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The UK population is not only growing in size but it is also getting older. According to the Office for National Statistics, 16% of the UK population in 2008 was over 65 with more than 1.3 million people aged 85 and over. Although the effect of the post-war baby boom will start to decrease around 2030, the number of these “oldest old” in the UK is projected to double by 2033 so that almost 5% of the total population could be aged 85 or more.
While many of these very elderly people are relatively fit and well they are generally less agile and have poorer eyesight than younger adults and their capacity to recover from even minor injuries may be impaired.
There are a variety of requirements in the standards governing the safety of household appliances, particularly with reference to their use by “vulnerable persons”, a category that covers small children, the elderly and people with physical or mental disabilities.
New standards
This issue is under active review by the European Standards body, CENELEC, and they are concentrating in particular on the temperature of the external surfaces of appliances such as toasters or kettles where contact may be inadvertent, such as brushing your hand against the side of an appliance.
All appliances must satisfy a variety of statutory safety requirements including the Electrical Equipment (Safety) Regulations (under the European Low Voltage Directive) which require that “temperatures which could cause a danger must not be produced”.
However, it is not just the temperature that has to be considered. The likelihood of a burn from an appliance will vary according to the material used and its surface texture (for instance a plastic kettle versus a metal one). And the risk of serious injury is related to the period of contact with the hot surface and varies with the age of the user – even healthy older people have thinner skin and slower reaction times than younger adults.
Some years ago consumer groups persuaded the EU Commission that the safety standard for appliances (EN 60335) needed amendment because it considered that it contained an exclusion clause saying that children could not use appliances. While there was never agreement that this was in fact the case, a working group was set up to revise more than 70 standards related to appliances.
‘Accessible surfaces’
Earlier this year one of the technical committees of CENELEC (the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization) discussed the first results of this work and agreed to propose new limits for ‘accessible surface temperatures’.
These limit values are set for temperatures of ‘accessible surfaces’ (ie not those of functional surfaces such as hobs) according to material. The values are now likely to be based on data relating to vulnerable persons such as the elderly and older children rather than healthy adults which was the basis for the current limits.
Some heating appliances have never had limits before and the committee has also been considering the use of warning labels for those products that are unlikely to be able to meet the lower values. The changes will take some time to be become part of the standard in Europe.
However it is worth noting that many people currently over 85 survived World War II, worked longer hours than most of us do today and have watched their children and grandchildren grow up throughout several recessions. They may not take kindly to being advised that a kettle may get hot…
