to remind everyone that socket covers are dangerous!

[insertrandomnamehere]

Did a search and couldn't find a post on this topic for a couple of years so in case people still don't realise...

If you use Child safety socket covers, get rid of them! They are dangerous and they actually make sockets more dangerous not less.

Socket covers are completely unnecessary and could potentially cause a fatal accident. UK plug sockets are designed with shutters to prevent anything except a UK plug being inserted into the socket. It is extremely unlikely that a young child would be able to open these shutters, as the child would have to insert something of exactly the right size into the earth pin. This is not possible with real plugs. But socket covers hold these shutters open and introduce a range of new dangers.

Unlike real plugs, the various design faults of socket covers allow a curious child to insert them (upside down) into the earth pin only. On many sockets this opens the safety shutters and allows children access to the live contacts!

If you have these at home, please take a few minutes to read the national campaign calling for the banning of socket covers: //www.fatallyflawed.org.uk

[PigletJohn]

The Department for Education one is

<a class="break-all" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20161014091458/www.foundationyears.org.uk/2016/10/dfe-note-on-the-use-of-electrical-plug-socket-coversinserts-in-early-years-provision-in-england/" rel="nofollow noindex" target="_blank">web.archive.org/web/20161014091458/www.foundationyears.org.uk/2016/10/dfe-note-on-the-use-of-electrical-plug-socket-coversinserts-in-early-years-provision-in-england/

(England)

[PigletJohn]

And the NHS one

Originator: DH Estates and Facilities

Issue date: 30-Jun-2016 10:01:08

Action by recipients: •Care Trusts
•Mental Health Trusts
•Specialists Trusts
•NHS Regional Offices
•Learning Disabilities Trusts
•Mental Health & Social Care Trusts
•Ambulance Trusts
•Mental Health & Learning Disabilities
•Acute Trusts
•Community Trusts


Information to recipients: •Social Care Providers (registered with CAS)
•Ofsted recipients
•Other contacts
•Independent Healthcare Providers (registered with CAS)
•Clinical Commissioning Groups
•Special Health Authorities

Action category: Action

Title: 13A Electrical socket inserts (socket covers or protectors)

Broadcast content:
This Alert is issued to highlight how, in certain circumstances, the use of plastic 13A (13 amp) electrical socket inserts (sold as safety accessories) can overcome the safety features designed into socket outlets.

13A electrical socket inserts should not be used in health or social care premises, nor supplied for use in a home or residence. Any socket inserts currently in use should be withdrawn from use and responsibly disposed of.

Additional information: NHS England regional offices please cascade to GPs and Dentists

Alert reference: EFA/2016/002

Action underway deadline: 18-Jul-2016

Action complete deadline: 01-Dec-2016

Attachments: •EFA 2016 002 Final.pdf

Cascade to:
•Dentists
•GPs


www.cas.dh.gov.uk/ViewandAcknowledgment/ViewAlert.aspx?AlertID=102494

[PigletJohn]

time for a reminder


A note from the Department for Education on the use of electrical plug socket covers/inserts in early years provision in England


















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In June, the Department of Health published an estate and facilities alert on the dangers of socket safety covers, which states that 13A electrical socket inserts should not be used in health or social care premises, nor supplied for use in a home or residence. Childcare providers have a duty to keep children safe. Although it is not illegal to use electrical safety socket covers, the Department for Education recommends that providers should take into account the advice included in this alert when carrying out their own risk assessment.

[CigarsofthePharoahs]

We used to use socket covers. Now one of our sockets is totally unusable as the internal covers have been pushed permanently open. I have completely covered the socket until we get round to replacing the whole thing.
I don't use socket covers any where else now.

[2nds]

My fiance is a engineer, when I was pregnant with my first I suggested we get the covers and he followed that suggestion up with a half an hour speech about all this lol.

[NeedsAsockamnesty]

If you have been using the covers it's possible you have damaged your socket as well.

[specialsubject]

pigletjohn I did the same with home bargains and got the same kind of reply. Numbskull is a perfect description.

I am startled that it is legal to sell a product that is actively dangerous and isn't a cigarette.

[Onedaftmonkey]

Thank u for making me aware of this. Have removed them immediately.

[MrEBear]

Sashhh look closely at your sockets. All UK sockets from when the 3 pin design was made have a cover that drops down on the inside. Some of these are red easy to see some are black so it still looks like a hole. You should not be able to poke anything any more than about 3mm into the bottom two holes.

