Deaths due to electricity in UK

[ban-all-sheds]

Somewhere, at the time, I posted the figures from the RIA that was done which "justified" Part P etc.

It was plain that any predictions of saving lives were nonsense.

 

[JohnW2]

Somewhere, at the time, I posted the figures from the RIA that was done which "justified" Part P etc. It was plain that any predictions of saving lives were nonsense.

Indeed. In fact, whenever we've had this discussion in the past, it has always been apparent (even with the iffy figures we were having to work with) that, in terms of deaths, there had always been so few domestic electrocutions that, by definition, nothing could possibly result in 'a lot' of lives due to domestic electrocution being saved - so any such claims always had to be nonsense.

However, electrocution is obviously only the tip of an iceberg. For a start there are serious injuries due to electric shock - and then there are lots of deaths due to domestic fires which have been deemed to be 'electrical' in origin (which 'deeming' I am far from convinced about in many cases) - but hard and reliable (IMO!) data in relation to any of that is, as I've said, all but non-existent.

The ESC have now removed all the electric shock/electrocution data (a lot of which I felt was very iffy) from their website, so that all that appears there now is stuff relating to (allegedly) 'electrical' fires.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

And do they even break those down into faults in fixed installation wiring vs faults in vs misuse of appliances?

 

[JohnW2]

And do they even break those down into faults in fixed installation wiring vs faults in vs misuse of appliances?

['ESC' is apparently now 'ESF' ('Electrical Safety First')]

The 'statistics' seem to be appalling, and give the impression that they are designed to 'dramatise'. Not only don't they distinguish between deaths and injuries, but they don't even say whether the injuries vary from the trivial to the life-threatening or what. ... and, of course, as we all such figures, we don't really know how much certainty there is that all the 'electrical files' really were of 'electrical' (rather than 'unknown') origin ....

1. Fatalities and injuries caused by electrical fires (2015/16 figures)

1380 fatalities and injuries caused by electrical fires
Average of 27 a week and 4 a day
Cookers and ovens were the leading cause of electrical related fatalities and injuries (679)

2. Number of fires of electrical origin in England in 2015/16
(with methodology applied):

15,432 fires caused by electricity (out of a total of 28,350 fires)
54.4% of fires in England were caused by electricity
Misuse of equipment or appliance was the largest cause

Of those 15,432 fires:
80.5% were caused by appliances and products (12,424)
(excludes unspecified in the raw dataset)
18.9% were caused by electrical distribution (2,920)


3. Major products involved in electrical fires in 2015/16:

Cooking appliances were the highest cause of fires in England in 2015/16 at 8,759
A DTI report estimates that 20% of electrical fires could be prevented by the presence of an RCD

As for the 'breakdown', all they offer is the following. The number of fires in this table adds up to 20,521 - I'm not sure how one squares that with the total of 15,432 'electrical fires' mentioned above. "Electrical Distribution" may or may not relate to the fixed installation wiring ...

Make of all that as you will!

Kind Regards, John

 

[FrodoOne]

This discussion was stimulated (at least in part) by a question concerning deaths due to electricity in Australia.
The (Australian) National Coroners Information System contains a report analysing "Electrocution Related Deaths" from July 2000 to October 2011 - after taking out from the statistics the 34.6% of such deaths which were deemed to be due to "Intentional Self-Harm" !!!
http://www.ncis.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Electrocution-Deaths.pdf

The table from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (http://www.abs.gov.au/Causes-of-Death) contains data related to deaths from "Exposure to Electric Current" from 2008 to 2017.
These data have been extracted into an .xls file which has been renamed as a .pdf file - for the purposes of uploading it to this system, which does not accept .xls files.

To view it, download it and rename the file extension .xls (Thank you B-A-S)

It seems that the rate per 100,000 may be higher than that in the UK but with a possible downward trend.
The data for 2017 is about half that of the average per year up to then, which is (to say the least) "surprising".

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Make of all that as you will!

Self-serving b*****ks, as is usual from that lot.

 

[JohnW2]

This discussion was stimulated (at least in part) by a question concerning deaths due to electricity in Australia.

Indeed - as you say, partially. It's actually a repeat/revision of a discussion we've often had over the years in the relation to the UK alone - particularly in (essentially futile) attempts to ascertain whether any changes resulted from the first introduction of legislation-based 'regulation' of UK electrical work in 2005 (in both England and Wales), and the subsequent 'weakening' of that regulation (in England, but not Wales) in 2013.

The (Australian) National Coroners Information System contains a report analysing "Electrocution Related Deaths" from July 2000 to October 2011 - after taking out from the statistics the 34.6% of such deaths which were deemed to be due to "Intentional Self-Harm" !!!
here . The table from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (http://www.abs.gov.au/Causes-of-Death] here [/url]) contains data related to deaths from "Exposure to Electric Current" from 2008 to 2017.
These data have been extracted into an .xls file which has been renamed as a .pdf file - for the purposes of uploading it to this system, which does not accept .xls files. To view it, download it and rename the file extension .xls (Thank you B-A-S)

Thanks. I can open it without problems. It's good that it uses the same ICD-10 codes as the UK records, thereby facilitating direct comparisons.

