In article ,
"Christian McArdle" writes:
Lower voltage. 110V is much more dangerous than 230V. This isn't obvious to
the non-technical, but the US went with "common sense" (aka thick people's
prejudices) rather than sound scientific analysis. The basic issue is that

Actually, the choice of mains voltage on either side of the pond
was not decided on safety grounds. The safety issues were largely
unknown at the time.

very few people die of electrocution, whilst loads of people die from
electrical fires. The electrical fires largely stem from high currents. If
you halve the voltage, you double the current.

and quadruple the overheating effect.

Other differences in the US:

1. Low quality cables that have arcing failure modes, leading to fires.
2. Use of wirenuts.
3. Combination of neutral to earth (i.e. effectively TN-C earthing) leading
to electrocution in the event of polarisation swap, or some open circuit
conditions. TN-C earthing in banned in Europe, except in special
(non-domestic) cases.
4. Provision of socket outlets in bathrooms, so users dry their hair in the
bath.

You missed:
5. the crap quality of their socket outlets, responsible for many fires.
6. building regulations which hinder people modernising their wiring,
so extremely old wiring still in use is very much more common.
Oh hang on, scratch that one, we just introduced the same regulations
here.

--
Andrew Gabriel