Electrical Safety Network

Van de 380 partijen die de vroegere Keuringsdienst van Waren afgelopen jaar in vooral de Rotterdamse haven onderzocht, voldeed 20 tot 50 procent niet aan de veiligheidseisen. Stekkerblokken bleken te dunne kabels te hebben, waardoor snel kortsluiting ontstaat. Elektrisch gereedschap was zo beroerd gemaakt dat elektrocutie voor de gebruiker dreigt en pluchen dieren leverden verstikkingsgevaar op.

Because many users of such aged appliances are elderly, the ministry had to think of an effective way to warn them of the dangers of using electrical appliances far beyond their service life.

The medium the ministry chose was the kairanban circular notice, a traditional system of passing information from house to house in a neighborhood in which an advisory flyer is attached to a clipboard and passed among residents, who stamp it with their seal or sign it to indicate they have read it.

The ministry has distributed 3.5 million flyers to local governments so they can be circulated right away. About 50 million households are expected to see the flyer.

Every year, electrical fires result in thousands of injuries, hundreds of millions of dollars in property damage and, in some cases, even death.

While some fires are caused by faulty products, many more are caused by the misuse and poor maintenance of electrical equipment, incorrectly installed wiring, overloaded circuits and misapplied extension cords.

Smoke alarms, fire extinguishers and escape ladders are all examples of emergency equipment used in homes to take action when a fire occurs. A device called an Arc Fault Circuit Interrupter, or AFCI, is a residential circuit breaker designed to detect arcing faults and thus prevent fires from occurring in the first place.

Arcing can occur when you're hanging a picture and inadvertently pierce a wire in the wall, when old wires fray or when you string extension cords together to run fans or space heaters.

Approximately 2,300 injuries, 67,800 fires and 485 deaths occur each year that can be associated with home wiring, totaling $868 million in property losses. The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) estimates that "AFCI devices may address 50 percent or more of these fires."