Hurricanes, of course, do plenty damage. And then there are the many dangers that follow that them, including carbon monoxide poisoning from poorly functioning/ventilated generators.
A creepy little report in the June issue of Pediatrics gives a new spin on this problem: Texas researchers note that in 75 percent of the cases of kids who were treated for carbon monoxide poisoning after Hurricane Ike, the generators that caused the poisoning were not being used to keep food fresh or run AC—they were being used to power video games.
I have many conflicting reactions to this.
At first, it almost seems like a joke: Hey look, video games can be blamed for something else!! Did you know they also cause blindness and hairy palms?
On the other hand: Wow. You're out of power entirely and you're going to use expensive fuel to run video games? That is a little hard to swallow. Of course, who am I to talk? Under such circumstances, if Internet connectivity were available, I would probably charge my laptop and run the modem if a generator were already running. Also, from a distance, it's probably easy to underestimate the value of a little familiar entertainment following a natural disaster. (And depending on the weather, video games probably use less power than AC would.)
Then again, if we need a clearer picture of how hard it is for us to wean ourselves and our kids off energy-consumptive habits, even for a little while, there it is.
(Sidenote: researchers suggested that school programs and text-message warnings to
children's cell phones should be instituted as a response. No bad thing, but does that mean these kids are running the generators themselves with no oversight? I suppose many of them were teens, so probably, yes.)
Photo CC Rebecca Pollard, via Flickr.
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