For fifty years it was okay to use the neutral for the ground on dryers and stoves.
It was, and a customer of mine was hurt badly when the neutral wire of the range cord pulled out of its crimped lug in the terminal compartment. For a month or so, the range clock and lights had stopped, and it took that long for him to touch the range and sink simultaneously.
The neutral and ground are the same wire on the utility side of your meter.
They are, and we know all too well what happens to 120v equipment and appliances when the service neutral opens. What few notice is that the house plumbing and GEC systems are energized, until someone starts a 'hose bib shocking' or 'plumbing fixtures shocking' thread.
The utility deliberately grounds their neutral in multiple locations. We can even do that on our side of the meter for some installations.
They do, and, we can, but, the practice of grounding a supply conductor is also the practice that assures that the other conductors have a fixed voltage to earth, and a (relatively) low impedance back to the source. GFCI's don't work on ungrounded systems, nor are they needed.
For at least one case, the NEC demands we put neutral current over a metalic ground path. (Industrial application where there is a ground mat connecting the padmount transformer case and building steel)
I guess they do, and the MGN actually assures that the earth itself carries some primary neutral currents. Fortunately, there is little step-potential hazard due to the prolificity
roll
of electrodes. I'll still take the predictability of a grounded supply over a non-grounded one.
The code allows a grounding conductor to be used as a neutral for dimmers, fan controllere, and occupancy sensors.
It does?
I understand that some UL-approved electronic devices depend on the availability of an EGC when there's no neutral, but I wouldn't call that 'neutral current.' It's more of a reference, but no load current uses that path. I don't think the code 'permits' that, though.
There is no body count from these practices - except for maybe the utility MGN practice.
That one, I don't get. Since I have nothing to add here, I'll take this opportunity to mention that I'm not picking on you, just having fun bringing up the other side of the argument. I also like making each paragraph the same size, so I'll keep typing until I get to the end of this line.
I certainly would not recommend using a grounding conductor for a current carrying conductor. But I also wouldn't recommend several common wiring practice that are acceptable to the NEC.
No argument there.