I bought covers because I thought I should. DH an electrician questioned the logic. Then we found a website slating covers and binned ours. A 3 month old babies fingers are too big to fit in the holes, so by the time a baby is mobile it will not be able to fit fingers in the holes.

[sashh]

What if you don't have shutters on the plug? None of ours do and our house isn't particularly old at all.

Everyone with standard square 3 pin plug sockets does, they are just inside the live and neutral pins.

[AndNowItsSeven]

Yes I do want to reanimate it.

[PigletJohn]

I am delighted to report that the NHS has at last grasped the unsafety these socket covers provide, and has issued an alert.

"This Alert is issued to highlight how, in certain circumstances, the use of plastic 13A (13 amp) electrical socket inserts (sold as safety accessories) can overcome the safety features designed into socket outlets.

13A electrical socket inserts should not be used in health or social care premises, nor supplied for use in a home or residence. Any socket inserts currently in use should be withdrawn from use and responsibly disposed of."
www.cas.dh.gov.uk/ViewandAcknowledgment/ViewAlert.aspx?AlertID=102494

Sadly LIDL are continuing to sell the things and responded to my letter of complaint with a numbskull fob-off.

[Surfsup1]

Oh Lordy, Specialsubject - I really don;t want to have to keep defending myself here! I wasn't attacking Fatallyflawed and nor do I have difficulty understanding the simple science which has been provided to show the potential risk.

My point was also pretty simple I think. i.e if you want to change peoples' stubborn attitudes on this sort of matter, it is very helpful to be able to show that the risks involved are real and not just hypothetical or scientifically "possible".

It's a shame these statistics aren't available. I didn't know the statistics were unavailable. I didn't ask about the statistics as a means of attacking FF's campaign.

Now can people please stop acting like I called the whole think BS!?

[FatallyFlawed]

Just spotted a typo in the last paragraph above, this should read:
"Of course, if we were aware of any practical, rather than theoretical, concern about the safety of compliant sockets we would make that clear, as we have done our concern about the safety of extension sockets which allow full insertion of the earth pin only because of a loophole in the standard."

[FatallyFlawed]

GrandadGrumps, I understand why you make those comments, but on balance we do not believe that we should do as you suggest.

Both of the founders of FatallyFlawed have chosen to have MK sockets in their houses, and both have been responsible for specifying their use in new church buildings which have a high usage by children. That having been said, we do not feel there are grounds for suggesting that sockets with earth pin operated shutters are unsafe in any practical sense, and there is no evidence to justify undue concern. We would say that if you have the chance to influence an installation, then it makes sense to fit the best you can get.

I have spoken to relevant authorities about the possibility of requiring all new domestic installations to use sockets with the three pin method, but that is not going to happen in the foreseeable future, not least because the available sockets all use (different) patented techniques which are not available to other manufacturers.

As a non-profit organisation which does not accept any sponsorship it would also be wrong for us to give the impression that we were promoting any particular company or companies when other manufacturers make products which fully meet the standard.

Of course, if we were aware of any practical, rather than theoretical, concern about the safety of compliant sockets we would make that clear, as we have done our concern about the safety of extension covers which allow full insertion of the earth pin only because of a loophole in the standard.

[GrandadGrumps]

Regarding the MK socket, a 20+ years old MK socket almost certainly uses the two-pin method You're right, I've just checked and it does - although I've got several sockets of the same sort of age in the house which do have the shutters operated by the earth pin.

(I do mean actual plug pins, the shape is important) - not as important as you might think - I've just done it with the prong from the cap of a biro and the plastic ink tube from the same pen. Presumably this is what I did with 2 keys 44 years ago.

I can see why you wouldn't have heard of children inserting plugs incorrectly, can't you? Your campaign isn't to do with incorrectly inserted plugs after all, it's to do with socket covers.

I think the important thing to learn from this is that it's far too easy to assume that sockets are safe. These socket covers obviously make them more dangerous but to campaign against the covers while trumpeting the safety of the standard sockets seems to me to be a bit irresponsible. My own experience has proved that even quite small children can easily circumvent the standard safety features on many sockets.

