A recent misfortune reminds us to take precautions with their chargers portable devices, especially at night.
If the harmfulness of electromagnetic waves is still debated, in society as in scientific circles, the dangers of electrical devices is not in doubt. In particular, those related to the use of chargers of countless portable devices that now populate our daily lives (smartphones, tablets, computers, etc.), especially when they are left connected for very long hours, unattended.
A recent misadventure reported by Le Figaro Santé reminds us. In the United States, a young woman was awakened in the middle of the night by a burn in her neck while sleeping with a plug-in laptop charger whose wire was dragging in her bed. According to the doctors who treated her, the injury was caused by the electric current from the charger, the end of which probably touched her collar. Less harm compared to electrification, which would have caused deeper damage.
This incident is not isolated, however, as pointed out by the American doctors who go further, incriminating all chargers of small devices, including electronic cigarettes and e-readers, by warning against the risks of generic or counterfeit models. According to a study published in January 2019, 99% of iPhone chargers 99% of the 400 or so generic iPhone chargers tested did not pass the electrical safety tests ... Without going to extensive comparisons, everyone has already seen small USB chargers grilling without warning. Not to mention smartphone tablet batteries that begin to inflate inexorably, cases of ignition and even explosion being regularly reported in the press ...
To avoid fires and other tragic accidents, some very simple precautions are needed as doctors remind: do not leave a charger plugged in overnight, near a bed, even disconnected from a device; keep phones and cables away from the body during the night: avoid cheap generic chargers of unknown origin, without guarantee or actual certification. Common sense, then, but a booster does not hurt ...
