for those of you who don’t know how to play yet, I will give you a list of facts, signs and symptoms, other names and then, finally, I will tell you what the drug is named.  So let’s begin!

Facts: This drug comes in a small, round tablet with the name Ciba stamped on one side, and comes in 3 different colors depending on the dosage.  A study conducted in 2000 by the DEA revealed the test subjects (mice) that were given this drug and then given cocaine were unable to tell the difference between these two drugs. This lead the DEA to conclude that the effects of these drugs are nearly identical.  This drug is the most commonly abused by children.

Signs and Symptoms:  It is an amphetamine-like substance that can cause similar effects as other forms of speed; loss of appetite, insomnia, and an increased heart rate. Injection or snorting of it, especially in larger doses puts a greater strain on the body, and the stress caused on the heart can be fatal.

Other names: Poor man’s cocaine, Smarties, Vitamin R, R-Ball

I’m sure you have probably figured it out by now, this drug is Ritalin. Any other “hyperactivity” drug out there on the market works in a similar fashion.  Long prescribed as a “medicine” for kids with ADD, now known as ADHD, the studies are finding that it is very addictive, and can cause severe emotional conditions.  One researcher in Texas has found that children treated with methylphenidate (the primary ingredient in ADHD drugs) had an increased risk of cancer due to genetic abnormalities caused by the drug.   This drug has the same increased tolerance that cocaine does, meaning that it takes more of the drug to give you the same feeling as it did previously. This leads people to taking more of it than the dosage prescribed.  There have been several instances of young kids dying from taking this medication, since they can get it so easily and readily from their friends.  As noted by the DEA, “pharmaceutical products diverted from legitimate channels are the only sources of methylphenidate available for abuse,” which means that all forms of this drug only come from the companies making the pills and nowhere else.  It cannot be made on the street like so many other illegal drugs, and can only be legally acquired from a pharmaceutical company through a prescription by a doctor.

 

Many of the facts here were taken from drugfreeworld.org.