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eBay's latest offering: electric shock air purifiers that double as fire starters [1]

['Mark Frauenfelder']

Date: 2023-02-15

eBay sells a lot of non-compliant electric gadgets, like this plug-in air purifier. The always entertaining Big Clive examined the circuitry in it and discovered that the two carbon-fiber brushes emanating from the plastic gadget were capable of illuminating a light bulb. In other words, if you touched them, you'd receive a nasty shock. Clive shorted the two exposed brushes with a metal file and it tripped the circuit breaker in his house. When he tested the device again by holding a light bulb to the brushes, the device caught on fire.

Clive says, "One day eBay's lack of interest in policing products sold through their website is going to catch up with them. Sometimes I wonder how many people have been injured or killed by the products they facilitate selling. Amazon have stocked this product too (current listing now removed)."

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[1] Url: https://boingboing.net/2023/02/15/ebays-latest-offering-electric-shock-air-purifiers-that-double-as-fire-starters.html

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