If sockets are widely available which require all 3 pins to be inserted simultaneously then they're obviously far safer than the standard sockets - particularly with slightly older children in the house, rather than only babies. Shouldn't their fitting be promoted as a much better alternative to safety covers - rather than just claiming that the standard sockets are safe, when they're clearly not as safe as they could be? The only mention I could quickly find of these 3 pin operation sockets on the FatallyFlawed website though is on a page titled 'socket damage', whereas the safety of the standard sockets is trumpeted on the front page of the site. I must admit that I'd never heard of these sockets at all and I think they sound like a huge safety improvement (assuming that I wasn't the only child who ever worked out that you could stick 2 keys into a plug socket - I was a particularly odd child though).

[lauriebear]

thank you for this - I often want to post about coats and carseats after learning about that but worry about backlash - grateful to have someone teach me something new!

[FatallyFlawed]

As I said in my post last Tuesday "The biggest issue is actually the permanent damage which can be caused to a socket by the insertion of anything which is not the right size, and one thing that can be proved irrefutable by anyone who measures a socket cover is that there are NONE which conform to the size and shape specified for a plug."

In practice we have heard from a number of people about children who have removed socket covers and reinserted them inverted, we have never heard of a child doing that with a plug. That is, of course, not a scientific survey, but it is some indication of probability.

There are a number of interesting quotes to be found on this page of our website:
www.fatallyflawed.org.uk/html/pro_feedback.html

Regarding the MK socket, a 20+ years old MK socket almost certainly uses the two-pin method (since replaced by the three pin method). In such a socket the earth pin plays no part in the operation of the shutters, poking something into either of the other two apertures will also not release the shutters, they are only opened by the simultaneous insertion of the line and neutral pins (and I do mean actual plug pins, the shape is important).

[GrandadGrumps]

I found one that won't allow it - an MK socket that's at least 20 years old.

[GrandadGrumps]

Most sockets do not allow that to happen, there are a few which do - every socket in my house, at least 4 different types, installed at different times over the last 30 years.

I don't think I've ever seen a round-pin socket in use - my incident happened in a newly renovated house in about 1970 and I think it involved several keys, so presumably I was able to stick one in the earth socket and one in one of the others.

It's true that I would have presumably been able to remove a socket cover - but then that's the point isn't it? It's only children who are able to remove and then re-insert the socket cover who are at risk from that anyway.

I think the advice in your last paragraph is what you should be stressing, rather than claiming that existing sockets are safe when they're probably not - based on my admittedly non-scientific sample of all the sockets in my house.

[specialsubject]

can't do it in my house, although I'm not going to try forcing plugs in upside down. All the sockets I've tried are simply too big.

[FatallyFlawed]

Most sockets do not allow that to happen, there are a few which do, but it is not a stable situation and the plug is unlikely to stay there for very long, especially if knocked by a baby's hand as it then explores the socket. It is also worth bearing in mind that an upside down plug with the cable sticking up in the air is rather obvious compared to an inverted socket cover, which, being flexible, will always go in further, and will tend to stay there because of the pressures exerted by the flexing of the cover.

I note what you said about being 4 when you had your shock (clearly you did not actually electrocute yourself as you claim because you are obviously still alive). As well as being able to stick in the key you would have undoubtedly been able to remove a socket cover at that age, had they existed. You did not say what sort of socket you stuck the key into, but I would guess that it was an old round pin type without shutters, interestingly socket cover makers do not bother to make covers for those!

For any parents who do not feel sufficient confidence in the safety of their sockets, the solution is not to risk using socket covers, but fit even better sockets. There are at least three makes (MK, Hager Solysta, and Legrand Synergy) in which the shutters will only open if all three pins are inserted simultaneously, you will find at least one of those at DIY stores.

[GrandadGrumps]

The shutters aren't 'open' but they're released so that anything can be inserted easily - which is what the danger is to start with. I've got sockets here varying in age between 2 and 30 years and they all release the lock on the shutters if a plug's inserted upside down - and the plug stays in place.

[TarkaTheOtter]

I've tried it grandad. It stay in place but shutters aren't open. It doesn't go in far enough. But I can see that a socket cover with a bit of flex in it might.

[GrandadGrumps]

I've just tried it on 4 different sockets, using a different plug in every socket and it seems every bit as easy to stick a plug in upside down as it would be to stick a socket cover in upside down. The plug stays there in exactly the same way as the cover in the picture on the FatallyFlawed website does. www.fatallyflawed.org.uk/assets/images/Exposed_Side.jpg

I've a particular interest in this, having electrocuted myself at around 4 YO by poking a key into a socket.