PSA: Keep USB Cords Away From Children

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Let this story serve as a public service announcement / warning to anyone with small children, keep all electrical cords…including USB cords…out of reach.

The accident happened Monday in the family’s living room, not far from where Trinity’s mother, Rhianna Anderson, was sitting. The USB was plugged into a laptop computer on the floor that had been turned off and was plugged into the wall socket to recharge.
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They don't know that it was really the USB cord.

Quote: "He said an electrician is evaluating the home to track down what exactly happened, so that it can be corrected."

USB is relatively low power, there are devices out there that run off two or four AA batteries and provide an USB outlet for something to charge off of - even babies occasionally put batteries to their tongue and they don't usually have their hearts stop because of it.
 
Isn't usb only 5V of output power? It will be interesting to see what the electrician finds in his investigation, gotta bookmark this for later.
 
It's usually amperage that kills, USB does not provide enough amperage to stop a heart. But in this case it involves a baby, so who knows.
 
Electrical device on floor. Well done.

She had facial burns, too. I doubt those were caused by USB. Sure, she chewed the cable, but it seems clear the toddler had time to move on to more serious power.
 
my kid loves plugging USB cables into electrical sockets.
 
If the wall socket wasn't properly grounded and there was a short in the laptop power supply, then the child could very well have gotten electrocuted via the USB cable by touching ground somewhere while the cable was in her mouth. I'm betting she also has burns elsewhere on her body where she touched ground.
 
killerbobjr said:
If the wall socket wasn't properly grounded and there was a short in the laptop power supply, then the child could very well have gotten electrocuted via the USB cable by touching ground somewhere while the cable was in her mouth. I'm betting she also has burns elsewhere on her body where she touched ground.
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Most laptops don't even use the safety ground since there's no where for fault current to go except right back to the socket, which would trip a breaker. If there was a fault large enough to send line level power to the laptop, the power adapter would have been on fire.

Desktop cases are a different story since their mostly metal and can pose a shock hazerd.
 
USB is 500ma at 5v, this definitely not enough to cause burns. I be the mother did something stupid and lied about the cause.
 
Kingofl337 said:
USB is 500ma at 5v, this definitely not enough to cause burns. I be the mother did something stupid and lied about the cause.
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Exactly. I think it must have been the laptop's 20V+ power adapter that she put in her mouth.
 
the-one1 said:
It's usually amperage that kills, USB does not provide enough amperage to stop a heart. But in this case it involves a baby, so who knows.
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Kingofl337 said:
USB is 500ma at 5v, this definitely not enough to cause burns. I be the mother did something stupid and lied about the cause.
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Half an amp is enough to stop your heart. IIRC from my electrical motors class, it only takes about a tenth of an amp to do damage. The catch is that the path of least resistance must encounter the heart during the travel.
 
linked news page said:
We have other people’s children in that house,” Jeff Anderson said. “We’ve got to make sure the house is safe for kids.
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That day care is finished.
 
Ehren8879 said:
Exactly. I think it must have been the laptop's 20V+ power adapter that she put in her mouth.
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chewing on the 20V cord could cause the burns, but unless the cord was bare wire I'm not seeing a pathway though the heart. Chomping while grabbing an exposed cord would do it, arcing can dramatically up current output of power supplies and chewing on the cable is very capable of causing an arc.
 
EvilWays said:
Half an amp is enough to stop your heart. IIRC from my electrical motors class, it only takes about a tenth of an amp to do damage. The catch is that the path of least resistance must encounter the heart during the travel.
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Yup, but this needs to be 100 mA across the heart to cause some sort of ventricular fibrillation. Remember that the human body acts as a sort of resistor (anywhere from 10K Ohm to 50K Ohm) when we come in contact with an external electrical power source trying to find a way to a ground. Most current will actually run along the skin if it can, which tends to be the path of least resistance (this is if you touch something). I'm not sure what would happen if you placed a 5 V 500 mA power source in your mouth, but you'd have to be unfortunate enough for the easiest path through you to a ground to go directly through your heart, and your body would have to pose a relatively small resistance as since the voltage is constant, any resistance will decrease the current running through you as it's dissipated as heat, which cause burns, which she had. Given that this was a toddler, there's not as much body mass to pass through as a grown adult, so I'd speculate that it might be less resistive, but I don't really know for certain.

