Home Safety

I hear from people all the time that are concerned about self-defense. While it is always easy to suggest that people get a concealed carry permit and keep a gun, that is not possible or even legal for some people. … Continued

The current Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) movement can be seen as the latest iteration of companies and business owners reflecting on the broader purposes of running a business.  An earlier manifestation of this reflection was Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).  ESG and CSR are similar perspectives from different times but with a fundamental continuity.

Occupational health and safety (OHS) is integral to CSR/ESG/Sustainability considerations but is often overlooked or considered as a business add-on, a situation that has been allowed to persist by the OHS profession, Regulators and others over many decades.

GPT section 6 coincides mostly was a rather well known Chilean trek, the Circuito Condor. There are even dedicated hiking maps for this route, a rarity in Chile. When I left the bus in Vilches Alto, the starting point of the Circuito Condor in a National Reserve, two dozen backpackers were already waiting to take that bus back into civilisation. Everything was fenced in to prevent the masses of backpackers from wild camping – I did it anyways …

But I obeyed the regulation that each hiker has to register with the park rangers and pay an entrance and camping fee. I soon realized that most backpackers were just hiking in for around 20 kilometers to the first view point and camping at the designated camp ground there. This view point was indeed very spectacular but what delighted me a lot more than the alpine panorama was the fact that there was a well maintained hiking trail descending down into the valley – another rarity in Chile …

First viewpoint and good trail!

First glimpse of Volcan Descabezado

 As I was still in the National Reserve that night I had to camp in a designated camp site, an old and long abandoned farmstead. I considered wild camping but the many old plum trees lured me into the official site where I met Hugo, a Chilean weekend warrior who had injured himself when hiking in and was now waiting for the rest of his group to help him hike out again. After hiking for weeks without company it was a pleasure to have someone to chat with for a while.
Next morning I met his friends who were coming back from having climbed Volcan Descabezado, the “beheaded” volcano. Although it is a relatively eassy climb I had decided not to summit it because I had already climbed too many mountains on this trip …

 

I passed the “base camp” where several tents were pitched while their owners were climbing the volcano. But I walked on to do a side trip to Laguna Caracol. The moon like landscape was so fascinating that I took an incredible number of photos. Despite the breathtaking scenery there was no other hiker and I camped all by myself next to an ice cold stream.

Next day took me forever through this moon like landscape and walking in volcano ash was pretty demanding. There is no trail marking, but luckily I could follow the footsteps of other hikers. A Chilean couple asked me for help because they wanted to take a different route and did not trust their smartphone navigation ….

I was totally amazed to find so much water in this otherwise totally barren landscape. Next to the small streams colorful flowers were just in bloom and the scenery looked like someone had started coloring it with one stroke of the paint brush.

My map showed hot springs along the trail but I had no intentions of reaching them that night because I thought that the place would be two crowded. But then I met two Chilean backpackers who told me that I would probably be on my own. There was no one camped there when they had left and they had not seen anyone going there. I decided to try my luck. Of course the trail seemed to drag on forever. There was even a swift river crossing to do until I finally reached the famous hot springs. If it had not been for the steam I would have missed them. And indeed, there was no one else there which meant that I could soak naked in the hot water. What a delight after a long dusty day!

There were three pools that had been dug out with an old rusty shovel which was still laying around. Unfortunately, as soon as I stepped into the pool all the muck from the ground started floating up. It was still nice to relax in the hot, but muddy water. When taking this picture with a timer my smartphone nearly fell into the water …

I slept very well that night despite the sulphur smell from the hot springs. Former visitors had even built rock walls as wind protection around the camp sites. And a big horse shoe collection told me that this was a popular spot for riders, too!

Still, I was not entirely happy when I left next morning. The map told me that I had to traverse several incredibly steep slopes – something that I had learnt to fear and to loathe on this trail.

The slopes turned out to be really steep and a fall looked potentially mortal, but luckily I was walking on volcano ashed which provides a wonderful tread. When I had passed an exceptionally scary section a group of seven day hikers with small backpacks were coming towards. They surprised me with a weird question: “Have you smelled anything strange?” I told them about the sulphur smell of the hot springs but they just shook their heads and left – leaving me rather clueless.

