Timeline for Do smoke alarms save lives?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
17 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Apr 26, 2014 at 0:51 | comment | added | Oddthinking♦ | This is an area where there is a lot of available research. I am hoping for a definitive, well-researched answer. | |
| Apr 25, 2014 at 21:22 | answer | added | Bill Horvath | timeline score: 6 | |
| Apr 24, 2014 at 21:17 | comment | added | DJClayworth | At the end of the Freakonomics article, the author reviews figures for reductions in fire deaths between houses with working smoke alarms and houses without them. His conclusion is the the 50% reduction is not true, but that instead it is a 25% reduction. That is still a very substantial reduction, which would tend to answer positively your question "Do smoke alarms save lives?" | |
| Apr 24, 2014 at 21:14 | comment | added | DJClayworth | The Freakonomics article isn't challenging the idea that smoke alarms save lives. It is attempting to challenge the idea that smoke alarms are responsible for most of the reduction in fire deaths in recent decades. However I'm not sure that anyone is actually claiming what Freakonomics is attempting to challenge. They would still appear to accept that smoke alarms save lives. | |
| Apr 24, 2014 at 20:07 | comment | added | Mad Scientist♦ | I don't see any necessity here to go into more detail, the claim is pretty clear. Any answer will have to provide some numbers, we don't have to determine a threshold for effectiveness in the question. | |
| Apr 24, 2014 at 20:02 | comment | added | Nate Eldredge | @Articuno: I think the claim should also be quantified. As it stands, it would suffice to produce anecdotal evidence of one person who survived a fire because of a smoke alarm. | |
| Apr 24, 2014 at 19:57 | comment | added | user5582 | @NateEldredge Yes, absolutely. My suggestion for improvement is to just ask if fire alarms save lives, rather than presenting an particular alternative (safety theater) as the only other option. | |
| Apr 24, 2014 at 19:53 | comment | added | Nate Eldredge | @Articuno: Of course, even assuming the FEMA claim is accurate, correlation doesn't imply causation. Homes without smoke alarms could be more likely to have other fire safety problems (for instance, because the owners are generally careless). | |
| Apr 24, 2014 at 19:40 | history | edited | SAJ14SAJ | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
deleted 2 characters in body
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| Apr 24, 2014 at 19:31 | comment | added | user5582 | What about a third possibility: that there is a small impact from smoke detectors that is not just safety theater. | |
| Apr 24, 2014 at 19:22 | comment | added | SAJ14SAJ | @Articuno Sorry, perhaps I could have found a better source for notability, but the question is, is there data that supports significant impact from smoke detectors, or is it safety theater? | |
| Apr 24, 2014 at 17:34 | history | tweeted | twitter.com/#!/StackSkeptic/status/459384793147641857 | ||
| Apr 24, 2014 at 17:25 | comment | added | user5582 | So, it's possible that both Freakanomics article and FEMA are correct. It's not the dichotomy that you've set up in your last paragraph. It's possible that the large reduction during the 20th century was largely due to other causes and that smoke alarms save lives in the remaining cases. I'm not intending this to be an answer at all (I haven't provided any evidence), but I hope that this comment can improve the question by removing the false dichotomy. | |
| Apr 24, 2014 at 17:14 | history | edited | user5582 | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
"significant number" doesn't add to the question. it can't be interpreted statistically, because you're not talking about samples.
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| Apr 24, 2014 at 17:12 | comment | added | user5582 | The FEMA claim is more specific: most of the 2500 people that die in home fires were in homes without a working smoke alarm. | |
| Apr 24, 2014 at 16:46 | history | edited | Oddthinking♦ | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
Cited claim. Moved from "fire alarm" to "smoke alarm" to match claim.
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| Apr 24, 2014 at 16:38 | history | asked | SAJ14SAJ | CC BY-SA 3.0 |