It seems that the rate per 100,000 may be higher than that in the UK but with a possible downward trend. The data for 2017 is about half that of the average per year up to then, which is (to say the least) "surprising".

I'll digest the figures and will then undoubtedly comment again. Is it possible that the figures for 2017 (the last year in the dataset) is not 'incomplete' at this point in time?

Kind Regards, John

 

[JohnW2]

The table from the Australian Bureau of Statistics ( here ) contains data related to deaths from "Exposure to Electric Current" from 2008 to 2017. ....

I've produced the below table to facilitate comparison. To avoid very small numbers, I've expressed the figures as 'deaths per 10 million of population', assuming ball-park population figures of 58 million for England & Wales and 24 million for Australia.

The figures for Australia are certainly consistently higher than for E&W. Even the inexplicably low ('incomplete'?) figure for Australia in 2017 is higher than that year's figure for E&W. As always, we don't know any details of those deaths - e.g. whether they occurred in homes or workplaces, whether they related to defects in electrical installations or appliances/equipment etc. etc. - but I think we can safely assume that the figures (in both countries) overestimate (perhaps markedly) the number of deaths in homes due to defects of their electrical installations. That latter category of deaths is quite probably 'tiny' in both countries.

This obviously does not support an argument that Australia's regulation of electrical work has resulted in 'fewer electricity-related deaths'! However, it does raise the question as to why there are consistently more deaths in Australia - does anyone have any ideas? For those deaths (however many) related to domestic electrical installations, does this imply that Australian electricians (who will be doing nearly all the work) are less competent than those (including DIYers) undertaking such work in the UK? Is the Australian population less careful in not putting themselves to electrical risk? ... or what?

I'm struggling to find pre-2013 data for the UK, but it must be there somewhere. If/when I can find it, I'll present data which covers a longer time period than the above. It would be particularly interesting to find data going back to the pre-2005 period, so that we can see what change (if any) occurred after introduction of legislated regulation of electrical work.

Kind Regards, John

 

[Notch7]

I wonder how many house fires are the result of plastic consumer units........

 

[JohnW2]

I wonder how many house fires are the result of plastic consumer units........

... or how many electrocutions are, or will be, the result of metal ones?!

I have to say that, in common with others, and despite the apparent views of 'fire experts', I do struggle to believe that the material of a CU casing makes very much difference.

Kind Regards, John

 

[EFLImpudence]

I wonder how many house fires are the result of plastic consumer units........

Strictly speaking - none.

If cables caught fire in the ceiling void, would that be called a 'joist fire'.

 

[JohnW2]

I'm struggling to find pre-2013 data for the UK, but it must be there somewhere. If/when I can find it, I'll present data which covers a longer time period than the above. It would be particularly interesting to find data going back to the pre-2005 period, so that we can see what change (if any) occurred after introduction of legislated regulation of electrical work.

My struggling eventually triumphed, although it proved to be a tedious exercise. Anyway, I now have UK data covering the same period as the Australian (2008-2017), which I present below in both tabular and graphical form. The unexpectedly low Australia figure for 2017 remains 'suspect', so should probably be taken with a pinch of salt.

I have also found UK data going back earlier than 2008, and will report about that shortly.

Kind Regards, John
Edit: Just noticed - the final column of table is still labelled as "Total 2013-2017", but it now relates to 2008-2017. Apologies.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

However, it does raise the question as to why there are consistently more deaths in Australia - does anyone have any ideas?

A common theory is that the draconian rules in Australia mean that people are more inclined to bodge things (e.g. extension leads under carpets because they need a socket somewhere), and less inclined to do repairs.

 

[JohnW2]

A common theory is that the draconian rules in Australia mean that people are more inclined to bodge things (e.g. extension leads under carpets because they need a socket somewhere), and less inclined to do repairs.

Yep, that's credible as at least a partial explanation.

 

[JohnW2]

I'm struggling to find pre-2013 data for the UK, but it must be there somewhere. If/when I can find it, I'll present data which covers a longer time period than the above. It would be particularly interesting to find data going back to the pre-2005 period, so that we can see what change (if any) occurred after introduction of legislated regulation of electrical work.

I think this is probably the best I'm going to be able to do with data immediately (perhaps ever) available to me ...

I've found some UK data which goes back to 1999. However, prior to 2006 I cannot find a complete breakdown into ICD-10 codes (W86 & W87 being of the most potential interest to us) and the best I can find is the total for W85-W99. That includes all deaths due to exposure to electricity (including transmission lines) together with accidental exposure to radiation and (not 'environmental') extremes of temperature or pressure (e.g. trapped in a fridge/freezer or hot room). These figures are roughly double those for just W86+W87, so that about half of these totals are attributable to (non transmission line) exposure to electricity. Prior to 2001, the data available to me is essentially useless; it uses the previous classification (ICD-9) and all I can find has deaths due to exposure to electricity lumped together with lots of things under "Other accidental deaths".

I therefore present below the W85-W99 figures (all deaths due to accidental exposure to electricity, radiation or extremes of temp/pressure) for the period from 2001 to 2017 ...

<Edit: graph with erroneous axis labels removed. Replacement will be posted in next message!>

There is a fairly clear downward trend in these figures throughout the 2001 - 1017 period but, for what it's worth, no particularly obvious change in the trend after 2005.

Regards, John