Or this situation: the bread got stuck in the toaster.
So grab your fork and poke at the charred disc.
If you haven't pulled the plug beforehand (see above for the dangers of pulling the plug), freeing the bread could become a deadly mission.
My examples are not out of thin air.
The Association of Electrical, Electronic and Information Technologies (VDE) is sounding the alarm: According to the latest data, the number of fatal electrical accidents in Germany increased by 24 percent between 2016 and 2018.
Recently, women in the household have been increasingly affected.
In absolute numbers: 42 people died of electric shock in 2018, 8 more than two years earlier.
These figures do not indicate epidemic proportions, but the trend is suspicious: Shouldn't electrical devices become increasingly safer?
Dangerous to life: Even the woman (or the man) is the wrong motto when dealing with electrical appliances in the household.
Photo:
dpa Picture-Alliance / beyond / Oscar Abrahams / picture-alliance / beyond / Oscar
The VDE promptly castigated the "greed is cool mentality of a number of consumers" who purchase electronic devices from dubious manufacturers at dumping prices over the Internet.
In fact, explains VDE accident and lightning protection expert Thomas Rapahel, the matter is more complicated.
If a fatal electric shock occurs, several unfortunate circumstances usually coincide.
It is not only the willingness of consumers to take risks when buying or handling devices that harbors dangers.
In addition, in many homes sockets are still not securely grounded and conductive pipes are not adequately insulated.
In Europe there are two different safety concepts with regard to so-called fault current - i.e. potentially life-threatening energy flows.
In one variant, the electrical leads of the devices should be insulated in such a way that a hair dryer falling into the bathtub cannot cause a devastating electric shock.
But that leads to a game of chance with a comparatively high risk.
The more reliable approach is based on the fact that in the event of an accident so much current flows that the fuse blows within milliseconds.
However, this only happens in houses in which residual current circuit breakers are installed (only mandatory for all new buildings since 1984).
This reacts in less than the blink of an eye if electricity flows in the wrong place.
Whether or not there will be an electrical accident depends on the electrical installation and the device that caused the accident.
My tip for survival: To be certain whether such a life-saving device ("RCD / FI circuit breaker") is available, all you need to do is look into the fuse box.
For more information, see my reading recommendations below.
Heartily
Your Frank Thadeusz
(
Feedback & suggestions?
)
Abstract
My reading recommendations this week:
What exactly are these residual current circuit breakers, what exactly are they used for and how do these parts actually work?
It is clearly explained here.
The fact that we don't get a swipe much more often and that the accidents with electrical power are kept within clear limits is due to the professional protection of devices and sockets.
Sometimes even the experts fail, as this tragic case shows.
The danger of an electric shock also lurks outside your own four walls, for example from a lightning strike.
However, because the current only flows through the body for a relatively short time, most people survive such an event.
The perfect weekend reading for people who want to know everything about electricity in the household: The VDE has developed a primer on the subject that explains, for example, what happens when electricity flows through the body.
Quiz*
1. Which of the following sea creatures has the highest electrical discharge?
a.
Electric eel
b.
Electric rays
c.
Quiver catfish
2. What does the term volt mean?
a.
The electrical power
b.
The unit for amperage
c.
The unit of measurement for electrical voltage
3. What does the historical term "Stromkrieg" stand for
a .: The illegal exploitation of electricity reserves in Asia today.
b .: The competition between DC voltage and AC voltage in the USA around 1890.
c .: The war for Mesopotamia in the 1920s.
* You can find the answers at the bottom of the newsletter.
Picture of the week
Icon: enlargePhoto: Yang Dinghua of the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology affiliated to the Chinese Academy of Sciences / Xinhua / eyevine / laif
Two copulating mussel crabs, also known as ostracods, are shown in this illustration.
Paleontologists discovered a 100-million-year-old sperm trace from Myanmarcypris hui in an amber - the oldest known seed find from the animal kingdom to date.
Amazingly, the sperm cells of these animals, which were less than a millimeter in size, were at least three times as long as human sperm.
footnote
15th
A dolphin strayed miles into the interior of the US state Louisiana.
The animal, actually at home in the Gulf of Mexico, was hid by environmentalists in a pond that has no natural access to the sea.
Presumably the bottlenose dolphin ended up in the pool because floods from Hurricane "Laura" briefly formed a waterway there.
SPIEGEL + recommendations from science
Mobility: The world is looking for the battery of the future
Psychiatry: How trauma affects the lives of young refugees
Medicine: Corona and flu - a double blow?
* Quiz answers
1. The
electric catfish
reaches around 100 volts, the
electric ray
even up to 200 volts;
However, the electric eel with 600 volts is unchallenged in this trio.
2. Volt is the unit of measurement for electrical voltage.
A normal household socket in Germany has a voltage of 230 volts.
The amperage is given in amperes, the electrical power in watts.
3. In the current war in the USA around 1890, different companies propagated the advantages or disadvantages of direct or Wesel voltage.
The main characters in this competition were the inventors Thomas Alva Edison and Nikola Tesla.
