Teen electrocuted while salvaging parts from a computer

Anyone that’s worked with computer hardware knows there are some risks involved. Sharp edges inside a case can leave your hands and fingers looking like you lost a thumb-wrestling match with Edward Scissorhands not to mention the potential to short out or otherwise damage fragile hardware. But for one teenager in Shawnee, Kansas, the stakes were much greater as he lost his life while reportedly stripping a computer down for parts to build another.

Local news station KCTV-5 says the teen unplugged the computer before diving in. It’s unclear how long the system might have been powered off before he started working, however.

The incident happened on August 16 although an autopsy recently revealed electrical burns on his body. The official cause of death was deemed to be electrocution; likely the result of touching a loaded capacitor inside the power supply.

Captain Dan Tennis of the Shawnee Police Department said the unnamed victim was “one of those kids,” the type that’s always tinkering with computers and gadgets. Disassembling a computer is something he’d done multiple times before.

Full details haven’t been released nor do we know why he opened the power supply to begin with. The boy’s father arrived home to find his son dead. As the captain pointed out, power supplies typically have all sorts of warning stickers reminding users about the dangers that lie within. About the only parts to salvage inside a PSU would be a cooling fan or two – cheap components that certainly aren’t worth risking your life to retrieve and reuse.

found @ www.TECHSPOT.com/News

By Shawn Knight

Tags: psu, electrocuted, salvage, dangers, warning, power supply, news

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3000 Meade Ave., Las Vegas, 89102

(702) 648-4884

FYI

In Las Vegas, "Because of hazardous waste contamination concerns, television sets & crt type monitors are not accepted for recycling or curbside garbage collection."

All crt monitors & tube style television sets should be brought to

Household Hazardous Waste Center

333 W Gowan Road, North Las Vegas, 89030.

@702Recycling

www.facebook.com/Champion.Recycling

Kids Urging Crayola to Recycle

School kids urge Crayola to rethink recycling

The Associated Press

Sunday, May 20, 2012 | 12:17 p.m.

A group of California grade school students wants Crayola to start a recycling program for spent plastic markers, but the company doesn't appear ready to make such a move.

About 40 students at Sun Valley elementary school in San Rafael, Calif., have been promoting an online petition aimed at nudging Crayola, a subsidiary of Kansas City-based Hallmark, into developing a "take-back" program for used-up markers.

Principal Julie Harris said Wednesday that the student group has been meeting at lunchtime for a couple weeks to discuss the project and monitor the petition's progress. The petition on Change.org had more than 60,000 signatures by Saturday.

The students plan to present the petition to Crayola, Harris said.

"I don't think they thought they were going to get there so quickly," she said. "They were hoping the Crayola company would take notice of it."

Crayola has, but spokeswoman Stacy Gabrielle said in an email that while the crayon maker encourages "children to share their ideas," the company has no plans to offer a recycling program for its markers.

She said Crayola does not have "the facilities or a process" for a recycling program, but that the markers' caps can be recycled at facilities that take that type of plastic. She also said because of the contents of the markers, the company doesn't recommend recycling them.

"Because only the marker plastic is recyclable, not the ink reservoir or the tip, we do not recommend that consumers recycle the markers themselves," she said. "It would require the removal of the nib and reservoir which could create small parts, a choking hazard to small children."

Crayola is, however, "very committed to doing our part to take care of the environment," Gabrielle said. She said Crayola uses solar energy to manufacture about 1 billion of the 3 billion crayons it makes each year and its markers are made with recycled plastic.

Land Wilson, the Sun Valley school parent who helped the students with the petition, said Thursday he's not discouraged by the company's response and hopes the company will reconsider.

"We're moving forward," Wilson said. "We love Crayola. This is all a very positive thing. ... (The kids) want to keep using their products, but they want to be green."

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