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Seems a little myopic. The issue I believe is that enough of us in our home have experienced enough false alarms that basically give us a 'boy who cried wolf' m
by joyeuse6701 13y ago
Seems a little myopic. The issue I believe is that enough of us in our home have experienced enough false alarms that basically give us a 'boy who cried wolf' mentality when it comes down to it. Few of us will risk staying in a building when the alarm goes off, even if it is a drill, because false alarms in those systems seem seldom.
Thus, the ability to handle a false alarm gracefully is much better than having to disable the alarm in a permanent fashion for a temporary situation or struggle with containing a smoking meal until the irritation is over.
As far as analogies goes, If ambulance sirens were used by their operators to beat traffic for say...a sandwich and we all knew, it, we probably would ignore it much like China, for example, does. But because the belief is that the siren is turned on only for explicit emergencies, we pay attention to it.
Minefields is also a poor analogy. A more accurate one would be a mine detector. If a mine detector would give off a false alarm every time it came across a stick, people would fail to heed its warning in a real situation. They in effect would learn to ignore it and then that one time they did go in a minefield they'd be blown to bits.
Furthermore, The vast majority of ambulance sirens heard are for emergencies, and the vast majority of people who've ignored a minefield or it's detectors have probably died stepping on an ignored mine. I'm guessing the many smoke alarms going off have been for false positives, if they weren't, we wouldn't be having this discussion which it seems everyone hear has experienced or knows someone who has.
- brudgers 13y agoHow many false positives smoke alarm positives equal a single false negative?
- DanBC 13y ago> The issue I believe is that enough of us in our home have experienced enough false alarms that basically give us a 'boy who cried wolf' mentality when it comes down to it. I'm a bit confused. What the hell kind of shoddy product are you people buying that triggers on something that isn't smoke? Or are people talking about situations where there is smoke, from something burning, but that burn is small and contained and safe? EG Burning the toast - you don't need an alarm because you know it's the toast. Except it's possible for toasters to stick and for the bread to catch fire and for that to spread to the kitchen cupboard which is over the toaster, and etc. Some people don't stay in the room when the toast is cooking. Better placement of the alarms - not in bathrooms or just outside bathroom doors, and not in kitchens or just outside kitchen doors - helps. > a mine detector would give off a false alarm every time it came across a stick, people would fail to heed its warning in a real situation. They in effect would learn to ignore it and then that one time they did go in a minefield they'd be blown to bits. Smoke detectors are detecting smoke. They're not detecting cups of coffee or Bic biros or other unrelated things.
- mirsadm 13y agoWhat exactly are you confused about? Scenario A 1) Toast burns, no fire but lots of smoke 2) Alarm goes off, it's annoying so you wave your hand and turn it off. Problem solved. Scenario B 1) Toast burns, catches fire and your whole kitchen is burning down. 2) You run like hell Why would being able to disable a false alarm easier make it any less safer? Edit: I'll also point out that EVERY single time we cook a steak in a cast iron pan in our apartment the smoke alarm will go off. It's really annoying I have to be the one trying to figure out how to silence the damn thing.
- DanBC 13y agoBut it's not a false alarm. Smoke detectors detect smoke; toast burns; smoke detector triggers. That's a real alarm. There are two solutions: 1) make it easier to temporarily dismiss the alarm. 2) read the instructions and place the device properly
- joyeuse6701 13y ago