Also, another thing to consider is that if the laptop is off or in standby, it might have some USB wakeup mode configured in the BIOS, in which case there would be a small polling voltage in the wire. I still have to side with people speculating that it was the laptop's power adapter though... unless this was a freak accident that set this up to be a life threatening accident, I don't see how one could cause serious damage to oneself through casual misuse of USB, though I must admit I've never tried :p
 
I have an eigth month old that just learned to crawl, and two laptops in the house. This story was a kick in the face- we've been careful up until this point, but now I am going to get super-harsh about safety.

(anyone with kids have super-cool tips about desktops besides good cable management?)
 
kpedge said:
I have an eigth month old that just learned to crawl, and two laptops in the house. This story was a kick in the face- we've been careful up until this point, but now I am going to get super-harsh about safety.

(anyone with kids have super-cool tips about desktops besides good cable management?)
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Disconnect the reset button, and set the power button to do nothing in windows. Find a software lock for the optical drives.
 
I'm siding with the ppl saying she lied about the cord either that it it was a freak accident. I wont say it was impossible, but I'm gonna say it's HIGHLY improbable... Pls somone post if they update the story with the electrician's findings
 
kpedge said:
I have an eigth month old that just learned to crawl, and two laptops in the house. This story was a kick in the face- we've been careful up until this point, but now I am going to get super-harsh about safety.

(anyone with kids have super-cool tips about desktops besides good cable management?)
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I always* turn off the power surge strip when Im done to disconnect all power. Good idea with kids is to use the plastic or rubber tubing around wires to make sure they dont get into them.
 
Ashton said:
I'm siding with the ppl saying she lied about the cord either that it it was a freak accident. I wont say it was impossible, but I'm gonna say it's HIGHLY improbable... Pls somone post if they update the story with the electrician's findings
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I am following this and am very skeptical about the parents story. There is a thought that the lamp that the child was also touching has a flaw that the parents may have known about.

Azhar said:
Yeah because parents really LET their children do this, right? :rolleyes:
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Sorry, I wouldn't let a baby near my laptop or it's cables. This is the parents fault for leaving equipment out and powered on with a baby crawling around, unsupervised. Parents were negligent.
 
ProfessorKaos64 said:
I always* turn off the power surge strip when Im done to disconnect all power.
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Because killing AC power kills the batteries too... oh wait, that's WHY laptops have batteries! (and Desktops have capacitors in the PSU that iirc are at least this powerful)

I agree with the statement above "Parenting Fucking FAIL" if your gonna have something like this, keep it in a room away form the kids. My parents made sure all power cords were where I couldnt get to them without literally moving furnature (which obviously a baby cant do)

((and dont take me for jaded, I feel very sorry for the kid, it didnt deserve to die... now the parents... that's another matter...))
 
zoobaby said:
Sorry, I wouldn't let a baby near my laptop or it's cables. This is the parents fault for leaving equipment out and powered on with a baby crawling around, unsupervised. Parents were negligent.
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Yes I know. You missed my point.
 
You made no point. If you arent watching a baby then you are LETTING them do whatever the hell they want. You got kids? I hope not with that stupid logic.
 
TheResidentEvil said:
You made no point. If you arent watching a baby then you are LETTING them do whatever the hell they want. You got kids? I hope not with that stupid logic.
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Are you trying to tell me that your kids live in a bubble and they're perfect little angels that never try to get into mischief, EVER??

Are you THAT good of a parent? Or perhaps I should say, are you THAT harsh with your children?

No parents LET their children be harmed unless they're complete assholes and abusive.
 
Kingofl337 said:
USB is 500ma at 5v, this definitely not enough to cause burns. I be the mother did something stupid and lied about the cause.
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+1

Ashton said:
I'm siding with the ppl saying she lied about the cord either that it it was a freak accident. I wont say it was impossible, but I'm gonna say it's HIGHLY improbable... Pls somone post if they update the story with the electrician's findings
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Yea this ^, sorry but USB just does not put out enough power. Heck the power coming through one is just barley enough to tickle your tongue, much less burn it. This infant clearly got a hold of something else with a much higher power output. Heck the power coming out of them is not enough to hurt a cat. I know this from experience since I have lost more then a few usb cables to my cat who likes to put the end in its mouth and suck on it when plugged in. Yes I know, I have an extremely stupid cat. :(
 
i agree this is bs... no way a usb cable did that... sorry...

if a usb cable can do that then everyone that tests a 9v battery by putting it on their tongue must be dead right?

and I dont think it was the AC adapter either since they are switchers 99% of the time when they see a short they turn off the output to not self-destruct...