Veronica was waiting next to the lake

After climbing up to another spectacular pass and descending down to an alpine lake I found out what was behind that all. A lonely female was sitting next to the lake waiting for my arrival. She introduced herself as Veronica and told me that she had injured herself on the way up and asked me if I could accompany her down again. Of course I was willing to help but I wondered what she was doing here. Veronica was part of the volontary search-and-rescue team that I had come across earlier. They were looking for a 30 year old hiker called Sebastian Joffre who had gone missing here 16 day ago. Because there was only little hope that he would be found alive the SAR team had asked me for a “strange smell”…

This sad story told me that my fears of slipping and falling were not altogether unfounded …
In order to locate him Chilean military was coordinating a big search including soldiers, volunteers, helicopters and dogs. Their base camp was in the valley and Veronica was in contact with them via radio. But the military headquarter had not allowed her to try descending on her own. She was now waiting for her group to come back and help her, but she was afraid that they would arrive very late in the evening with very little daylight left for the descent. And then she would have to rush – something she could not do with her injured knee.

Paramedic, me and Veronica

What happened now was more like a story out of a James Bond movie than a normal hiking day. After she had received permission via radio to descend with me we slowly started hiking. In fact, despite her injured knee Veronica was still walking faster than me. Various times concerned military were asking for hour progress via radio and announced despite Veronica’s protests that they would send as a paramedic. And for sure when we had nearly reached the valley bottom two soldiers came towards us. Veronica had already told me that this rescue action was probably more due to the fact that one soldier had cast an eye on her than to medical necessity …

In order to “rescue” her, they had driven up the valley cross country in a military vehicle – and asked me whether I wanted to get a ride to their base camp. This was something I did not want to miss – and it was the bumpiest ride of my entire life! While Veronica was riding shotgun I was trying to stay alive in the back of the track while being thrown up and down.
I wondered why we had not waited for the rest of the rescue team but I was just told that they could walk back to base. Special treatment out here was apparently for women only! When we arrived in the base camp we were celebrated like heroes – but I still preferred to camp on my own a couple of kilometres away.

Nothing dramatic happened while I hiked out to civilisation the next morning …

Whether you choose to accept it or not, human cases of food allergies are on the rise. While the reasons why this is happening is a debate for another forum, the plain and simple fact is that you or someone within your circle of caring may very well develop a food allergy – and it won’t necessarily start at birth – it could develop at any time.

By Drew, contributing author to Survival Cache and SHTFblog

My wife developed concurrently a gluten allergy and a lactose intolerance. This occurred suddenly when she was about 30 years old, and it took a battery of tests and throwing a dart at the diet board to figure out what was going on, since the two allergies formed at the same general time. The symptoms are reportedly pretty wretched – crippling stomach pain, headaches, and severe diarrhea with accompanying dehydration, with onsets of the symptoms giving her almost no notice to get to the appropriate location to take care of the task at hand. As a consequence, her diet is severely limited, and a lot of time is spent in the grocery store aisle carefully reading labels. Dairy is not a huge issue to avoid, but gluten is sneaky and can be found even in foods labelled “gluten free”, if the product is even processed in a plant that works with gluten-based products. It’s a less-than-fun game with no winners – especially when it comes time to prep for long-term survival.

All of this means a couple things for me: one) I’ve sampled pretty much every gluten free food option there is, and two) prepping long-term storage food for unforeseen disasters is a complete pain in the posterior. Thankfully, the seriousness of gluten and other food allergies is starting to come to light with a corresponding semi-lackluster (but honest and definitely increasing) response from the market in general. However, a person or family with a need to keep an eye on the fixin’s still must struggle to find dedicated products with value. And when you whittle the available products down to a niche market such as specifically designed long-term storage food, choices are slim indeed – making me wonder if a subject with a gluten allergy would rather wish they had punched out when the bomb dropped instead of being caught in a bunker eating the same meal of bulk freeze dried beef cubes, peas, and rice for four years straight.

