Survival advice is safety advice. A wrong shelter choice, a heater in a closed room or a badly applied tourniquet can kill. This page explains how we work.
Sources, in order of trust
- Official guidance: Ready.gov, FEMA, CDC, FDA, NRC, EPA, HHS Radiation Emergency Medical Management (REMM), NOAA and the National Weather Service.
- Recognized medical bodies and programs, such as the American College of Surgeons’ Stop the Bleed program and the Wilderness Medical Society.
- Peer-reviewed research and government technical reports, such as the EMP Commission reports and Glasstone and Dolan’s The Effects of Nuclear Weapons.
- Reputable journalism, only for events and only when a primary source is not available. We say when that is the case.
Rules we follow
- No invented data. No made-up statistics, tests, experts, quotes or anecdotes.
- Estimates are labelled. When we calculate or scale a number ourselves, the file says so.
- Medical limits. We give first-aid steps as official programs teach them. We never give prescription drug doses for self-treatment.
- No product pushing. No affiliate links and no paid placements. If that ever changes, it will be disclosed on every affected page.
- No politics. Scenarios are treated as physics and planning problems.
Updates and corrections
Each file shows the date it was last reviewed. We review files when official guidance changes and at least once a year. Report errors through the contact page. Confirmed errors are fixed and the review date is updated.