Top Ten of 2010

Are you the resolution-making type? I'm more inclined to reflect back of the successes and areas of improvement from the past year. The intent is not to resolve, but to plan...a steady plan of improvement.

I'd like to share the...lets call it..."best of 2010" or "year in review" from Mitigation Journal.

Top blog postings in 2010

E. coli:A Cause of Renal Failure and Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation was the most-read post in 2010. This topic originally posted way back in September, 2007 and I was a bit surprised to see how popular it has remained. In fact, its been read over 3000 times in 2010. It was read under 100 times when it originally posted. Kind of interesting, isn't it?

Homemade Chemical Bombs: A Legitimate Threat to Responders, originally posted August, 2006 was read by 2500 readers in 2010. This is getting interesting from two directions. First, the most read posts on my blog in 2010 were written three or four years ago. Second, I took a fair bit of criticism about wiring both. In fact, after the Homemade Chemical Bombs post, I was accused of being "too alarmist" and that I was making something out of nothing. Unfortunately, these events continue to go under reported and their dangers under appreciated by fire, EMS, and law enforcement. Interest must be there, it was a popular topic in 2010.

Paramedic Future posted in July, 2009 and was intended to spark debate about what EMS technologies would be beneficial. We received quite a bit of feed back on this one...little on technology...most focused on evidence based treatment.

And now, the only post in the Top Ten that was actually written in 2010 comes in at number 4. Why would hand foot and mouth disease stop air travel? was posted in October after a plane load of people were quarantined as someone noticed a child with a centrifugal pattern rash and fever.

Duty to Act in New York was a post that surprises me even today. We blogged about the two NYC EMT/Dispatchers that walked out of a coffee shop after being told about a pregnant woman having a seizure. The woman and baby died. There was some "flash" national coverage, but the enduring debate centered on what we would do if we were there. In 2010 this post was read 1320 times and continued to be a topic on the Mitigation Journal podcast.

Chemical Assisted Suicide and Possible Chemical Suicide in Ontario both registered over 700 reads in 2010.  I was again accused of being too alarmist when originally posting about chemical suicide...mainly by the "it can't happen here" crowds around the country. Some uniformed responders locally actually thanked me for posting on the topic. Behind the scene, and quite unofficially, I was told my research and this posting generated a bit of embarrassment on some fire service leaders. Interestingly, a few documents from a certain fire service contained a nearly word-for-word recital of this post. A certain state publication came out with the same wording and references. Of course, there was no mention of Mitigation Journal.

CYANIDE: The Deadly Partner of Carbon Monoxide was a posting made in an attempt to bring attention to the all-hazards approach. This posting was read over 600 times in 2010 and referenced by several mainstream publications!

Meth Labs and Propane Cylinders warned of the dangers of anhydrous ammonia storage and meth labs. Originally posted in 2008 got 550 hits in 2010.

And finally, This app advances BLS! posted July, 2010 and is the second posting actually written in 2010 to make the list. I used this post to spur interest in medical/EMS apps. A special thanks to our friends at Informed Publishing for letting me review the apps.