Enter Valley Food Storage

I was fortunate enough to be contacted by Valley Food Storage with an offer for a free sample of their freeze-dried food offerings (which you can get yourself on their website). I clicked over to Valley Food Storage’s website, and was pleasantly surprised when I saw that they have a dedicated suite of offerings that are specifically gluten free. (They also have other specific dietary-considerate options, to include lactose free, soy free, and vegetarian.) Admittedly, a large chunk of the products on the GF page are more side dishes or desserts instead of full entrees, but there are a few selections available to make a decent day’s full meal plan. This is refreshing – I have found that more often than not, a freeze dried food manufacturer’s “Gluten Free” options are pretty much a packet of dried strawberries or something similar. 

Also noticing that Valley Food Storage happily boasts that all their food products are 100% natural ingredients, with no fillers, GMOs, artificial flavors, preservatives, fillers, or MSG, I took stock of what was available and requested three packets, which Valley Food Storage was very generous to provide for this review: Freeze Dried Apple Oatmeal, Freeze Dried Blueberries, and Freeze Dried Chicken Teriyaki. Just a couple of days later, a package full of dehydrated goodness was in my mailbox.

I was hoping to scoop up my wife and son and tromp out into the woods and start a fire for the proper testing field testing ambiance, but alas, my preferred scenario was not in the cards. Therefore, the “field” consisted of my work office, and “testing” comprised of dumping water in bowls of freeze-dried food while watching the clock drain away my lunch break minute by minute. I soldiered on for science and for you, dear reader.

Apple Oatmeal For Breakfast

My first victim was the Apple Oatmeal. Opening up the bag and inspecting the contents confirmed my suspicions that the Valley Food Storage Apple Oatmeal would indeed look just like instant oatmeal offerings from other companies. A whiff told me it smelled really great, and so I poured the requisite serving size (½ cup) into a bowl I keep handy for eating occasions, and dumped in the proper amount of hot water (also ½ cup). While I absent-mindedly stirred the whole goopy mess up, I read the ingredients. Not much there – oats, sugar, apple granules, and non-fat milk powder. That’s it.

Apparently less is more, because the first spoonful was, without any hyperbole, as good or better than any other “instant oatmeal” I’ve ever tried. I wolfed down the first bowl and decided against another as I noticed the 15 grams of sugar per serving. However, I did make a bowl of the gummily delicious oatmeal up later for my wife to try, and the Valley Food Storage Apple Oatmeal received an official  thumbs-up…once she recovered from me stuffing a spoon laden with oatmeal in her mouth with little to no warning.

Lunch: Freeze Dried Chicken Teriyaki

For my lunchtime course, I opened up the mylar bag containing the Freeze Dried Chicken Teriyaki. The directions noted that I should combine the ingredients with water and then boil the whole works, but i just went with standard survivalist behavior and combined the bag contents with the called-for amount of already-hot water, and let sit. After the requisite time had passed, I tried out the Chicken Teriyaki. It was kinda more like soup than I thought it would be – probably because I didn’t boil the ingredients together. I added more Chicken Teriyaki and let it sit for a bit longer.

12 minutes later, when I finally tried the meal, I was very pleased. What I thought were chicken chunks were actually bits of very sweet pineapple, and a mild, slightly peppery wasabi-ish flavor twinge really rounded out the palette. Again, no exaggeration here – I really, really enjoyed the Valley Food Storage Freeze Dried Chicken Teriyaki. The wife did not try it, since I actually demolished the bag over a few days at work for lunch. I’m going to bet she would have liked it. We’ll go with that.

Dessert – Freeze Dried Blueberries

Up for “dessert” (more like a at-desk snack) I tried out some of the Valley Food Storage Freeze Dried Blueberries (ingredients: 100% Blueberries) First up, I prepared by soaking in water per the directions, and found that the soaking time on the package seemed to be a general guideline – some were mushy, some were still a bit crunchy. It seemed to be a bit of a crapshoot which berries absorbed the water but they were pretty good. I drank the blue-twinged water that resulted from the blueberry soak, since I imagine it had a few nutrients there for me to use, and I’d likely be following a similar routine if I was eating these berries in a survival or disaster situation. Not bad.

