Importance of Smoke Detection - Research Paper Example

SMOKE DETECTION 1. Introduction “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire” (McComb and Predko 2006, p.632). I have chosen this topic because statistics show that the majority of fire deaths each year are cause not by burns but by smoke inhalation. It is the leading cause of death from fires as it contains numerous toxins that are generated during combustion. In 1997, according to Warren et. al. (2002, p.44), there were over 70,000 house fires in the UK, resulting in approximately 550 deaths. In those cases where a smoke detector was present in the area of the fire, the death rate was approximately two deaths per 1000 fires while nine per 1000 where there was no alarm. The overall rate of almost eight fatalities per 1000 fires reflects the distressing fact that in only 30 percent of cases was an alarm present in the area of the fire. Moreover, recent data for the UK shows that fires is the leading cause of child injury and death and are much more common in poor households. However, while providing smoke alarms may look like a good response, whether and how they are fitted, and whether they result in reduced injury and death, depends on characteristics of the alarms, individuals, families, houses, etc. (Commonwealth Staff 2004, p.97). In addition, there is an ongoing difficulty of educating the public concerning the true situation in a fire. Apparently, based on these statistics, the topic is interesting enough to attract the interest of policy makers and other stakeholders as it involves human lives that are being lost pointlessly. Smoke is an intricate fusion of heated air, suspended solid and liquid particles, gases, fumes, aerosols, and vapours. Combustion products resulting from a fire are hard to predict and in reality, even the composition of smoke is somewhat unpredictable within the same fire environment. The association of smoke inhalation with burns give off a more severe systemic infirmity. Burn fatalities with smoke inhalation injury have higher morbidity and mortality than those with burns only. The occurrence of severe respiratory malfunction in burn victims with smoke inhalation injury is 61% against 12% in those with burns alone. In addition, burn ‘edema’ or the abnormal accumulation of fluid beneath the skin, is heightened and non-burned tissue has increased vascular permeability when correlated with smoke inhalation injuries (Goldfrank et. al. p.1749). The outcomes of smoke inhalation are multifaceted since they can include numerous kinds of injuries, heat injury to the airways, exposure to toxic gases, and a chemical burn with deposition of carbonaceous particulates in the lower airways. The pulmonary response to smoke inhalation is similarly difficult and conditional on the length of the exposure, the composition of the material that burned, and the existence of any underlying lung disease (Morgan et. al. 2001, p.974). Smoke inhalation is avoidable if smoke can be detected in the soonest possible time. Smoke detection is thus very important not only to prevent the spread of fire but to the health and safety of residents and responding fire fighters. The primary purpose of fire-detection systems is to discover a fire when it is in its earliest phase and to respond by activating an alarm. Smoke detectors, the ionization or the photoelectric type are designed to react to the products of combustion. The environment surrounding the point of origin of a fire contains particles of unburned fuel or carbon, toxic and non-toxic gases, and electrically charged atoms called ions. Thus, a smoke detector will act in response either to the visible products of combustion or smoke or to the invisible or chemical changes in the atmosphere (Redsicker and O’Connor 1996, p.41). Smoke detectors have saved countless lives in residential fires but too the detectors are found missing or out of service. Educational effort highlighting the importance of continuously functioning smoke detector should be intensified. This is because despite of evidences of smoke detector’s effectiveness, people do not know exactly the significance of having functioning smoke detectors in their homes. Thus, where there are obvious problems, inaction is not an option since the responsible course is to make best use of what evidence there is to address the problem. These studies, concepts, and theories are very relevant to my research as it can support and substantiate the argument about the importance of early warning devices such as smoke detection to reduce fatalities in a fire. 2. Methodology Literature review is very important since without it, researcher cannot acquire a full comprehension of the subject. For instance, what has already been done on the subject, how it has been investigated, and the key issues involved. “A careful and thorough literature review is essential in order to provide a solid foundation for the main project” (Thomas 2003, p.73). Literature