The Electrical Safety Council recently carried out research which revealed that many UK people are at risk of fatal accidents in the home because of electrical mistakes due to insufficient knowledge of how dangerous electricity can be.
To help combat the figures revealed by the research, the ESC have come up with a smart phone app, which can be downloaded for free and will help users ensure their homes are safe.
Most alarmingly the research figures revealed that within the past year alone, one million people repaired an appliance whilst it remained plugged in. Another 12 million however, admitted to using faulty plugs and sockets. Whilst even more worryingly another million people ignore burning smells from an appliance or socket and two million others have cables trailing on hot surfaces.
These shocking statistics reveal that people are not taking the risks to their health around electricity seriously enough.
Those taking part in the survey said that they thought about electrical risks as often as they thought about getting struck by lightning or being in a plane crash. This is a huge indicator of how people are underestimating electrical dangers. This becomes more evident when you look at the actual figures for these events.
- One person per year is killed by lightening, on average
- There hasn’t been a commercial airline death in eleven years
- One person every week dies from everyday electrical use
- 350,000 people are seriously injured by electricity each year.
These figures show the massive difference in people’s perception and reality of electrical danger. People in the UK must be made more aware of the dangers of electricity in order to increase preventative measures and reduce death and injury statistics.
People cannot be allowed to continue to believe that electrical injury is no more likely than a plane crash or a lightning strike.
Written by Sara Thomson