Also read: Freeze Dried Foods As Part Of Your Preps

I found, however, that the best way (in my opinion) to eat these freeze dried blueberries was just simply to reach in the bag and pop them directly into my mouth, no soaking involved. It was a crisp, tasty snack that lasts quite a while – there’s a lot of blueberries in that there bag! Pro tip: combine the blueberries with the Valley Food Storage Apple Oatmeal for a little slice of freeze-dried mouth heaven. (be sure to prepare the two separately , THEN combine)

Oh yeah…when my wife tried them, well, I didn’t get the bag back. The Freeze Dried Blueberries were a runaway hit. Absolutely get you some!

Wrapping Up

It’s really superb that Valley Food Storage is addressing the needs of people with specialized diets in such a great, tasty manner. The food itself once prepared is outstanding, and the ingredients are simple and delicious. I absolutely love the fact that no preservatives or multi-syllable BS ingredients make their way into the packages – these Valley Food Storage meals are just plain food – nothing artificial or nasty added in the name of preserving the food for your bunker pantry. Don’t be fooled, though – properly stored, these Valley Food Storage freeze dried meals will last for many years (25 of them, according to the packaging) in your supply cache.

I will say that the serving size on the packages did seem to be a bit subjective; you’ll need to review your dietary and caloric needs before you take the serving quantities on the package as holy writ. A 1/3 cup serving of the Apple Oatmeal only provides 140 calories, so if one serving of this specific meal is what you were planning on tiding you over through a high-activity day, you’re gonna be a hurtin’ unit. All the dietary information for every Valley Food Storage product is available on their website, so you can review and plan ahead. You can also call and chat with the VFS team over the phone, and they’ll help you work out a specific food plan for you.

Also, be sure to check out Valley Food Storage’s other offerings – to include pre-built 72-hour kits, food subscription services, heirloom seeds, 30- and 55 – gallon blue water storage drums, a few knives, paracord, water purification tablets, and even financing for large volume orders.

So I’ll wrap up this little review by saying I wholeheartedly endorse the direction Valley Food Storage is going with their products, and I truly appreciate the fact that I now have viable options to feed the people in my family with special dietary needs. The Gluten Free offerings from Valley Food Storage are absolutely delicious and made with natural ingredients- and they are the direction I’ll be heading  towards when it comes time to re-fill my long-term food storage larder. There’s not much I can say about freeze-dried foods in general that hasn’t been said before, but the Valley Food Storage offerings are a cut above the rank and file and are definitely worth your attention…especially if you have dietary restrictions.

The post Eat Gluten Free and Survive With Valley Food Storage appeared first on Survival Cache.

Pret A Manger pleads not guilty to a food safety offence after a student customer reported having an allergic reaction to a sandwich.

The post Pret A Manger pleads not guilty to food allergy offence appeared first on SHP – Health and Safety News, Legislation, PPE, CPD and Resources.

Today we are going to cover 5 of my laws of life, these are listed in no particular order. These are part of a coming book yet to be titled but it will be something along the lines of “16 … Continue reading →

To win a RoSPA Health and Safety Award is by no means an easy feat. Last year alone, we received close to 2,000 entries from across the globe. To achieve one gold achievement award is a fantastic accolade for your organisation… however, to continue that winning streak year after year is outstanding. In 2019, Nottingham based civil and electrical engineering firm J. McCann & Co. Ltd did just that and achieved their fourth RoSPA Gold Achievement Award (and they couldn’t be more delighted).

An Achievement Award truly is the accolade that safety professionals across all industries aspire to. In our latest interview with four-time Gold Award Winner, J. McCann & Co. Ltd explains how winning a RoSPA Award has impacted their organisation…

What motivates you/your organisation to enter the RoSPA Awards?

Entering the RoSPA Awards motivates our organisation to drive improvements for our safe systems of work, year upon year. It also allows us to demonstrate our commitment to the safety of our staff, contractors and all others affected by our work, whilst enabling us to showcase and celebrate the success of our workforce, who work to an award-winning standard.

Winning a Gold Award for the fourth consecutive year is proof of how entry into the awards process drives and develops our systems.

