Are women at greater risk by not attending electrical courses?

The Electrical Safety Council (ESC) has just published a survey stating that women may be at greater risk than men of having an electric shock whilst working in the garden as they have not heard of an RCD (Residual Current Device), something covered in all electrical courses. The report published by the ECS was derived from Government data which found that 70 people a year die from accidents in and around UK homes and that if an RCD was fitted it could have prevented some of these accidents. If you have attended an electrical course with us then you will understand the importance of RCDs already but to those who don’t know it appears they could be putting themselves at some risk through a simple lack of understanding.

So what is an RCD? The ESC website gives a wealth of information regarding this but essentially it is a sensitive switch device that trips (or switches off) if there is a fault. An RCD protects people against the risks of electrocution and fire caused by an earth fault, an area that is covered on our electrical courses. The most obvious scenario for this being that a cable is cut when mowing the lawn.  Obviously this situation could occur this coming weekend of all weekends as a bank holiday means more people will be working in the garden preparing lawns, flower beds and hedge rows for the summer. No doubt many people will be using electrical devices such as mowers and hedge trimmers for the first time this year. An RCD would protect the user if the device was faulty and the appliance overheats causing electric current to flow to earth.

The ECA found that almost 50% of the women surveyed for the report have either never used (23%) or never actually heard of an RCD and what it does (26%). Surprisingly however, women were less likely than men to appreciate the dangers of using electrical equipment in the garden. A Mori Poll also reported that 25% of women have actually experienced at least one electric shock in the garden during their lifetime which should be a reminder to us all of the potential dangers over this coming bank holiday weekend.

Access Training’s electrical courses teach the importance of RCDs and explains the application, installation and testing of these devices during the electrical course curriculums with the emphasis being that it teaches you to work that at all times you must work safely after attending a domestic electrical course.