review allow us to demonstrate what we have figured out regarding the main theories in the subject area and how they have been utilized and developed, in addition to the main criticism that have been made of work on the topic (Hart 1998, p.1). “A literature review means locating and summarizing the studies about a topic” (Creswell 2008, p.29). A research study may also include theoretical articles or thought pieces that provide frameworks for thinking about topics. There is no particular way to carry out a literature but numerous scholars proceed in a methodical manner to encapsulate, assess, and go over the main points of the literature. It enhances the existing state of knowledge of an issue and reveals a research problem for further study. According to Machi and McEvoy (2008, p.4), a literature review is a written argument that advances a thesis position by developing an argument from plausible evidence based on earlier research. It provides the framework and background concerning the current knowledge of the subject and arranges a reasonable case to support the thesis position taken. Writing a literature review is developmental with each steps leading to the next – selecting a topic, searching the literature, developing the argument, survey the literature or analyzing the data, critique the literature, and write a review. After distinguishing the research problem, a review of all the information published and strongly connected to the area of the research, including both primary and secondary sources. Researchers who developed original work on a subject or researched the topic produced primary sources. Secondary information is purely a report, summary or reference to original work in works originating from a person other than the researcher. Researchers in general review the literature to discover what is already established about the topic and find divergence in knowledge. To illustrate how the research paper contributes to existing knowledge on the topic and avoid reproducing other people’s work. By means of reading reports, researchers can discover what information about the topic of their study already exist, the way in which it was produced and the techniques that were employed (Holloway and Wheeler 2002, p.30). From a simple research viewpoint, literature can provide a starting point upon which to make crucial decisions concerning the course of a research program. In carrying out a thorough search, a researcher must establish a firm grasp of existing knowledge and its implications and then, having assessed the existing limitations, seek to utilize, broaden or improve that knowledge. It must be very clear that specialized research is about methodical procedures resulting to the use or broadening of knowledge thus, it is not about unrestrained, curiosity-driven or opportunistic discovery (Toncich p.138). 3. Presentation of Results 4. Analysis Combustion of many synthetic materials generates highly toxic gases such as carbon monoxide, hydrogen, cyanide, hydrogen, sulphide, hydrogen chloride, ammonia, chlorine, benzene, and aldehydes. According to Morgan et. al. (2001, p.974), when these gases react with water in the airways, they can produce hydrochloric, acetic, formic, and sulphuric acids thus carbon monoxide and cyanide poisoning are widespread in smoke inhalation fatalities. Patients from fire incidents, primarily have few if any symptoms of smoke inhalation. Suggestive physical findings include facial or intraoral burns, singed nasal hairs, cough, carbonaceous sputum, and wheezing. Bronchoscopy procedures reveal erythema, edema, mucosal ulcerations, and carbonaceous deposits. Asphyxiation or the inability to breathe, can stem from airway obstruction, drowning, or inhalation of noxious gases such as smoke or carbon monoxide Timby (2008, p.420). Smoke toxicity is a growing concern because industrial products used at present are shifting from woods and natural materials to lighter construction materials, synthetics, and petrochemical-based materials, which ignite and burn two to three times hotter and faster than usual materials. Moreover, when heated, discharge gas or smoke that will also ignite two or three times quicker and burn more intensely than ordinary biological materials. Consequently, fire fighters have a lesser amount of time to gain control of a fire and fatalities are more prone to be injured by inhaling toxic gases because they have less time to getaway from the burning area. Inhalation injury is caused by vapour or toxic inhalants such as fumes, gases, and mists. Fumes comprised of minute particles or droplets scattered in air with a variety of irritants or cytotoxic chemicals adherent to the particles. Heat, toxic gases, and low oxygen levels are the most widespread source of death at a fire scene and a considerable assortment of toxic gases and chemicals can be produced, conditional on the fire environment. The degree of inhalation injury is reliant on the fire environment, the