What benefits does winning a RoSPA Award have for you/your organisation?

Winning a RoSPA award supports our strong health and safety culture that we have here at McCann and helps to provide great supporting evidence to a client’s Pre-qualification Questionnaires (PQQs).

We also display that we are a RoSPA Gold Award Winner in all of our email signatures, which helps to promote us as an organisation that works to extremely high standards, especially when it comes to health and safety.

What do you enjoy most about the RoSPA Awards process?

We always look forward to the awards dinner because it is a great opportunity for our support staff to receive recognition for the very important work that they do. We arrange for as many of them as possible to be at the dinner where they can relax and meet with other employees from our sites and celebrate shared success.

What do you think the applicant could do over the year to keep drafting an awards submission simple?

To guarantee a straight forward submission, it is important to remain organised. Initially, you should read the RoSPA submission guidance and take the time to digest all the information and thoroughly understand it.

Assigning the responsibility to one person ensures that they are focussed on the submission and can take control of what is needed at each stage. The designated employee should then make folders for each of the submission headings and collate evidence as they go, for example, saving any relevant emails. When filing evidence, it is useful to categorise the evidence early on as this will help to prevent a repetition of evidence across the different categories.

What advice would you give to organisations considering entering the awards for the first time, or how would you convince organisations not entering the awards to start entering?

First of all, the awards are about telling the story of what is going well using information you already have, which can be simpler than you may assume, so it is always worth entering. Also, don’t avoid entering if you have had an incident at work. The RoSPA Awards are a great opportunity to show that you have developed mature safety processes, but can also show how you learn from such incidents to prevent them from happening again. This can also lead to opportunities to demonstrate key learning and share findings with the rest of your wider industry.

We would advise not repeating the same evidence within the categories, which is where preparation and organisation play a huge part. It’s also good to remember that less is more with your written submission. Draft your document and check the word count, you will likely exceed the word limit the first time you do it but keep working on it until it’s as succinct as possible.

So what’s stopping you? The process of joining the global RoSPA Award-winning community couldn’t be simpler. Simply visit www.rospa.com/awards, register online, and submit your entry via our online portal. First-time entrant? Don’t worry, as support and guidance is available through our mentoring scheme – read this blog to find out more.

Today it’s time for the expert council show. To ask a question for a show like this, just send an email to me at jack at thesurvivalpodcast.com with “TSPC Expert” in the subject line. Today on The Survival Podcast, the … Continue reading →

Washington — From exercise and GPS trackers to devices that measure on-the-job stress, ergonomics or potential exposure to chemicals, wearable sensors have become part of everyday life.

El Puente Ingles

GPT section 7 starts at “Puente Ingles”, the English bridge which was constructed by a British engineer in order to drive cattle across the river. Nowadays it is a popular picnic spot. When arrived late in the evening there were still plenty of locals frolicking in the water. I walked half a kilometer to get away from the hustle and bustle and camped.

Next day started with a long and dusty road walk but I refused all offers of rides. When I finally turned onto horse trail I was passed by a group of friendly carabineros on a patrol ride.

They knew the area so well that they used this last chance with cell phone receptions to make some calls. To my big surprise they did not object at all to have their picture taken.
The following day turned out to be one the most beautiful on the GPT for me. The trail took me up a pass in the morning and down the pass in the afternoon. Views on each side were absolutely spectacular and I did not see a single soul that day which ended even more spectacular at the Laguna Maule. Although horse drops told me that this is a popular campsite I had the lake all to myself and enjoyed a wonderful evening swim.

Laguna Maule (photo with no filter …)

I was a bit nervous in the morning because I now had to walk around the lake – but there was no easy beach! The horse trail contoured the steep slopes fifty or hundred meters above the lake. If I slipped I would just fall into the water but this did not make me feel a lot better … I even walked short bits in the water in order to avoid the eroded horse trail. In the middle of this stretch I even came across a lonely puesto and met the arriero who was living there a couple of hours later on horse back.
I still could not relax because at the end of this stretch the horse trail took me up to a pass and contoured around a terribly steep slope where a fall would send me down several hundred meters …

