Hello John:

Regarding eye protection there is another factor where microscopes are concerned - is the actual eye pieces clean?  - I saw a lot of "pink eye" infections during my working life.

Peter Brooks

Palm Bay Florida USA 

Hello John:

There are work situations where the product(s) have to be protected from the students.

When one hand assembles microcircuits, one usually has to wear a grounded connected wrist strap, to protect against ESD events.

Peter Brooks

Palm Bay Florida USA

I would have thought that safe working practices should be taught on Day 1.

Hello Chris:

The problem is that there is no good definition of "safe working practices". What was acceptable in the 1950-1960 is no longer acceptable today- example using chemicals like TCE or many metal chemicals degreasing chemicals.

I am a little surprised that I am still alive today after considering all the really dangerous chemicals I worked with (examples phosphine gas, arsenic powder, HF, HCL and H2SO4 acids) in the semiconductor industry.

Peter Brooks

Palm Bay Florida USA

R J said:

So as an example, a first year apprentice wouldn't be expected to work on or near 240v ac (they are unaware of the risk).

Even a small child should know that ordinary sockets can be dangerous, so how could an apprentice be "unaware".

If proving dead and locking off is to be demonstrated, it is difficult to see how it can be done dead - it is necessary to be able to recognise when a piece of equipment is not dead.

Even a small child should know that ordinary sockets can be dangerous --

When my children were small (under 4) we purchased and used plastic power socket covers to prevent them getting shocked with 110 volts.  

Peter Brooks

Palm Bay Florida USA   

In the UK we have shuttered sockets, and have had for many years that achieve much the same end, and in Germany at least the schuko sockets have gone the same way in all 21st century installations.

In such systems the bits of plastic you push in as "socket covers" are at best not needed, and as they have to open the shutters to be fitted, some at least can be misused as shutter lifters, and that sort are actually worse than useless as they actually make the situation more dangerous.

In the UK at least youngsters have to learn to use a cheap pen or similar to lift the shutters if they want to force knitting needles or even a 2 pin europlug into the socket, though there are special shutter lifting adapters made for that.

Mike,

Hello Mike:

I am aware that the UK "now" uses shuttered sockets. However when I lived in the UK years ago that was not true.

In fact I lived in a part of London where south of the Thames they used DC while north of the Thames it was AC and most of the consumer products were AC/DC systems.

Has the UK finally got rid of the dangerous Bayonet lighting fixtures? 

Peter Brooks

Palm Bay Florida USA 

nope - we still have our bayonet lamp holders, as do India, South Africa and Malta among others, and indeed for things that rotate like fairgrounds, they are actually preferred as less likely to fall out. Further ,as they don't seem to have caused any significant number of accidents at all, perhaps they are not so dangerous, and certainly there is no particular movement to get rid of then,
 Square pin sockets have been shuttered since their introduction in the 1940s, along with the ring main of sockets, now helpfully renamed ring final, to distinguish it from the 11kV rings we have... 

But until perhaps 1975 or so it was pretty common in older buildings to see 2 and 3 pin round pin sockets, none of the 2 pin varients shuttered of course, and only the later 3 pin versions. Even so, there really were not enough accidents to warrant any faster change.
And I speak as one who recalls trying to read a book as my shadow swayed over it in time with my grandma doing the ironing, as the iron plugged into a Y adapter in the light fitting...

Times change. And that place was rewired in 1973 or '74

Mike

Hello Mike:

Did you ever change a Bayonet based filament bulb standing on top of a table and then sliding it slightly sideways shorting out the power, resulting in a large bang in the basement.

Talking about having the power being shorted and resulting flash/bang- it happened this afternoon.

We are having another cold front coming down from the north, this afternoon.

When this happens we gets flocks of birds going south, sitting on our power lines.

This afternoon one bird got across the transformer on the wooden pole and zap it went.

Peter Brooks

Palm Bay Florida USA