The Electrical Safety Council (ESC) has highlighted, in light of recent recalls from Bosch, Beko and Hoover, that thousands of electrical appliances in people’s homes and, presumably in daily use, remain at risk from fire due to ignored recall notices and that one person a week is likely to die due to this.
The ESC says that their research shows that one person is killed every seven days by an electrical accident and that 350,000 people a year are injured.
The graph below shows that, in the last six years there have been 266 product recalls published which will amount to millions of products.
The ESC found that product recalls will typically hae a suces rate of only 10-20%, leaving 80-90% of these potentially dangerous products in people’s homes.
The research also shows almost two million adults have knowingly ignored a recall notice and a further one million admit owning an electrical item that has been recalled.
The researchers also found many consumers would jeopardise their safety if sending back a recalled product was too inconvenient or meant going without a luxury item such as a television or hair straighteners. And, this is something that we have found when dealing with product recalls, many people simply can’t be bothered with it or cannot spare the time to get an appliance checked for safety.
Emma Apter from the ESC said: “The small inconvenience of returning a recalled item is worth it when you consider that faulty products can electrocute or cause a fire.
“We firmly believe that there is more that retailers and manufacturers can do to help ensure customers are aware when a product has been recalled, and what to do if they need to return an item.”
We too would urge people to have any appliance that is suspected of being at risk to have it checked out as soon as they possibly can, especially so in light of recent events.
You can check for recalls on the ESC website from this link
(Thanks to Dave from KLA for highlighting this story)