Electro Kindling

It’s bad enough that a faulty electrical connection overheats inside a small appliance or device. What might even be worse is the fact that the wiring is surrounded by flammable materials, often plastic casings that have replaced the metal casings from years ago. Dr. Jesse Aronstein (of aluminum wire repute) came up with the term “electro kindling” to describe the material that ignites and burns after the failure of an electrical connection. A plastic toaster will be only too happy to burn if there’s a wiring problem, while a metal one will just hang tight until you unplug it or until the wiring fries to a crisp. There have even been reports of multiple-outlet strips, icemakers, and plastic thermostats failing and subsequently igniting. Such is the price of a society that embraces plastic in all its forms. The possibility of electro kindling should reinforce the practice of unplugging your small appliances when they’re not in use.

Some Statistics on Electrical Safety

Mark Twain once said that there are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies, and statistics. Trying to track down accurate figures about residential electrical fires produced quite a range of numbers. Everyone from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission to various fire marshals across the country has a different figure to get the same point across: Misuse of electricity is a bad idea with sometimes incendiary results. Based on my reading, the following figures are well inside the ballpark when it comes to fires caused by electrical problems:

• Approximately 45,000 to 50,000 fires each year occur in homes because of faulty wiring, appliances, and extension cords.
• The National Center for Health estimates that approximately 760 electrocutions take place from all causes each year including 310 occurrences involving consumer products.
• More than 3,000 children under the age of 10 are treated in emergency rooms each year after inserting objects into electrical receptacles. Another 3,000 are treated for injuries associated with extension cords.
• According to the CPSC, plugs and cords are involved in close to 20 percent of all residential electrical fires each year.
• Electrical fires kill hundreds of people in their homes every year, injure thousands more, and destroy hundreds of millions of dollars in property.
• December is the most dangerous month, electrically speaking, because of holiday lighting and portable-heater use.
• Older homes are more likely to have a fire than homes built in the last 20 years.

Speaking of Kids

Children also use electricity and need to use it safely. You, as a parent (or an adult friend), need to instruct them about the hazards of yanking electrical cords out of receptacles instead of holding the plug and pulling, using a hair dryer near water or with wet hands even if you have a GFCI in the bathroom, and sticking pens into receptacles to watch them melt. In addition to your always welcome lecturing, a number of audiovisual helpers are available that could be shown at your children’s school.
Some of these films include …

• I’m No Fool with Electricity, by Disney Educational Productions. This film, according to its catalog description, somewhat implausibly shows Pinocchio and Geppetto exploring electrical safety both indoors and outdoors. Because he was made from wood, Pinocchio has the built-in advantage of being an insulator instead of an electrical conductor, at least as long as he remains dry.
• Electrical Safety from A to Zap, from Perennial Education, Inc. In this film, a mouse shows a cat how to use electricity safely, their lack of opposable thumbs notwithstanding.
• Play It Safe from HECO. This video features two children who learn safe practices around electricity. The film’s big plus so far in our list of audiovisuals is the fact that it features human beings who actually do use electricity.
• The Electric Dreams of Thomas Edison: A Guide to Indoor Electrical Safety/A Guide to Outdoor Electrical Safety, produced by the Southern California Edison utility company. In this film, students defy all the rules of logic and physics by somehow communicating with the long-dead Thomas Edison, who informs them about grounding, insulators, and conductors. They also look for outdoor electrical hazards.
• Zap Rap, from Pacific Learning Systems, Inc. Sure to appeal to the contemporary youngster, this film uses rap-style language to convey the wonders and dangers of electricity. As with most attempts to maintain students’ interest through the use of entertainment as a teaching tool, you might give your kids a quiz to see if they learned anything at all about electricity other than a few tunes.
  
• Fire in the Kitchen, from Film Communicators. This video is aimed at grades 7 through 12. There are no wooden puppets or rappin’ electrons here. This video teaches kitchen safety, including proper use of a microwave oven.
• Our Invisible Friend—Electricity. This 17-minute feature from Marcom Marketing Group also was made for grades 7 through 12. One has to wonder, of course, if any video made for seventh graders could be even remotely interesting to high school seniors.
• Safety at Home: Electricity, from AIMS Media. Geared for grades 9 through 12, a utility inspector shows careless use of electricity and the inevitable results. The inevitable results in grades 9 through 12 will be hooting and applause as actors are shocked and fried while doing things with appliances, receptacles, and plugs that a three-year-old wouldn’t consider doing.

If my experience with audiovisual presentations when I was in school is still typical of students today (some things really don’t change), I’d suggest that you take your children’s electrical education into your own hands. Take them around the house, show them how the circuit breakers and GFCIs work, even show them how to properly insert and remove a plug from a receptacle. If they’re old enough, turn the power off to a circuit, remove a switch or receptacle, and show them how it’s wired. By the time they start getting bored, you’ll have gotten the basics across.

A Lesson from Your Kids

As adults, we’re supposed to exude maturity and responsibility and set an example for our children. We try to make sure they’re fed, warm, and in bed on time. We don’t always apply this same concern to ourselves, however, and this can be dangerous when we’re working on our homes. If you’re cold, hungry, or tired, you could start making mistakes, so pay attention to your comfort level. Shaking hands, a growling stomach, and fluttering eyelids are signposts on the road telling you to pull over, put your tools down, have some lunch, and maybe catch a quick nap. We’re viewed as a sleep-deprived nation, and there are plenty of accident statistics to affirm this view. You’re not going to save any time or keep to a schedule if you have to redo some of your work later because it’s faulty.

Tool Health

Modern tools either are double-insulated or come with a ground pin in a three-pronged plug. Power tools greatly speed up just about any job, but you can’t take them for granted. Tools with frayed cords, cracked casings, or incidents of sparking should be repaired or replaced. This is especially important with heavier-duty tools if they have metal casings. The casings can become energized if there’s a short in the wiring.
Vigilance, as always, pays. Inspect your tools before starting a job. It’s far easier—and safer—to catch and tape a small tear in a drill’s power cord than to chance an injury.

Watch That Ladder

Metal ladders and overhead power lines are a bad combination. Every year, painters and tree trimmers learn this the hard way, resulting in injuries and electrocutions. Using power tools while working off a metal ladder also can be hazardous, especially during wet weather.

Electricians use wood or fiberglass stepladders and fiberglass extension ladders when they work. Fiberglass is nonconductive; wood also is an excellent insulator as long as it’s dry. Most extension ladders aimed at the homeowner market are inexpensive metal ladders. If you’re doing any serious overhead electrical work, however, a wood or fiberglass ladder is the better choice.

On Dry Ground

When it comes to electricity, dry is good and wet is bad (unless you’re the U.S. Army trying to electrocute some prehistoric swamp creature in a cheesy, 1950s monster movie). Never stand in a puddle or on damp ground when working on your electrical
system. Always find a dry piece of wood or another insulating material to stand on
while working. If you must work during wet weather, wear thick-soled rubber boots.
Better yet, wait for a dry day (always an iffy situation here in the Northwest, unfortunately).