In September each year, North Lincolnshire Council's Trading Standards Department offers it's free electric blanket safety check programme.
Although the programme of checks has been running for over 10 years, there are still a large numbers of blankets brought in for testing that are potentially lethal and could be the cause of severe house fires. The reasons for failure can range from problems with plugs, to blankets where the insulation around the wiring has completely broken down. Many blankets are very old - sometimes more than 20 years old. This can be very dangerous, as they do not have a modern overheat protection device built into them to automatically turn the electric blanket off if it gets too hot.
It is recommended that even if blankets are fairly new, they should still be checked to ensure that they have not been damaged whilst in storage.
At these events, Trading Standards normally team up with a number of other organisations to offer additional information and advice. The following organisations usually attend:
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Home Safety - advice on preventing falls and other dangers in the home
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Freshstart - advice on activities, groups and social events in the area
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Fire Service - will conduct fire risk assessments and fit free smoke alarms
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Community nurses - blood pressure and glucose checks
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Healthy Communities Group - offering advice on falls prevention
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Independent living - for assisted shopping advice, befriending services and gardening services
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Homelinc - local link services in the home
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Energy Efficiency - offering advice & free energy saving light bulbs
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Walking the way to health - details of walks for all in North Lincolnshire
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Wiltshire Farm Foods - home deliveries of ready meals
The electric blanket checks are free of charge.
For further information, please contact Trading Standards on 01724 297664.