Safety in Numbers

How often do you consider that you could have a faulty electrical product in your home or office?

Electrical Safety First have recently released a news article with worrying statistics about the success rate of recalling fault electrical goods. In the January sales and over Christmas, masses of electrical products have been purchased with an assumption that what you buy off the shelf or on the internet is going to be safe; this is not the case.

Hoverboards are a prime example, this Christmas thousands were taken off the shelves and recalled. Other retailers like Amazon were asking their customers to dispose of any unsafe hoverboards due to risk of fire or worse; possible explosion.

Examples like this are a stark reminder of how easy it can be to buy a product that isn’t fit for purpose and can cause serious consequences.

Electrical Safety First have confirmed a staggering £41.6 million in the UK every year. Unsurprisingly, most of us would return a product if we knew it had been recalled, yet the success rate for recalls in the UK is rarely more than 10-20%.

The most common reported items that are recalled are electrical items that we use daily without a second thought:
– Electrical Chargers
– Adaptors, including those for travel
– Extension and spare product leads
– Hairdryers, tongs and straighteners
– Small kitchen appliances like kettles, toasters and irons

Bar the hair appliances, the rest are almost certainly found in the workplace, so it’s very important that these are checked to make sure they are safe for use.

To make sure you’re protected and that you’re using safe electrical products, the best action to take is to register your electrical goods on registermyappliance.org.uk, using the brand name, model of product and crucially, the serial number.

“2% of the population have experienced physical injury or property damage as a result of a recalled item, that’s almost 1 million people (996,000)”

Be safe and make sure you’re not part of a statistic.