Keep Children Safe Around Electricity and Gas
[ Last Updated 26 February 2010 ]
Children love to explore their environment and it's up to you to keep them safe around electricity and gas. The Ministry of Consumer Affairs' Energy Safety Service has some simple safety tips to make sure that younger children stay safe in your home.
There have been cases of children being killed or injured as a result of sticking objects into power points or multi-outlet boxes, heaters or other appliances.
To prevent this happening, you should:
- Keep young children away from all electrical and gas appliances. Unplug and put away any appliances that aren't in use.
- Fit power points with safety shutters to your home or use safety plugs in unused power points to prevent youngsters pushing anything into them.
- Place multi-outlet boxes out of young children’s reach by using a wall bracket or placing the boxes up high.
- If buying a multi-outlet box, ask for one with shuttered outlets and a built-in safety device that will automatically disconnect the power in the event of a fault.
- Use a residual current device (RCD) if using electric tools or appliances outside, in the garage, or in damp areas. The RCD will instantly shut off power in the event of a problem.
Take extra safety precautions for young children around electric and gas heaters:
- Use a secondary safety guard around a heater to keep children away from it.
- Ensure a child is not left alone with a heater, even for a short time.
- Ensure children don't sit too close to the heater, touch it, or play with its switches.
- Be careful that children don't 'post' papers or other flammable materials into the heater, regardless of whether it is off or on.
- Keep heaters away from anything flammable, such as clothing, curtains or paper.
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