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Government department charged after child's hands [hand sanitiser] allegedly caught fire while touching Questacon plasma globe (www.abc.net.au)

submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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The Department of Industry Science and Resources is facing a single charge of breaching work, health and safety laws which carries a maximum fine of $1.5 million.

It's alleged a nine-year-old child was touching a plasma globe in one of the galleries when the incident happened, leaving them with burns to their hands and wrists

The matter is listed for a mention in the ACT Magistrates Court on September 12.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Um, wow. Thats a hazardous connection i'd not readily notice looking about a place like that. It'd be the heavy, falling stuff i'd be examining with my Inspector Clouseau magnifying glass.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I can see why they didn't think to have measures specifically against something like this given it's a pretty low probability occurrence. You'd have to be unlucky enough to have both applied hand sanitiser just before touching the globe and then get a spark off the globe to ignite it, and I don't recall ever getting a spark off plasma globes when I've touched them before.

It'll be interesting to see if this getting into the news means companies/departments will scramble to get rid of alcohol based hand sanitiser in their buildings, ignition is after all technically possible with static shocks etc so there will be people worried about liability.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

There you go; hadn't even considered the wider implications of this, such as fears around simply static electricity.