Editorial Policy

Last updated: 26 October 2026. How what you read here is produced, checked and corrected.

What we publish

My Survival Zone publishes general educational writing about household preparedness: what stops working during an interruption to power or water, what a household can do in advance, and how to think about the trade-offs. We write for people who have not thought about the subject before and who do not want to be frightened into buying things.

How material is researched

Our starting points are the publicly available materials of agencies and bodies whose job this is: national and regional emergency management agencies, public health authorities, water and electricity utilities, fire services, and recognised standards and training organisations. Where guidance differs between jurisdictions — and on this subject it often does — we say that the detail depends on where you live rather than presenting one country's rule as universal.

Where we quote a figure, such as how long food keeps in an unpowered refrigerator, we present it as the commonly cited guidance that it is, with the conditions it depends on, rather than as a precise promise.

How material is written

• Plain language. If a sentence cannot be understood by someone reading it in a hurry, it is rewritten.
• No manufactured fear. We describe ordinary, likely interruptions, because those are what actually happen. We do not use catastrophe as a selling device.
• Cheap before expensive. Where a problem can be solved with something a household already owns, that is the answer we give.
• Limits stated. Where something requires a professional, a permit or specific training, we say so instead of writing around it.

Review before publication

Every page is read through a safety check before it goes live. That check asks a single question of each paragraph: could a reasonable reader follow this and come to harm? Passages about combustion, carbon monoxide, electrical work, water treatment, food safety and medication receive particular attention, and anything that could be read as encouraging unsafe improvisation is removed or rewritten with the warning attached to it.

Use of AI tools

We use software, including AI writing and research tools, as part of producing this website. Nothing is published without a human reading it, checking the claims in it and taking responsibility for it. Where a tool produces a statement we cannot verify, the statement does not appear.

Keeping pages current

Pages carry the date they were last revised. We review published material periodically and whenever we are told something has changed or is wrong. A substantive change — a correction of fact, a revised safety warning — updates that date and, where the change matters to a reader who already acted on the old version, is noted on the page.

Corrections

We would rather be corrected than be wrong. If something here is inaccurate, out of date, or phrased in a way that could mislead someone, write to corrections@mysurvivalzone.com with the page and the problem. Corrections are made promptly, and we are glad to credit whoever spotted it.

Independence

Commercial relationships do not decide what appears here. How this site is funded and how that is kept separate from editorial decisions is set out in the Advertising Policy.

What we do not publish

• Claims that preparedness guarantees safety or a particular outcome.
• Medical, legal or engineering advice, which we are not qualified to give — see the Disclaimer.
• Material presented as an official warning, an emergency alert or a communication from an authority.
• Fabricated testimonials, invented experts or invented statistics.
• Content about current emergencies aimed at people living through them, which belongs with the authorities responding to them.