Deaths due to electricity in UK

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Recent discussions have moved me to re-visit the question of fairly recent statistics on electricity-related deaths in the UK, since previous discussion have utilised fairly old and somewhat iffy data.

Below I summarise the official figures from death certification records for England and Wales for 2013-1017, and the figures are actually even appreciably lower than I had expected. The ICD-10 classification of causes of death used for this purpose has only 3 categories for deaths due to electricity, as tabulated below. If one excludes deaths related to transmission lines (not of interest to our discussions here), the annual figures are hardly into double figures for most years - and that includes all deaths certified as being due toi electricity, many/most of which are quite probably in work-related environments - so the 'domestic' deaths were very probably 'in single figures' for most/all of these years. 2015 was odd, in that the figure was approaching double that in the other years (but still only 23 total).

One major caveat ... Albeit easily the best thing we have got, death certification records are far from foolproof. Even when a death is clearly the consequence of a prior electric shock, it does not necessarily have to be certified as having been due to that cause. Paper death certificates have the facility to record subsidiary levels of cause of death, but it seems that only that recorded as the primary cause gets into the searchable official databases. None of the ICD-10 sub-categories of deaths due to heat (i.e. burns) seem to include electrical burns.

There is, of course, also the matter of deaths due to 'electrical fires'. There are certainly a good few deaths due to domestic fires, but the fact that 'electrical' seems to be used as the scapegoat underlying cause for any fire for which there is not some other clear explanation means that one cannot determine how many deaths are due to domestic fires that genuinely were 'electrical' in origin. Death certification does not help, since ICD-10 does not identify even the alleged cause of a fire for those deaths due to fire in a building (and nor does it distinguish between fires in homes and those in other buildings).

To help with perspective, I also include below the corresponding numbers of annual deaths due to a few other causes. The number of deaths recorded as being due to falls from beds is considerably greater than the number recorded as due to electricity (and the same, individually, for falls from chairs and falls from ladders), whilst even the number of deaths recorded as being due to 'contact with hot tap water' is at least as great as those due to electricity.

Useful, let alone reliable, hard statistics on serious injuries due to electricity are essentially non-existent. HSE etc. has some figures (which may or may not be fairly reliable) relating to workplace-related injuries, but that is not really of interest to us here.

As above, one has to be very cautious about interpreting these statistics, but in terms of deaths recorded as being due to electricity, the annual number in the UK in domestic premises is clearly so small that there is hardly any scope for changes in regulation of electrical work in the UK, or different approaches to electrical safety (even 'draconian') in other countries, to 'do much better' than the apparent present situation in the UK. No matter how draconian a system, "accidents (and 'negligences') will always happen", and it's hard to see that it would/could ever get down to less than a handful of deaths per year in a population of 60 or so million.

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Kind Regards, John
 
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..... Paper death certificates have the facility to record subsidiary levels of cause of death, but it seems that only that recorded as the primary cause gets into the searchable official databases.
A clarification.....

... It seems that it's not as bad as I thought. I've just been looking into it and, contrary to what I wrote earlier, it seems that what gets into the searchable database is the "underlying cause of death", which is actually the 'lowest' (earliest) of any recorded subsidiary causes. Hence, for example, if the death certificate give the cause of death as:

1(a) Multiple organ failure [i.e. the immediate cause of death], Due to ...
1(b) Severe fluid loss Due to ...
1(c) Electric shock

... the the recorded "underlying cause" would be "Electric Shock", which would then be coded according to one of the three ICD-10 categories. One would therefore hope that cases in which the 'underlying cause' (everyday sense) was electric shock would not be missed in the database. In other words, I don't think that the (very small) figures I recently summarised will be missing (m)any cases in which death was clearly the ultimate consequence of an electric shock.

Kind Regards, John
 
As you mention, I wonder how many happen in the home.

I imagine most are industrial, train lines etc....

There are some horrific examples of electrical deaths on youtube....all from other countries like India, China etc
 
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As you mention, I wonder how many happen in the home. I imagine most are industrial, train lines etc....
Exactly - the numbers (if even remotely correct) suggest that there can only be a really tiny number 'in the home'.

Kind Regards, John
 
So, the most dangerous by far, is simply going to bed :)
Well, of those I mentioned (probably mainly getting out of bed!). More generally ....

.... the total of all 'Accidental' deaths in 2017 was 14.095, and a very surprising (to me) proportion of then (5,628) were due to falls of one sort or another (including the falls from beds, chairs and ladders I previously reported) - which was over three times higher than the number of accidental deaths due to 'land transport' (i.e. including all 'deaths on the roads'), which was 1,557.

... and don't forget, all those figures contrast with 13 non-transmission-line 'electrical deaths' in that year.

Kind Regards, John
 
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Have you got a link for where such data is available John? or did you have to send a freedom of information request off somewhere to get figures back, or is it online and searchable?

