She (has outed herself as female now that she thinks there's an advantage to playing the poor ickle woman card) has as tenuous a grasp of reality as that mad Welsh/American bint calling herself "Totally Confused".
I suspect SIOTB.
The message there being that a RCD may have saved him had one been fitted...
The voyage through the handyman's qualifications is a rather pointless exercise. He did the electrical work on the oven to a satisfactory standard one presumes. His error was of lack of attention to detail and lack of awareness of the potential danger of the discarded lead - something even the most qualified person could have suffered from in the same circumstance.
[snip]
or was it the earth?
[snip]
Indeed...
Which begs the question why is this case even mentioned at all since it has no relevance to socket covers?
In general I expect most of us would agree with you on that.
Those dangers are at this stage theoretical, since there seems to be no hard evidence to show that the failure mechanisms demonstrated have been exploited in reality, and there is no evidence that these have lead to a serious injury or death at this stage. (not to say they won't in the future)
Which is understandable, however I would question the weightings you are applying in your risk analysis. Its human nature to perceive risks that are unusual, rare, out of your control etc as being more serious than ones that are familiar and mundane. In reality its the mundane every day risks (crossing the road, driving the car etc) that are far more likely to injure a child (or anyone else for that matter) than being electrocuted. Socket covers whatever their effect could at worst only elevate the risk of an extremely unlikely event into an extremely unlikely event in practical terms.
By all means make the engineering case, and demonstrate the flaws.
Highlight the point that they can give a false sense of security (as you did in this post)
Calling those flaws "fatal" may be over egging it. Parading Liam's case where it has no particular relevance (he was not killed in any way remotely connected with the use of a socket cover, and there was no suggestion that one would have kept him alive either), seems like a cruel and unusual punishment for his parents.
Alas they have started with a single clearly defined purpose - that of exposing the design and conceptual weaknesses of the covers. However they have spoilt that effect by allowing feature creep to expand the site into new and only loosely related areas. (as an engineer you will no doubt be very familiar with this problem).
Other plug and lead safety related material would be better promoted on a different site IMO. By all means include links to it from the FF one.
I appreciate the Liam's story is emotive and adds "human interest", however it seems to be being used here in the very worst traditions of the "if it bleeds, it leads" school of journalism.
In the early days of the FatallyFlawed campaign the founders received significant feedback that the site should not ignore other electrical dangers.
This feedback came from outside sources and also the advisory panel.
The "Other Dangers" page was added as a result. Liam's story was added at the time of the Fatal Accident Inquiry last year.
It is nonsense to claim that Liam's story is being connected to socket covers, or is used as a lead feature. It is not mentioned at all on the home page. It is not even at the top of the "Other Dangers" page.
What is the problem? Just use a reader that doesn't care about the line length and just fits it to whatever size window you choose.
Does your professional body have any view on socket covers. They put a lot of work into the field of electrical safety and have done for many years.
I am assuming that when you say you are a professional electrical engineer you mean a chartered engineer and a corporate member of the IET. Is this correct?
When you feature a storey on a single issue site, it is alas "linked" whether that is your intention or not.
However, the recent rewording has improved matters, and for that I thank you.
Time of the month.
Well, as I am quite prepared to admit my mistakes, unlike others, I confess that I completely screwed up my first two attempts at that last post.
And just for the sake of the record, some of the people involved in FatallyFlawed.org.uk are also involved (with others) in PlugSafe.org.uk
My main involvement is with FatallyFlawed.org.uk but I do, on occasion, assist with PlugSafe.org.uk and have full access to the Google Groups account belonging to PlugSafe.org.uk
Now I sit back and wait for the full blast of the inevitable abuse.
Today the apprentice decided that I cannot tell him what time to have dinner. What bollocks. They will eat when I tell them to eat. Dinner break is usually taken at 12.30pm but that is not a fixed rule. This mornings job was completed at 12.00 and we then had half an hours drive to the next job. He thought he had half an hours break whilst sat in the van followed by half an hours dinner break. No chance. He had to do what I did and eat whilst we travelled.
I gave him a simple choice. Either have his dinner break whilst travelling in the van or have no dinner at all.
Well he was the passenger.
By "profesional engineer" do you mean you earn money from being an engineer or you hold membership of recognised professional body? If the latter, which body?
MBQ
Seems reasonable then Adam;!...
my school that you claim to know, about your professional qualifications that you seem to have conveniently forgotten, about why you lied about a death in Thailand and about what a death involving a rip-off PSU has to do with BS1363.
Lots of others as well, or you could admit that you're full of shit.
It would be easy to find your school, there weren't that many approved ones.
That's an interesting question but what should the answer be ? If I say NO I havenmt stopped beating my wife is that better thean saying YES I have stopped beating my wife.
Is it better to have been a wife beater and stopped, or better never to have beaten ?
YES I have stopped beating my wife.
It's better to realise you don't have to anser yes or no. If you can't, then simply "I'm single" or "I have never beaten my wife" will do.
It's usually only trotted out during childish arguments on Usenet and says more about the person asking the question.
MBQ
The answer is "I haven't had to beat her, yet".
The following is taken from an ITV report on a study for the Electrical Safety Council
"The majority of new parents are failing to do enough to protect children from electrical accidents, including relying too heavily on socket covers, according to a study.
While 74% of new parents believe their home is safe, 62% rely on socket covers and just 38% have a residual current device (RCD) to prevent fatal electric shocks and minimise fire, the survey for the Electrical Safety Council (ESC) found.
The ESC figures suggest that the issue of electrical accidents in the home is far from insignificant.
Can you give the source for this? Only figures I can find are for 2007, and that was 28, 9 of which work related. So more like one every three weeks in the home.
My source gives 350,000 serious injuries too.
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