ignition source, heat, intensity, and solubility of the toxic gases produced. For instance, thermal and chemical compounds typically cause upper airway injury. The water-soluble materials as ‘acrolein’ and the other ‘aldehydes’ impair the proximal airways and trigger reactions, which are inflammatory to the brochi and parenchyma, whereas agents with lower water solubility such as chlorine, phosgene, and nitrogen oxide, nitrogen dioxide or N2O3 or even N2O4 are almost certainly to produce severe damage. Toxic gases such as carbon monoxide and cyanide seldom harm the airway but distress gas exchange, generating more systemic consequence (Herndon 2007, p.249). “Survival depends on early warning system that gives you time to vacate the premises at once” (Edlin et. al. 1999, p. 323). A smoke detector is the sole most significant and cheaper fire safety device as it provides an early-warning signal that helps save people and property. According to Philips (2001, p.42), reports from the National Fire Protection Association or NFPA suggest that homes with working smoke detectors have a 50% probability of surviving a fire. Most deadly home fires take place between midnight and 4:00 a.m., when people are sleeping. Without a smoke detector, people may not wake up during a fire, as toxic gases from smoke can put individuals into a deeper sleep. More than 90 percent of U.S. homes have a smoke detector but this nation has one of highest fire death rates in the industrialized world, followed by Canada. Every year, fire kills more Americans than all natural disasters combined. Approximately 80% of fire deaths happened in homes not equipped with functioning smoke detectors. Generally, smoke detectors do not work because their batteries are dead or missing. A number of people never change the batteries, or they remove them for use in a radio or some other appliance. Another problem is that people take away the battery to silence a ‘false alarm’ such as when excessive smoke accumulates in the kitchen while cooking. For practical purposes, according to Philips (2001, p.42),”a smoke detector that does not work is the same as no smoke detector”. “A significant correlation has been demonstrated between increased smoke detector usage and reduced fire-related deaths and injuries” (Tarnowski p.256). In a smoke detector operability survey in the U.S., power sources for a high percentage of smoke detectors in homes are deliberately removed because of irritating alarms (Rasbash 2004, p.234). According to Herndon (2007, p.39), although evidence concerning the effectiveness of alarms under a particular condition is lacking, they definitely stand for the most effectual device yet introduced to reduce both fire injury and death. Smoke detectors have been found to lessen the probability of death in 86% of fires (Moore et. al. 2003, p.47). Sadly, albeit the public knowledge of the advantage of a smoke alarm, it is utterly obvious how complicated it is to put into place as a preventive measure. Details reported by the U.S. Fire Administration’s National Fire Data Center for Residential Structure Fire in 2000 uncovered no smoke alarm was present in 53% of residential fires and 6.7% failed to function. More frequently, according to Brannigan and Corbett (2007, p.103), detectors in residential buildings are faulty, misplaced, out of service, or disengaged because of kitchen smoke. Obviously, this is not a good practice since household fire-warning equipment should be maintained in conformity with the advice of the equipment manufacturer. In general, this indicates little more than maintaining the equipment tidy and free of dust and changing the batteries when required. Detectors should never be disconnected because of nuisance alarms (Cote 2003, p.86). Smoke detectors have are worthless if people do not utilize it. Utilization of smoke detectors has been propagated by both education and legislation. Educational campaigns have been run on a regular basis by local fire departments and non-profit organizations. These activities teach people about the significance of having a smoke detector in the home and the need to replace the batteries every six to twelve months. Additionally, most countries have regulations that demand placement of smoke detectors in all new buildings. Owning a smoke detector and appropriately educating those most vulnerable provides the most excellent injury deterrence. Three-fifths of deaths from residential fires could be prevented yearly if individuals had smoke detectors in their homes (Mann 2005, p.362). 