Descent down to Laguna Maule

Views from the pass onto the dark blue lake were fantastic and luckily the steep descent was on sand. I was sliding down but not slipping and falling. When I arrived at the outlet of the lake I took a bath and had a long break. I thought that now the worst was over but as usual on the GPT I was wrong. What I had thought to be a nice afternoon stroll along the river turned out to be more nerve-wracking hiking on eroded horse trail high above the river. The trail was so badly eroded that someone had even tried to repair it with logs – it was still scary as hell.
At one point I had to cross a slope where the trail was more or less totally washed out. I clang to some thorny bushes to avoid sliding down into the river and promptly had several thorns in my hands and arms …
At least the river crossing at the end of this demanding day was easy. I filled up my water bottles and camped at the first possible site being totally exhausted and fed up …

Trail high above the river

Next day was far less demanding and a lot more entertaining! I passed an outpost of Chilean carabineros who are not only police but function as border patrol. When arrived at their puesto in the middle of nowhere I was immediately offered breakfast and mate. Their main job is to prevent cattle rustling but of course they check for all sorts of contraband. Or as one of the carabineros put it: “If you check on one of the arrieros we always look what he has in his saddle bags. If we find marihuana, we sit down and smoke a joint together!” This guy looked so serious when saying this that I almost fell for his joke. Because Chilean carabineros have an excellent reputation and are not corrrupt!

But beside all this joking around these guys did their job and copied all my passport details. Or as they put it: “If you slip and fall here, you will not die immediately. It takes a couple of days. But when we find your bones finally we at least know who you were …”
With this comforting knowledge I left my new friends and traversed a very hot and dusty plain, crossed a braided river and camped under a plum tree full with ripe fruit!  There were only bushes in this plain – only around puestos there were huge green trees giving shade. This way you could see each settler from far away.

See the dark green trees in the middle – there is a house there

Two days later I came across another highlight – hot springs close to the trail. As the crow flies they were only around 1 km away from the trail but of course the path was eroded steep. Luckily I was the only person there and could frolick in the hot water. I kept my clothes on because I wanted to wash them.
Unfortunately there was no shade and you cannot stay long in hot water with the hot sun shining directly onto your head. At least I was very clean when I continued to the little village of Carrizales which turned out to consist only of around three huts, no shop and no cell phone signal – but another carabinero post!

Here I was greeted with cold lemonade and learnt even more about their job in the mountains. Most of their “clients” are Chileans who hop over the border and steal Argentinian horses or cattle. The other way around (Argentinians stealing Chilean cattle seemed not to happen very often …). There are usually six men at these outpost. Three of them go on patrol for several days and the other three stay in the outpost for emergencies. Their shift is one month long and most of them seem to enjoy it a lot. “We shot rabbits and go fishing a lot …”
But they have to bring in all their food for one month! The government is only paying for the horse feed ….

I joined them feeding their horses and was allowed to take pictures – but only after they had changed from shorts and T-shirts into their uniform … Being a lot taller than any of them I kept my seat for the picture …

The next was very hot and dusty walk through cattle country. Although being generally very dry there were huge swampy meadows that were difficult to cross. I finally emerged up on a high plateau were I was nearly caught in a thunderstorm and then followed by a herd of cattle. When they saw the steep descent at the end of the plateau they turned around … Unfortunately I had to go down there ….

View into the valley

 Of course there was no trail and very carefully I descended meter by meter, sometimes sliding down on my butt until I finally reached some sort of cattle trail and the river. I pitched my tent on the first flat spot and thanked God that I had not hurt myself on the descent!

I had hoped that from now on it would be an easy stroll along the river out to the road and then back to civilisation but again the GPT was full of surprises. The cattle trail was generally routed high above the river and I was trying hard not to slip and fall. I finally reached a very well maintained dirt road and soon the highway came into sight. But to my utter surprise there was a locked gate and a guard station between me and my return to civilisation. But surely the guard would let me out! Well, he didn’t. The poor guy was very apologetic but explained that the camera would film it all and get him into trouble. After a short discussion he showed me a hole in the fence out of camera view were I could get out to freedom … From there it was a long road walk to some popular hot springs and a bus ride into town.