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North American power outlets are topsy turvy - but does it matter? (www.youtube.com)

submitted 11 months ago by HiddenLayer5@lemmy.ml to c/videos@lemmy.ml

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[–] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 15 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Probably because it's not all that much of a problem. It's not very common to hurt yourself via normal use of American electrical devices. Not when we have cars and guns to wantonly kill each other with.

[–] BastingChemina@slrpnk.net 3 points 11 months ago (2 children)

https://www.nfpa.org/-/media/Files/Code-or-topic-fact-sheets/InjuriesElectricalOutletsFactSheet.pdf

Injuries involving electrical receptacles (also referred to as outlets) sent an estimated 5,500 people to hospital emergency departments in 2015.

Sure it's less than others killing machines like cars but it's not insignificant.

[–] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 2 points 11 months ago

5 thousand, out of a population of roughly 350 million, over the course of a year.

[–] grayman@lemmy.world 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

We have child safety outlets that are required in remodels and new construction. The regulation is over a decade old. If people replaced their old outlets, the vast majority of those injuries would not be present. The outlets are about $1 each.

We also have arc fault and gfi circuits required, which old houses don't have. Those are replacement too. But people are cheap, lazy, or lack the skill to do these minor upgrades themselves.