Anniston Star
Letters
July 8, 2003

Do not remove

I read a letter in Speak Out from a writer about her family attending a "Prepare Now" session. Her letter contained information the average person could use.

Recently, me, my family and my mother attended a "Prepare Now" session. Upon completing the "Prepare Now" session, we were issued our protective equipment - including a safe room air filter for both my family and my mother's safe room.

On the outside of the boxes containing these "safe-room" air filters were instructions that they not be opened unless in the event of an actual chemical release. I asked the CSEPP instructor how we could be sure these air filters would work correctly without opening them up and plugging them in. He assured me not to worry, that they would work.

Upon arriving home I took both my family's and my mother's room air filter out of their boxes and guess what - one of the two didn't work. Now I had two choices: One was to give my mother the one that didn't work, she's old anyway; or two, take back the one that didn't work and get another that has a 50 percent chance of working.

I chose to take back the safe room air freshener that didn't work and get one that did. Mother may be old but she still cooks with the best of them.

Now I realize that it's wrong to remove the tag from a mattress or a safe room air filter from its box and see if it does work. But as the previous writer used common sense and suggested that each of us use intelligence to do whatever necessary to devise a safe plan for our family, I removed Mother's new safe room air filter from its box and made sure it worked when plugged in.

Don Howell
Anniston