(My quick attempt at googling brought nothing up that I could see)

P.S. Quickly as I was about to go to bed, but I'm not sure if that might be a risky move, and I'd be better getting the ladder out and working on something....
 
Have you got a link for where such data is available John? or did you have to send a freedom of information request off somewhere to get figures back, or is it online and searchable?
It all on this ONS (Office for National Statistics) website. However, I have access to a subscription and a log-in - although at least some of the data are available without that, I'm not sure how much of it is.

For most of the datasets, one can only get summary data for the whole dataset. For detailed data, one can specify one's filtering rules and then download a manageable-size dataset of just what one is interested in (like the examples I posted earlier), in a wide range of formats (including Excel) (the arrangement/structure of which one can dictate to some extent).

Kind Regards, John
 
As above, one has to be very cautious about interpreting these statistics, but in terms of deaths recorded as being due to electricity, the annual number in the UK in domestic premises is clearly so small that there is hardly any scope for changes in regulation of electrical work in the UK, or different approaches to electrical safety (even 'draconian') in other countries, to 'do much better' than the apparent present situation in the UK.
It's even worse than you think.

As low as those figures are, they include exposure to electric current in portable appliances, extension leads, changing light bulbs, chopping through your own hedge-trimmer cable, etc, all of which are outwith the scope of Part P. The numbers of deaths resulting from exposure to electric current in the fixed wiring of installations are a subset of those in the table you quote.
 
I have many times linked to Emma Shaw's death the report has now gone or moved, the reason why that one, is I don't know of any other report.

And that death was before Part P, and before RCD protection, this house only got RCD protection for all circuits in 2017, my own house was 1996 approx, but father-in-law never had RCD's fitted, and I would guess in spite of rules, only half the homes today have RCD protection and most of them rented accommodation, look at private owned then may be just a 1/4 with RCD protection.

What would be interesting is deaths 2013 to 2018 a) In premises to BS7671:2008. b) In premises to BS7671:2004, and c) In premises to BS7671:19xx can't remember first edition BS7671 date, and of course those where premises did not comply. Only then will you know if any safer today in real terms.
 
I keep promising myself to add RCD coverage for the entire house and gardens, but never got a round tuit. I added RCD to the garage/ workshop supplies as I regularly carry out repair works in there. The entire garden and drive socket supplies are also protected. The DB is at max capacity and really I do need more circuits plus fridge and freezer would need unprotected outlets, so again more ways in the DB.
 
It's even worse than you think. ... As low as those figures are, they include exposure to electric current in portable appliances, extension leads, changing light bulbs, chopping through your own hedge-trimmer cable, etc, all of which are outwith the scope of Part P. The numbers of deaths resulting from exposure to electric current in the fixed wiring of installations are a subset of those in the table you quote.
No, it's not 'worse than I think, since I've already thought of all those things - and more ... whilst the data enables ones to exclude 'transmission line' deaths, the totals I reported still include all other deaths in the electricity generation/distribution supply industry, and electricity-related deaths in all other industry - leaving very little for the things that interest us, and even less for those related to electric current in fixed wiring installations.

As I hinted before, there are other aspects of the accuracy of these data which concern me. For example, HSE provide (certainly in the past) figures for electrical injuries and deaths 'in the workplace) and, last time I looked (admittedly a few years ago) the figures for such deaths appeared to exceed the total number of all certified 'electrical' deaths in the country!
 
I have many times linked to Emma Shaw's death the report has now gone or moved, the reason why that one, is I don't know of any other report. ... And that death was before Part P ...
I think that a lot of the discussions about that case are a bit of a red herring (in terms of discussions about the regulation of electrical work).

Part P merely requires that work should be done safely (to avoid injury/damage to persons/property). However, since very long before Part P existed, if someone's 'negligent' actions result in injury or death to persons, or damage to property, there are plenty of laws (all the way up to manslaughter) for which they can be prosecuted. The success of those prosecutions inevitably depends upon deciding what is (and is not) 'negligent - and, whilst regulations such as BS7671 can be used to support such arguments, Part P, per se, offers no specific help.

What would be interesting is deaths 2013 to 2018 a) In premises to BS7671:2008. b) In premises to BS7671:2004, and c) In premises to BS7671:19xx can't remember first edition BS7671 date, and of course those where premises did not comply. Only then will you know if any safer today in real terms.
What is "BS7671:2004"? - are you perhaps referring to the 2004 amendment of BS7671:2001?

Whilst it would be interesting to know those things, we never will. We do not even know how many of the (tiny number of) 'electrical deaths' during that period even occurred in domestic premises or, as BAS has said, how many had anything to do with fixed electrical installations, let alone any information about the electrical installations involved (where relevant). In any event, even if we did have the information you refer to, there is such a small total number of deaths that one could not conclude anything about the difference between installations which complied with different versions of BS7671.

Kind Regards, John
 

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