Australian authorities issued a warning about cheap, non-compliant USB-style chargers Friday after a young woman died from apparent electrocution while using a laptop and possibly a smartphone.<\/p>\n
The 28-year-old was found wearing headphones and with her computer in her lap with burns on her chest and ears at a home in Gosford, north of Sydney, in April.<\/p>\n
Police are still investigating the circumstances of the death but the Department of Fair Trading, which has assisted with the case, suggested a sub-standard mobile phone charger could be to blame.<\/p>\n
The woman, whom reports said was from the Philippines but had recently become an Australian citizen, had headphones plugged into her laptop, which was connected to a power socket to charge.<\/p>\n
“The phone was also plugged into a USB-style charger. That charger had failed,” Lynelle Collins from the New South Wales Department of Fair Trading told AFP.<\/p>\n
“Somehow power from that charger has connected to her body. Whether she had it (the phone) to her ear or was holding it in her hand, we don’t know.”<\/p>\n
Collins said ideally people should avoid using their mobile phones while the devices were charging, but in any case they should avoid non-approved chargers.<\/p>\n
“We are trying to alert people to the concern that sometimes when you buy really cheap chargers, they aren’t compliant with… (safety) standards,” she said.<\/p>\n
Fair Trading said it had removed a number of unapproved and non-compliant USB-style chargers, travel adaptors and power boards from sale in Sydney after the death.<\/p>\n
They said the devices did not meet essential safety requirements and were often made of inferior plastics and other insulation materials.<\/p>\n
“These devices pose a serious risk of electrocution or fire,” Fair Trading commissioner Rod Stowe said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Maximum penalties for selling devices that fail Australian standards are Aus$87,500 (US$82,500) and\/or two years imprisonment for an individual and a Aus$875,000 fine for a corporation.<\/p>\n
The woman’s death is the only known fatality in Australia potentially linked with the chargers, but a report from China in 2013 suggested a woman was electrocuted while making a call on a phone that was charging.<\/p>\n
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