Water Danger

Using elec­tri­cal appli­ances near water can be a mat­ter of life and death. It’s nev­er too ear­ly to teach chil­dren the haz­ards of this poten­tial­ly dead­ly com­bi­na­tion.

Pow­er is present even when an appli­ance is turned off, so … If an appli­ance falls into water, unplug it – don’t touch it! Nev­er immerse appli­ances in water for clean­ing. Nev­er let their cords trail in water. And nev­er use them near sinks or tubs where they might fall into water.

One way to ensure bet­ter safe­ty with tools and appli­ances is by using a ground fault cir­cuit inter­rupter or GFCI. This device pre­vents elec­tric shock by stop­ping the flow of elec­tric­i­ty dur­ing even the small­est cur­rent leak. If you must use elec­tric appli­ances in your bath­room, garage, out­doors, or any­where near water or mois­ture, you should be using a ground fault cir­cuit inter­rupter.