Hello Baby has been following the discussion surrounding the safety and usage of Socket Covers which are designed to make 13A UK mains sockets safe from prying and inquisitive toddlers. Hello Baby now believes the products to be unsafe and has stopped selling them. The picture above shows that the covers may be used to open the socket shutters creating a hazard. There are also other safety issues. All available socket covers have been tested and have failed in various ways.
A campaign has been started to ban these covers and an early success was Ofsted reversing it’s policy of requiring child-minders to use the covers1. Co-founder of the FatallyFlawed Campaign, David Peacock said “In recent years, many companies have been marketing plastic “safety socket covers” in the misguided belief that these are an essential tool to prevent children from inserting their fingers or other objects into the plug. It has now been established that plug-in covers are actually unsafe”2. The Campaign’s patron is the Broadcaster, Dr Adam Hart-Davis who said “I normally refuse to join in campaigns but this seemed so important, and the “safety” covers so absurd and dangerous, that I agreed”1.
As expected, the manufacturers refute the claims pointing out that they have had no complaints but equally there have been no reported incidents with the fully shuttered sockets in use in the UK for the past 60 years. They still do the job they were designed to do all those years ago – providing the safest mains socket in the world! The images and video produced by the Campaign graphically shows the cover issues and how simple misuse or toddler inquisitiveness can negate the inbuilt safety features of the socket.
To review the issues visit the Campaign website, www.FatallyFlawed.org.uk Look at the Picture Gallery and watch the video which, for convenience, may be found at this link. www.tinyurl.com/cjly6r – then throw away your covers!
Safety is designed into UK sockets – plug in covers reduce safety!
References
1. The IET Engineering & Technology magazine Vol 4, Issue 5 14th March 09
2. Daily Telegraph 23rd March 09
Picture courtesy of FatallyFlawed
