child proof recepts being required!?

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dnem said:
Someone being saved shouldn't be the end of the conversation, it should be the beginning. . There are pros and cons that should be weighed in addition to the total number of preventable deaths.
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Sort of... You may recall the Ford Pinto, and the note that said it was cheaper to burn people and pay claims than spend one dollar per car preventing fuel tank rupture.

Which illustrates the crux of the matter. Putting it bluntly, whats a kid worth? Is it worth a few bucks per new house to install kiddie proof outlets? I think so. A better idea is to always install kiddie proof outlets, and then the old variety will cease to exists, supply and demand working the way it does, and the cost of kiddie proof outlets will drop to about what a standard outlet costs. It'll take decades, but one day all outlets will be kiddie proof. That is real progress.
 
Child resistant caps have already been shown to be more easily opened by most children under 10 than most adults over 50.

Bryan's submission showing 2400 injuries and 4 deaths over 10 years was great. It also provided NO data on the effectiveness of tamper resistant outlets.

To presume that these tamper resistant outlets will save even one life is irresponsible. Maybe the shutters will trap the dual wires the kid inserts instead of letting them fall out of the outlet. That way we burn the house down. The law of unintended consequences may be at work here.

I say we give a bunch of these things to several elementary schools on a test setup. If they can insert something to push the button at the back of the outlet it rings a bell and they get a reward. Only one child per school gets rewarded for clubbing the outlet to break the case though.

Whatever happened to testing theories? When did it become "undeniable" that these things had to be of benefit to anyone?

BTW, those little plastic doohickies you stick in the outlet are for climate control in poorly insulated homes - not childproofing.
 
Pierre C Belarge said:
If this proposed requirement is not for the manufacturer's pocketbook, I am a "monkeys uncle" (an old saying).
I have worked in and inspected many homes where there are no children. If this is such a national problem, a law should be developed that says a family moving into the home has to install these devices. It should not be mandated by an electrical code.
This one really peeves me off!!!...along with some of the other "nonmoneymakingmanufacturerproposedandacceptedproposalrequirements".

I would be willing to bet that the injuries from kids running through glass sliding doors are more grave and maybe just as many...I do not see any building codes for this... how about people falling down stairs...should we stop putting second stories on homes...
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I will admit that I didn't read this entire thread. I haven't indulged in the argument whatsoever. I have no prior knowledge of what has been said.

I agree with Pierre. 100%. It is a growing problem in America. I don't want to get political so let me keep it within the trade. Parents are responsible for keeping their kids safe. There are plenty of ways to child-proof your outlets. I see no reason why this needs to become code..

On one hand, I appreciate that it may keep factory workers employed and that is good. But it isn't the factory workers that profit.
 
As to the price, remember how much GFCI's cost when they were first required? Compare that to how much they cost now. I'll bet you could take all the comments above and take them back to the 70s and there were electricians back then who were having the exact same conversations about GFIs.
The current 3-4 clams for these receps will come down when they are required.
 
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As a 4-year-old child, I stuck a metal barette into a wall receptacle and was burned pretty badly. You would think I'd have thought twice about becoming an electrician.

I do see both sides. My husband and brother-in-law are both electrical contractors and I can see what the cost might do to a project. As a mother of a young child, I wouldn't want him to go through what I went through.
 
Without spending the time to go back thru 11 pages on this thread, I think I'm remembering that someone posted that there was going to be plugs exempted from the childproof requirement. . If they're going to exempt kitchen counter plugs or any other locations that are not readily accessible to small children, I think that would be reasonable.

David
 
Tamper resistant nonsense

Tamper resistant nonsense

I've been asking people for awhile if they know of anyone ever killed by sticking a nail , bobby pin, etc. in an outlet and no one does. I'm sure people have probably been killed by this but how great of a problem is this realy?? They make child proofing caps for recepticles and when they first came out they didn't work real well. The result was that children were choking on them!! I believe putting the new caps in the outlets and watching your kids along with warning them brings the risk from death by outlet misuse to acceptable levels. Another question. Wouldn't it be cheaper and safer to ground fault protect everything??
 
Pierre C Belarge said:
If this proposed requirement is not for the manufacturer's pocketbook, I am a "monkeys uncle" (an old saying).
I have worked in and inspected many homes where there are no children. If this is such a national problem, a law should be developed that says a family moving into the home has to install these devices. It should not be mandated by an electrical code.
This one really peeves me off!!!...along with some of the other "nonmoneymakingmanufacturerproposedandacceptedproposalrequirements".
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great point!!!!!!:grin:


Pierre C Belarge said:
I would be willing to bet that the injuries from kids running through glass sliding doors are more grave and maybe just as many
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the shatterproof glass makers dont have as much "pull" as the child proof recepticle manufacturers lol...lol
OR
they just didn't put enough "grease" in the palms of a few hands

lol...lol

:wink:
 
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I wish they pulled the plug on this proposal.
 
macmikeman said:
I wish they pulled the plug on this proposal.
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Too late for that. Art. 406.11 of the NEC2008---- TAMPER-RESISTANT RECEPTACLES IN DWELLINGS. In all areas specified in 210.52, all 125 volt, 15 and 20 amp receptacles shall be listed tamper resistamt receptacles
 
stickboy1375 said:
I never installed tamper proof devices for my kids, Instead I relied on old basic parenting skills, which is in a nut shell, WATCH YOUR KID...
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That's the reason I had two children. The second one was a back up--- we called him Mulligan.:grin:
 
stickboy1375 said:
I never installed tamper proof devices for my kids, Instead I relied on old basic parenting skills, which is in a nut shell, WATCH YOUR KID...
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I do watch my kids, but your kidding yourself if you think you can watch and control them 24/7. I installed covers on the outlets and actually killed the power to the outlets in their room when they where babies.

Of course that was my choice not the NFPAs. :smile:
 
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