High Risk Teen Behaviour - December 2008 is a hot zone.

Some teens are notoriously irresponsible with their own and other people's lives. The number of life-threatening teen behaviours currently in vogue beggars belief.

Most of us live to tell the tale and then live in fear of our own children enjoying the same dangerous lines of entertainment.

Then there is the small yet highly visible minority that dies spectacularly through chemical misadventures, dare-devil stunts or more usually mashed up in MVAs. Summer and/or year-end festivities are nearly always behind the tragedies.

This year, between December 18th and 31st, Azrael is stalking irresponsible teens in the age range 16 - 19. Not all teens. And not all irresponsible ones. Just some of them, who are born on very specific days at very specific times. If they have the following birthdays: Jan 31, Feb 1, May 1 & 2, Nov 3 & 4, and were born between 1989 and 1992, they could be at risk. In addition to these birthdays, there are another 160 odd birthdays in the four year period 1989-1992 that may pose a risk - too numerous to list here.

Before you panic, bear in mind only about 4.5% of young people with these birthdays are at risk. In addition to which, only certain locations on the planet during the hot zone in December are prone to creating problems for the 4.5%

If you feel you or your child may be at risk, you are invited to post birth data to the blog to be checked out. (See "What to do" in right hand column.) It is a free service.

If and when the birth data are checked out and a potential problem is found, don't worry - you can always play it safe and/or arrange to be somewhere else when Azrael comes calling. Forewarned is forearmed.