There are over 290 accidents a year involving electricity here in the UK; most of them are in the home.
If you have children in your house then you are at greater risk of having an accident with electricity due to the inquisitive nature of children. They are going to try to stick things in the sockets and are going to try to stick things in the DVD player. What we have to do as parent is to minimize any electrical risks in our homes.
1. Firstly the Institute Of Electrical Engineers recommends having your domestic electrics checked every 10 years, when you first move into your home, if you are in rented accommodation then this frequency is every 5 years.
2. Make sure that all of you sockets are protected with an RCD unit, this unit is there to provide you with supplementary protection against electric shock, basically it’s a safety device that has saved many lives in the UK.
3. Cover all unused sockets with socket covers to stop baby poking things into them, better still put a piece of furniture in the way if possible to stop them getting to the socket in the first place.
4. If you need to use extension leads then make sure that they are safe i.e. no damage to the cable insulation and also food processing equipment design ppt do not run them under carpets and keep well out of the way of children, children have been known to chew the cable.
5. Never run extension leads off extension leads, if you are short of sockets then get a qualified electrician in to add more for you as opposed to putting your home at risk from fire
6. Do not allow children to play with electrical supply chain management benefits appliances under any circumstances.
7. Do not allow electrical cables to dangle down so that children can pull on them and thus pull the equipment on top of themselves, mainly table lamps and Televisions
It is important to follow these simple safety tips to keep your home safe, particularly this time of year when we are thinking of getting our Christmas Lights down from the loft. Every year there are fires that have been started by badly maintained Christmas lights. Our suggestion with Christmas lighting is to buy low voltage lights and that way you reduce the risk from electric shock as most low voltage lights are 24 volts DC. Just be sure to take the transformer out of the socket every night, do not rely on just turning them off from the switch. When you buy Christmas lights be sure to buy the ones that have the CE safety mark on them to ensure the quality.
