Independent Engineers Find Child Safety Socket Covers Unnecessary and Potentially Lethal in Use

LONDON - Leading Science and Technology Broadcaster Dr Adam Hart-Davis Lends
Full Support to Campaign

A campaign begun by independent engineers in the letters page of
Engineering & Technology Magazine, and covered by a full investigation in the
new issue, has led to calls for safety socket covers to be banned in the UK
as an unnecessary drain on parents’ resources and a potentially lethal
addition to any home.

The potential dangers of using safety socket covers was originally
highlighted by Peter M Munro in the May 2008 issue of Engineering &
Technology (E&T) which led to the formation of FatallyFlawed - by a group of
qualified engineers, doctors and child-care specialists - as a vehicle to
campaign against plug-in socket covers.

Engineering &Technology magazine is published by the Institution of
Engineering and Technology (IET) and is the UK’s No 1 Technology title with a
circulation of 150,000 qualified engineers.

The article in the new issue of E&T goes on to point out that the
original British Standard for fused plugs and shuttered sockets - BS1363 -
dates back to 1947 and was implemented precisely to prevent children from
being electrocuted by open live terminals.

With UK shuttered sockets already widely considered the safest in Europe
and with no reported records of children’s electrocution from insertions into
plug sockets the FatallyFlawed team (including IET members Prof John Roulston
OBE and David Peacock) concludes that: ‘many companies have been marketing
plastic safety socket covers in the misguided belief that they are an
essential tool to prevent children from inserting fingers or other objects
into plug sockets. ‘.

In fact, further investigation by the professional engineers at
FatallyFlawed has revealed at least three ways in which the use of safety
socket covers can expose children to a potential lethal risk.

The campaign points out that the safety covers can be easily inserted
upside down thereby withdrawing the internal protective shutter and leaving
the live terminal open and easily accessible.

Secondly, the two most popular cover designs (shown below) pose a safety
risk even when correctly sited as both still allow needle-like objects, such
as paper clips, to be pushed in and directly on to the live pin.

Finally, Fatally Flawed claim that none of the covers they tested
actually complied with the dimensions found in BS1363 leading to a - not
always obvious - incorrect sitting in the socket which made it easy for a
child to remove the cover and possibly reinsert it upside down.

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) already agrees
with much of the findings and states that the socket covers are unnecessary.
The campaign has also resulted in Ofsted reversing its policy of requiring
nurseries and child minders to use the socket covers.

FatallyFlawed are now aiming to persuade the Department for Business
Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) to ban the sale of any device
intended to plug into a BS1363 socket without the intention of making
electrical contact.

Commenting in the new issue of E&T, newly appointed patron of the
FatallyFlawed campaign , Dr Adam Hart-Davis said: ‘I normally refuse to join
in campaigns but this seemed so important, and the “safety” covers so absurd
and dangerous, that I agreed. I do think someone should do something, since
children’s lives are being put at risk’.

Source: Engineering & Technology Magazine

For more information please contact: Dickon Ross, Editor-in-Chief, Engineering & Technology, T: +44(0)1438-767397, E: dmross at theiet.org; Andrew Burslem, CMC PR, T:+44(0)207-924-7448, E:andrew at cmcpr.co.uk