In article ,
Rod writes:
Sorry, is that the BC lampholder which allows two live connections to be
touched? (I accept that ES also suffers this possibility.)

I had been rather hoping that one positive aspect of CFLs (and other
efficient lamp technologies) might have been widespread use of, say, SES
which is much more difficult to stick my fingers into.

Whilst ES lampholders do seem to account for a number of
electrocutions, BC lampholders don't seem to have caused
a single one (in both cases, excluding faults).
In practice, I suspect its too difficult to get a good
enough connection between a finger and the pins, combined
with less opportunity to do so in normal use.
With ES lampholders, the main risk is gripping a bulb
to insert/remove it, and being electrocuted by exposed
metal of the lamp base. In most countries where it's
used, it's not possible to guarantee the live connection
is the tip, as live/neutral polarity isn't preserved into
appliances. (In the UK, it is required that the tip is
the live connection of an ES lampholder.)

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]