Safety socket covers - UNSAFE

baldelectrician

As some of you may know I carry out electrical safety checks as part of my business and there is a campaign in the electrical industry to make people aware of the dangers of these so called safety devices which put children at risk.


I have contacted several well known brands and received responses.

The site http://www.fatallyflawed.org.uk/ has details on this.

The NHS in England, Wales and Scotland issued a directive instructing these to be removed from use in all NHS premises as well as doctors and GP surgeries.

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

The socket manufacturers association (BEMA) also advise these should not be used http://www.beama.org.uk/resourceLibrary/beama-position-paper-on-socket-outlet-covers.html

I note you have MK sockets in your centre-you should be advised that MK support the BEMA guidance and are of the opinion that these socket covers should not be used on their sockets – Hager (another quality manufacturer) state the same.

IKEA have removed them from sale as they deem them unsafe.

So far I have contacted the following businesses:
Maplin- they have a low stock and will not be reordering them in - so partial good result (although they could take the less than 60 they have left all over the UK and bin them)


B&Q -
Standard holding response- no action
Thank you for your email dated 12.08.17, please accept our apologies for the delay in my response.

We appreciate the information you have given us in relation to our product 03621325. Your comments and feedback will be took on board, logged and passed over to our Quality department where they can investigate further into this.

B&Q always welcome feedback from our customers regarding any of our products or services and we are very grateful that you have taken the time and trouble to bring this matter to our attention.

Thank you for contacting B&Q.

If I can be of any further assistance to you please do not hesitate to contact us.


Mothercare- reply effectively brushing off the concern




Please see the below response I have received from our buying team:


It is understandable that the NHS would ban the covers as they have a lot of sockets that are not always in view of staff who have other matters to attend to. Our covers are designed for in house use where the parent would almost always be present. Since we started selling the covers and to date there have been no complaints of injuries etc that you would expect if the product was in fact ‘unsafe’. Whilst Mr McLintock may feel the product is unsafe there is no data to back this up. Safety is of paramount importance to Mothercare and we would not knowingly sell any product we knew to be unsafe. We will continue to monitor returns/reviews on this item going forward.


Please also see the response from our supplier:
Our UK Plug Socket Covers are designed to solely PREVENT a small child inserting sharp or small objects into a plug socket / electrical outlet. They are designed to cover the socket, hiding the socket to REDUCE any temptation for a child to play or investigate or insert any objects into the electrical outlet. They aesthetically hide the holes of the outlet and provide peace of mind to parents.


The worst response was Tesco- the guy called (his name was Keir D...) to read a statement and said he would not have any conversation other than the pre-prepared statement.






Hello ...


As discussed on the phone this is our reply to the issue you raised.


“Thank you for your concern, I’m sorry for the delay in responding, I wanted to make sure we looked into this properly for you as we take child safety very seriously. Our range of socket covers, both from Tesco and our online Partners, are designed to give the option of this feature for those who may wish to use them. All covers sold by Tesco are from recognized brands who take pride in ensuring their products are manufactured to a high standard of quality and safety.”


Thanks


Tesco Customer Service


The Tesco one was basically the worse. No response to the actual concerns raised- I asked him if the socket covers were safe which British standard they met, he refused to have any more conversation and that was that


I am quite disappointed in Tesco as I thought they were better than this.

rach_k

YES

Thank you for the links. I have noticed that my kids' school uses them and although I am happy telling friends and family about the dangers, I hadn't quite plucked up the courage to talk to school about it. Now I can email them some links!

I do hope that the Fatally Flawed website has a bit of a revamp at some point. It has so much good info but I don't think the site is very appealing and people may be unsure whether to trust it (because, as we know, well designed websites always tell the truth!).

TheCyclingProgrammer

YES

Yes they should. I'm amazed when I still see these in people's homes and in buildings like children's play centres.

UK sockets have a perfectly good safety mechanism built in. Is there even such a thing as a plug safety socket that passes any relevant British regulations for electrical safety?

TheCyclingProgrammer

YES

Got to love Mothercare's response: nobody has died yet so they must be safe.

They've been brushing off concerns about this for years.

esuhl

YES

The inherent dangers of plug-socket "safety" covers has been known about for years.

I'm amazed that people still use them, and that nothing has been done to educate people on their dangers and the safety-features built in to UK plug sockets.

Ban 'em!

iammumtoone

I used them Why are they not safe? My electrics are old, very old they do not have a built in cut out device, does this make if safer or worse to use them?

Note I no longer need/use them but I had them when son was small.

baldelectrician

YES

The safety shutters have been in use since 1947


I presume your sockets are not round pin- therefore they have shutters


If your electrics are as old as you say you should have them tested


Look at the fatally flawed link


http://www.fatallyflawed.org.uk/

I_have_spoken

YES

Same poor thinking by the campaigns not to site mobile phone towers near schools, when that actually reduces the amount of electromagnetic radiation going through the kiddies.

Biggles

YES

I_have_spoken wrote: »

Same poor thinking by the campaigns not to site mobile phone towers near schools, when that actually reduces the amount of electromagnetic radiation going through the kiddies.

Interesting. Without diverting the thread too much, can you clarify?

Former_MSE_Andrea

Sticky

Thanks for sending us the link baldelectrician, we've passed it on to our Editorial Team.

I_have_spoken

YES

>Without diverting the thread too much, can you clarify?<

Most radiation to the brain comes from the phone you're holding to you ear. The further away the mast is, the higher power the phone has to transmit on to ensure the signal is received. That higher transmit power = more radiation to the kiddies' brains.