Hacker News Reader

Comment by buescher | Hacker News Reader

OK, I actually know about garbage disposals, because I looked up data on them to use them as an example of something you would not casually hook up to the internet. (The CPSC tabulates reportable injuries on all kinds of consumer products).

About one person per month has a reportable injury due to an unfortunate encounter with a garbage disposal. Most years no one gets their fingers mangled. Also, they don't grind your hand to a bloody stump like you'd imagine from horror novels and movies.

The overwhelming majority of these injuries involve fishing broken glass out by hand. A significant minority of them involve dropping the disposal on oneself while installing or removing one.

So no, they're not "perfectly safe" with the power turned off.

View on HN

By these standards a brick is not "perfectly safe" because someone might get hit by one if it gets thrown out of the Empire State Building.

The point is that most people overestimate the one danger and underestimate the others. So you have people having nightmares about a disposal consuming their arm - which literally never happens except in made-up stories - but not hesitating to reach into one to get a broken piece of a glass or jar, in no small part because they think "when the power is off it's perfectly safe to put your hand in the disposal". Not that you could drop it on your foot or something. Besides, the more typical injury is dropping it on your head while you're installing or removing it. See what I mean?

You can figure out the analogy here for yourself.

Well but... I feel people get injured from glass in garbage disposals not because they feel specifically safe to stick their hand into one which is off, but because I have a feeling people generally underestimate how nasty broken glass can be. It really is surprisingly easy to get cut on glass if you haven't had to deal with it for a while, and even when trying to be extra careful you can often get cut at least a little (through gloves even).

Doubly so if you are reaching for broken glass somewhere where you can't see, that's basically negligence, but still independent of what else that place could do. I just wonder if it would really be different if it was glass in just a pipe without a garbage disposal.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com