Change Your Clocks and Batteries on Saturday Night

            Auburn, Oct. 24, 2003---Most areas of the United States will gain an hour Sunday, Oct. 26, when daylight savings times ends.  The Consumer Product Safety Commission recommends that consumers make good use of the hour by not only pushing back the time on all of their clocks but also changing the batteries in smoke alarms and testing the alarms to ensure they work properly.

            The CPSC estimates that millions of homes in the United States have alarms that do not work, usually because the batteries are dead or missing.

            Fire is the second leading cause of unintentional death in the home. Each year, nearly 2,700 people die in residential fires.   There are more than 333,000 residential fires reported to fire departments annually. 

            .  Consumers should test smoke alarms every month to make sure all alarms are  working properly. Long-life smoke alarms with 10-year batteries have been available to consumers since 1995. These should be tested monthly, too.

            CPSC recommends consumers place a smoke alarm that meets the requirements of a professional testing laboratory, such as Underwriters Laboratories, on each level of multi-level homes, outside sleeping areas and inside bedrooms. The commission has worked to strengthen smoke alarm performance and installation requirements and is now studying audibility to determine ways to make the alarms more effective in waking children and alerting other people.

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