Protect child from electric shock is an important part of being a parent. There are three important ways that parents can make sure their home is safe for kids of all ages. According to the Electrical Safety Foundation International, more than seven children a day are harmed in the U.S. by playing with a wall outlet, and more than two hundred people die from electrocution each year. Even more astonishing is the fact that more than seventy percent of electrical accidents in children occur at home while the parents are present, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Division. At Fusion Electric, we’d hate to see anyone get hurt, so here are three steps from your friendly Kansas City Electrician that you can take today to keep your family safer.
Early Education about the Dangers of Electricity
One of the biggest ways to protect children from being electrocuted is by teaching them about safe electrical practices. This should start when a child is a toddler. Parents should continue electrical safety education during family safety drills while children are under the age of twelve. However, annual training is not enough since children need constant reminders.
Preventative Maintenance for Electrical Appliances
Making sure that all cords on lamps, kitchen appliances, and other electrical items are free from wear and tear is an important part of protecting young children. Cords that are broken, damaged, show wiring, or do not work properly should be discarded. This includes extension cords. Outlets should be replaced if they are cracked or broken. Lights and appliances with a short in them should also be replaced. They are a fire and electrical shock hazard.
Make Sure Your Outlets Have GFCIs for Shock Prevention
Most parents know that installing outlet covers is the most basic way to Protect the child from electric shock. Another big part of childproofing a home includes upgrading kitchen, bath, and outdoor outlets to Ground Fault Circuit Interrupters (GFCI’s). GFCIs prevent shock or electrocution if an appliance comes in contact with water (or any time it senses a surge in electricity). The GFCI measures the amount of current flowing from hot to neutral, so when there is imbalance, the circuit trips. Normally a GFCI can detect variations as small as 4 milliamps, and it trips quickly cutting off electricity.
How to Test a GFCI
Even more important is knowing how and when to check GFCI’s. The U.S. government recommends that GFCI’s should be inspected after every storm and once per month. They also say that more than twenty-five percent of people in the country do not know how helpful GFCI’s can be, and half of those that use them do not test their GFCI’s. To test your ground fault circuit interrupter (GFCI), plug in a light or other device into the outlet then just press the test button in. You will hear a snap sound that trips the outlet and cuts power off to the two plugin connections. If the light goes out, you’ll know the outlets don’t work and the safety mechanism performed correctly. Once you know the GFCI is functioning properly, press the reset button and the outlet should once again be on.
If you’d like more information about electrical safety, or perhaps a whole-house safety inspection, call Fusion Electric your Kansas City Electrician at 913-563-7975.
