Electrical deaths

[Big Shed]

Some interesting facts on the causes of electrical deaths in Australia and New Zealand

http://www.erac.gov.au/images/Downloads ... 9-2010.pdf

I found tha a very interesting document.

One of the statistics quoted there is really telling.

Deaths in Australia = 25

Deaths in NZ = 3

Population of Australia = 22 million

Population of NZ = 4.4 million ie 1/5 the population of Australia

Based on those figures one would expect there to be at least 5 deaths and given that NZ actually allows their citizens to do some of their own (very dangerous) electrical work, one would expect that figure to be even higher.

Makes you wonder, doesn't it?

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[Master Splinter]

In a thread on the Renovate forum ages ago, I dug up some of the same stats for the late 90's/early 2000's for a number of countries. Of them, Australia (the only one with a 'no touchee' attitude) consistently had the highest death rate.

Australia's rate only started to come down about 5-6 years ago when the various state/territory electricity authorities rolled out the 'look up and live' and similar campaigns.

From memory, the biggest causes of death were general public - contact with a live overhead wire and qualified electricians - working on live equipment.

Mains electrical is a high school level subject in some countries...but you can get a merit badge in it if you are a Scout in France!

[BobL]

This is about the 3rd one of these I have seen this year.

This plug was attached to a small DP donate to our Men's shed. A message that came with it was, "Not working".




My job is to sort them out, e.g. replace old cables and school switches with electromagnetic safety types etc and perform a full safety test on them.
Then I put a "Not tested - DO NOT USE" sticker on them, and once we have a enough work worth calling a sparky in for, he comes in and tags them and everything is above board.

[artme]

Staggering Bob!!


On the subject of deaths, Queensland has had an appalling record in this area and there have been sveral inquiries into this phenomenon. This has been addressed in recent times by education campaigns amongst electrical trades people.

I remember an instance up here where a just qualified sparkie drilled through a live cable!! This sort of basic stuff just beggars the imagination.

[BRADFORD]

This is about the 3rd one of these I have seen this year.

This plug was attached to a small DP donate to our Men's shed. A message that came with it was, "Not working".




My job is to sort them out, e.g. replace old cables and school switches with electromagnetic safety types etc and perform a full safety test on them.
Then I put a "Not tested - DO NOT USE" sticker on them, and once we have a enough work worth calling a sparky in for, he comes in and tags them and everything is above board.

I worked service/repairing certain types of domestic appliances for many years and I would see this at least 4-5 times a year, as well as other unbelievable electrical "work", some of which was so dangerous I'm surprised whoever used the thing actually survived.
All this would have been done by some DIYer.
I don't think allowing more DIY electrical work would improve the situation, especially when the statistics show the majority of deaths result from misuse/interference of equipment or installation, a very telling statistic in my opinion.
I think that maybe in Australia, more than other countries, we tend to have the approach that we can do anything, hence we see some wild and woolly electrical, plumbing, building and other work being done regardless of regulation, laws etc. Some of this can be dangerous.

I have to confess that I'm no exception and will have a crack at almost anything, although I'm quite aware of my limitations and some things are outside my knowledge and abilities, these are the things I leave alone.

[chambezio]

I put a new kitchen in for a bloke. There was some electrical work that needed to be done to finish my bit and the owner wanted the electrician to do a bit more some where else in the house. The owner complained of an RCD dropping out periodically. The previous owner did some "Owner Building" work. My electrician mate kept coming up to a fault that was hard to track. He found that someone had put new wiring in but mixed up the colours and of coarse the supply. My mate could not believe the mess some one had created. It took him 2 solid days of fishing to find what was going on. It was just luck that the house didn't catch fire

[BobL]

I worked service/repairing certain types of domestic appliances for many years and I would see this at least 4-5 times a year, as well as other unbelievable electrical "work", some of which was so dangerous I'm surprised whoever used the thing actually survived.
All this would have been done by some DIYer.
I don't think allowing more DIY electrical work would improve the situation, especially when the statistics show the majority of deaths result from misuse/interference of equipment or installation, a very telling statistic in my opinion.

I agree that open slather for DIYers is not the answer but I also think just relying on "no touchee" regs and doing nothing else is too simplistic an approach to this problem and doesn't appear to be that effective anyway.

Whatever is done, while plugs/sockets/etc (including 3 phase) are readily available at hardware stores or on the internet, some unqualified folks will always dabble in this sort of stuff. Like drug use it goes under cover and there's more of "the blind leading the blind" involved which leads to major probs.

I have no problem with education campaigns that advise on how dangerous mains AC can be, in fact I'd like to see more of it, but I'd also like to see more about seeking advice promoting the reading the instructions that come with electrical bits and pieces. This could be done in a subtle way that says, READ THE INSTRUCTIONS and the Instructions say "this must be done by a qualified person" and BTW, just in case the dabbler decides to dabble, there is some useful info in the packaging that reduces the risk of death or injury. I note that most electrical bits and pieces sold in hardware stores do have this which is a good thing but my bet is that few dabblers read these and it doesn't help when they decide to do things out of left field, like adding a half dozen GP0s to a lighting circuit and then find the breaker trips so they upgrade the breaker to way beyond the capacity of the wiring.

There is a more recent report than the one referred to by Big Shed that covers the 200 odd deaths in an 11 year period at
http://www.ncis.org.au/wp-content/up...aths-final.pdf

The interesting thing that I note is that most electrocutions (54%) occur o people in paid employment. Most are non-electrical workers that either intentionally or unintentionally come into contact with electricity while working. Of the 12 case studies presented in the report, two were DIYers and most are work related incidents.