5. Conclusion and Evaluation Dissimilar to sprinklers that both detects fires and dynamically contributes in fire fighting; smoke detectors are inactive and play no part in fire control. However, they are designed to sense smoke from a fire in its early stages of development and considered an innovative life saving device. Timely discovery of a fire helps fire-aid fire fighting to begin sooner so that the fire could be controlled rapidly and prevented from causing massive injury such as burns and serious injuries caused by smoke inhalation. For any public health problem, once risk factors and prevention strategies have been identified by research and accepted by government, any decrease in the extent of the problem depends on the consciousness and education of the public at risk. Unquestionably, fires are not exception and actually, the need for public awareness and education may be more significant for fires than for other public safety problems if individual reflect on the magnitude of the population threatened and the occurrence of fires. Individuals must realize the danger of fire associated with their homes. Their notion of a fire disaster should be attuned to consider the actuality that a great number of fire disasters typically happen at home (Noji 1997, p.389). Smoke alarms are functioning and they have saved many lives. However, fire fatalities persistently happening in a number of homes with smoke detectors because of misplaced or dead batteries. According to Salem and Katz (2006, p.206), it is ordinary to find people who have died of smoke inhalation in or near their beds, a sign that they have made little or no attempt to escape. This was probably due to lack of warning and injury caused by the asphyxiants in the smoke. The 2004 NFPA’s statistics in Smeby (2005, p.7) shows that dwellings with smoke alarms, functioning or not, characteristically have a death rate that is 40%-50% less than the rate for dwellings with no alarms. In one-quarter of the reported fires in homes equipped with smoke alarms, the devices did not work. Households with non-operative smoke alarms currently exceed those with no smoke alarms. The most frequent cause following a smoke alarm failure is a missing dead or disconnected battery. The fire statistics compiled by the Home Office shows that the number of fires in residences, which were discovered by smoke detector, rose 164% from 1998 to 1991. During this period according to the same source, the number of households having smoke detector improved from 15% to over 50% . (Rasbash 2004, p.227). Available data for fires and their death impacts should be sufficient in terms of comprehensiveness, accuracy, and comparability with other investigation. Additional data should be presented on morbidity associated with fires and fatalities produced by smoke inhalation. Occasionally news items can be very helpful to pave the way for more explicit educational information. For instance, an exposition disclosing how the fire department brought a particular dwelling fire under control with negligible damage and no loss of life may perhaps talk about that the resident had lately mounted a smoke detector. A follow-up article on smoke detection equipment and carbon monoxide alarms strengthen the point that functioning alarms save lives and give additional appealing detail. Public safety program may useful to educate the people. For instance, a program that offers smoke detectors at no cost on homes upon request. Another is placing a smoke detector at all residences where an incident has occurred and no smoke detector was installed. In addition, a program that would have individuals tests their smoke detector on a schedule basis or for children to react confidently to the sound of a smoke detector in the home. “Safety cannot be learned by direct feedback” (Evans 1991, p.156) but necessitate the inclusion of accrued facts and the experience of communications with others. It is definitely better to hear that the reason people purchase smoke detector fire alarms is not that their last house burned down but because of the awareness that fires can cause severe damage to life and property. In order to convince people at risk to alter their behaviour, it is initially essential to enlighten householders and businesses of the likely outcome of a fire in their building. One indispensable building block of this according to Dennett (2004, p.138), should be a sensible evaluation of what the resident can expect from the fire service in terms of swiftness and weight of attendance. This is something that no fire service presently embarks on. In other words, government should bring out what people can anticipate from their fire service specific to their own property. The subsequent strand of persuasion is through education from schools through the community. Energetic fire protection measure includes fire detection and fire attack. The UK campaign for the voluntary installation of smoke detectors in residential property and an amendment to the U.K. Building Regulation, which demand the installation of smoke detectors in new houses have not been in position long enough to provide decisive confirmation of enhanced fire safety. Future research should continue tackling the significance of smoke detector and ways and means of persuading and educating people about it. 6. 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