APHA: set your clocks, check your stocks with November time change.

APHA's Get Ready: Set Your Clocks, Check Your Stocks campaign is once again calling on Americans to update their emergency supplies when they change their clocks on Sunday, Nov. 1.

Launched in 2008, the APHA campaign is designed to remind people to make sure that their emergency preparedness stockpiles have adequate food, water and supplies, and ensure that nothing is missing or has expired. The biannual campaign is also designed to encourage Americans who do not have an emergency stockpile to create one.

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To help the public remember to update their emergency supplies, the APHA campaign is tied into the clock change that occurs when Americans switch from standard time to daylight saving time and back again. Despite knowledge that everyone needs an emergency stockpile, not enough people do, noted Susan Polan, PhD, APHA's associate executive director for public affairs and advocacy.

"If the nation were to ever experience a major disaster that required people to shelter in their homes for an extended period--such as a serious infectious disease outbreak--many Americans would find that they have inadequate supplies on hand," Polan said.

Every American should have at least a three-day supply of food and water in case of an emergency, including one gallon of water per person per day, according to preparedness experts. Other supplies that should be on hand include a first aid kit, medicines, a can opener, flashlight, battery-operated radio and batteries.

To help people create and update their emergency stockpiles, the Get Ready: Set Your Clocks, Check Your Stocks campaign offers free materials on its Web page, online at www.getreadyforflu.org/ clocksstocks. Materials include a list of what should be in an emergency stockpile, information on rotating stored food and water, and games for kids. Recognizing that tight economic times can make it hard to stockpile, the Get Ready materials include a tipsheet on budget stockpiling. Some of the materials are also available in Spanish.

Public health workers are encouraged to help spread the word by passing out campaign information at health fairs, sharing it with their communities and adding a link on their Web sites. Organizations can add their logos to all of the Get Ready: Set Your Clocks, Check Your Stocks materials using the online logo customization page and add their event to the Get Ready online calendar. Get Ready: Set Your Clocks, Check Your Stocks is part of APHA's overall

Get Ready campaign, which is working to help Americans prepare themselves, their families and communities for all hazards, including pandemic flu, disasters and other public health emergencies.

To download materials from Get Ready: Set Your Clocks, Check Your Stocks, visit www.getreadyforflu. org/clocksstocks.