The recommendations in the report are centered mainly around improving situations for folks in paid employment. I note during our recent Termite Inspection, for the first time in 38 annual inspections, required the power to be turned off at the meter before he inspected the roof space.

[Farmer Geoff]

3 deaths in NZ vs the 5 it would be if same rate as Australia is probably not a statistically significant difference although whoever those two lucky people are in NZ would be happy!

The fitting of RCDs would be making a lot of situations safer but many places still don't have them. One of mine tripped last week due to moisture build up inside an old desk lamp that I had in a wine cellar. It was left switched on at the power point and turned off at the light. Without the RCD, the metal lamp shade may well have been live and I would have been vulnerable to shock. Nothing illegal - just a silly light to have chosen for that spot.

But a big problem in Australia is that DIYers can buy all manner of electrical components but because they are not supposed to install it themselves, there is a lack of simple info that would make the work they clearly do attempt to do, so much safer. For instance, at the big green shed, there are how to sheets on tiling, woodwork, garden plumbing, etc but nothing on electrical stuff. Even if there was a simple booklet stamped with "Give this to your electrician" then there might be less mishaps.

Death is too severe a penalty for stupidity or ignorance. So let's accept and react to the reality rather than continue with our lofty preaching. Syringe disposal units in toilets proves that we can deal with illegal realities elsewhere - let's do it with electrical work.

[A Duke]

Hi,
I think part of the trouble is not being aloud to, so therefore nobody gets shown the right way. When my mother was at school, in another place and another time, the girls in the domestic science class were taught how to wire a plug top and fix a rewire-able fuse, so they did not have to wait for hubby to come home if they strike a problem doing the ironing or vacuuming. She taught me how to fit a plug top at 6 years of age before I could even read.
Regards

[Chesand]

If it is illegal to do any electrical or plumbing work, the fittings should NOT be on sale in retail outlets but rather available only to qualified people on production of their appropriate licence.

[A Duke]

If it is illegal to do any electrical or plumbing work, the fittings should NOT be on sale in retail outlets but rather available only to qualified people on production of their appropriate licence.

Hi,
If you read the label it will tell you it should only be fitted by a licensed person. So if you can't read or don't understand English, how would you know.
Regards

[doug3030]

I am happy to put plugs on extension leads and even replace the lead on an appliance. As far as I am aware it is not illegal to do so as these items are not hard-wired into the mains power. Naturally I dont work on anything that is plugged in.

When you buy plugs from Bunnings, they come with full instructions including full scale drawings of the wire stripping required to make it work and which coloured wire goes where. Having said that I do not mean to be encouraging anyone who does not know what they are doing to buy a plug and follow the directions. I was taught how to wire a plug in my early teens by my father, who is qualified.

I am also a Qualified Amateur Radio Operator and that allows me to build my own radio equipment that transmits in the Amateur Radio bands and plug it into the mains power.

Where does the line get drawn on what a non-trade qualified person can and cant do? WHo has replaced the brushes in their router motor or other powertools?

Personally I will not take on a job that I am not comfortable doing, and I am probably comfortable doing more than most people. If you do a google search you can find instructions and you-tube videos telling you how to do just about anything. Most of this information is posted by unqualified people. I dont believe in the "Nanny State" concept but there does have to be some regulation I suppose.

Cheers

Doug

[artme]

When living in Brisbane we had the kitchen re done.

The plumber came in and began to do his bit. He took a jolt from the electrical side of things and that gave all and sundry pause for thought. I switched the power off at the box so the job could be completed. Why the plumber took a hit I am not certain but the tap for the dishwasher connection was directly above the power point for the dishwasher!!

I had the power point moved.

Another example of similar stupidity occurred in the house I built on the farm in Leeton. The plumber would not listen to our instructions regarding the location of the shower taps and just plonked them where he saw fit.
It was not until a few years later when the cold water tap in the shower came adrift that I realized this fool had placed the water supply directly above the power point in the neighbouring bedroom!!

In both these cases all work had been done by qualified tradies and passed by trade inspectors!!!

My brother is a qualified sparkie and I got advice from him when I wired my shed in Bris. I had a sparkie come in to inspect and test the wiring. He was very impressed. I was not so impressed when he connected to the board without having the supply from the street switched off!!!

[rrich]

In another place and another time. . . . .

I took the flashlight (Torch) removed the batteries and bulb. Then with a bit of wire and medical tape I "made" a flashlight. Stupid? Yes. Even my father thought that it was stupid and a waste of medical tape. And I caught h***.

But I learned more about electricity doing that than I was ever taught in science classes in years 5 & 6.

With that small bit of knowledge and a question to a friend who was a sparky, I understood hot, neutral and ground of an AC circuit. Some years later I watched a sparky install a circuit for a clothes dryer. (220 volts using phase A and phase B.) From that I understood our complex electrical system for higher wattage appliances.

The point is, give your kids a torch, a few extra batteries, a bulb and a bit of wire. Challenge them to "make" a torch. What they will learn is priceless and will stay with them all their lives.

What usually kills people is not necessarily the hot wire but ground. We are all aware of the hot wire but almost never aware that we are in contact with ground. Yes, it sounds stupid but the more that you think about it, the more sense it makes.

BTW - Anyone remember the "Left Hand In Pocket" rule when working on transmitters?

[A Duke]

We talk English I think

USA Hot Neutral Ground

Aus. Active Neutral Earth

U.K. Live Neutral Earth

One of the usual confusions is when some one is used to terminals marked L N E then come to Aus. and find A N E L, L being a looping connection.
Regards