I know because my puppy has chewed both USB cables and laptop power cords (thankfully not the 110 side)... I cant leave him unsupervised for a minute, no idea how someone could leave a child unsupervised

i think the kid probably chewed the 110v side of the AC adapter, thats the only way I could possibly see such harsh injuries
 
vengence said:
You can't kill your self with 5 volts externally, sorry.
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It's the amps, not the volts that hurt you. Shocking yourself after a rubbing your feet across a rug is like 20,000V or more. But it is at extremely low current.

USB is designed to put out up to 500mA. However, many hosts will not go into an over-current state until the current is at 750mA and I've worked on some that wont go over-current state until 2.5 Amps.

http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/etools/construction/electrical_incidents/eleccurrent.html is a nice write up...

I still think there is something fishy about this lady's story.
 
The facts are not congruent with the story. USB is not going to cause this outcome.

There are other factors involved.

Sucks, but what ever happened to parents child proofing their homes? And they have a dog?
 
zoobaby said:
It's the amps, not the volts that hurt you. Shocking yourself after a rubbing your feet across a rug is like 20,000V or more. But it is at extremely low current.

USB is designed to put out up to 500mA. However, many hosts will not go into an over-current state until the current is at 750mA and I've worked on some that wont go over-current state until 2.5 Amps.

http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/etools/construction/electrical_incidents/eleccurrent.html is a nice write up...

I still think there is something fishy about this lady's story.
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Assume USB is designed to output 1,000,000Amps. Assume your licking it so you get the abnormally low 1kOhm resistance. 5V/1000Ohms = 0.005A or 5mA. You will only draw 5mA no matter how much the power supply can supply.
 
zoobaby said:
It's the amps, not the volts that hurt you. Shocking yourself after a rubbing your feet across a rug is like 20,000V or more. But it is at extremely low current.

USB is designed to put out up to 500mA. However, many hosts will not go into an over-current state until the current is at 750mA and I've worked on some that wont go over-current state until 2.5 Amps.

http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/etools/construction/electrical_incidents/eleccurrent.html is a nice write up...

I still think there is something fishy about this lady's story.
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You have to have sufficient voltage to overcome resistance to get that current to the heart where it'll kill you. If 500ma is enough to kill you, then you'd have to have no more than 10ohm resistance from the source to the drain, with your heart in that path. A USB cable has less and 1/8th" between it's +5v and GND terminals. A burn on the tongue is explainable, but not the stopping of the baby's heart.
 
vengence said:
Assume USB is designed to output 1,000,000Amps. Assume your licking it so you get the abnormally low 1kOhm resistance. 5V/1000Ohms = 0.005A or 5mA. You will only draw 5mA no matter how much the power supply can supply.
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ryan_975 said:
You have to have sufficient voltage to overcome resistance to get that current to the heart where it'll kill you. If 500ma is enough to kill you, then you'd have to have no more than 10ohm resistance from the source to the drain, with your heart in that path. A USB cable has less and 1/8th" between it's +5v and GND terminals. A burn on the tongue is explainable, but not the stopping of the baby's heart.
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Very true and why I find this lady's story questionable.
 
Azhar said:
Are you trying to tell me that your kids live in a bubble and they're perfect little angels that never try to get into mischief, EVER??

Are you THAT good of a parent? Or perhaps I should say, are you THAT harsh with your children?

No parents LET their children be harmed unless they're complete assholes and abusive.
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say whatever dumb shit you want but i can guarantee you i wont ever have an article like this written about me.
 
Azhar said:
Are you trying to tell me that your kids live in a bubble and they're perfect little angels that never try to get into mischief, EVER??

Are you THAT good of a parent? Or perhaps I should say, are you THAT harsh with your children?

No parents LET their children be harmed unless they're complete assholes and abusive.
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Taking safety precautions is being harsh on your children?:rolleyes:

My parents put these on the outlets in my house so i wouldn't end up like the fucktard in this story:
61aqOAkX1FL._SL500_AA280_.jpg
 
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