Millions of metres of dangerous cable 'in homes across UK'

Millions of metres of risky electrical cable may be in homes throughout the United Kingdom, a bbc investigation has determined.
In 2010 it was discovered atlas kablo, a now-defunct turkish organisation, had bought eleven million metres of cable that posed a ability fire danger in the united kingdom.
The fitness and safety govt decided in opposition to a obligatory don't forget and simplest seven million metres have been recovered.
Critics say more should have been done. The hse insisted its response became proportionate to the chance.
The british approvals service for cables (basec) had found the cable had too little copper, which means it became prone to overheating.
Leader government jeremy hodge advised the bbc: "we identified approximately seven million metres, which turned into intercepted and scrapped, because of this 4 million metres or 40,000 reels of cable are nonetheless obtainable.
"it will be tricky to locate - most electricians do not preserve a report of in which cable has long gone and there may be no requirement to do that."
The unaccounted-for cable turned into sufficient to absolutely rewire eight,000 houses, electric experts informed the bbc.
'bomb in the system'
Below the electrical device protection policies (1994) it changed into within the hse's power to order a complete statutory bear in mind of the cable, forcing outlets to behave.
But after basec raised the alarm, the hse determined on a voluntary approach, writing to wholesalers and warning them approximately the product.
It become sooner or later discovered on sale at four branches of homebase and turned into nonetheless on shelves at the stores as overdue as 2013, even though it is uncertain how tons of the cable the shops sold.
Sam gluck, technical manager at electrical fireplace consultants tower electric fireplace and safety, said this technique had "planted a bomb in the device".
He explained: "if it overheats, it will ignite some thing that touches it. If it's against a plasterboard wall with a purpose to ignite.
"there must have been an instantaneous don't forget and they [shops and electricians] should have been informed handy the cables back."
Smoking cable
Picture caption
In laboratory situations basec replicated how the cable may attain 150c, melting and giving off smoke
Dr maurizio bragagni, leader government of main london-primarily based cable producer tratos, stated: "it is able to be in any purchasing centre, any venue, any building."
Of the capacity risk of hearth, he stated: "on a scale of one to 10 it is an eight. I might not like to have this internal my residence."
Andy slaughter mp, a labour shadow minister for both housing and london, stated: "it's extremely alarming. It's discovered that we've got inadequacy each in the rules which are there, and we aren't implementing the ones we've got."
He mentioned that each the grenfell catastrophe and another fire in his hammersmith constituency have been due to defective white goods, and said it become sad that it had taken so many deaths to carry the issue of electrical hearth protection into sharp awareness.
"this should not have occurred. This is cable it's now hidden away in peoples' houses and can be a latent hassle for years," he said. "honestly it need to had been recalled. The horse has bolted."
The cable turned into sheathed in grey plastic and marked with the producer's name. Basec recommended that anyone concerned approximately the cable of their home ought to commission an electrician to test the device.
Marketplace surveillance
The bbc has also found out that once the concerns had been raised, a three-yr sampling programme performed through the hse recommended five% of cable available on the market changed into not up to protection requirements.
An hse spokesman said: "we acted as quickly as we became aware about these claims. After the cabling failed unbiased tests, we worked to make sure that atlas kablo took steps to withdraw or take into account the cabling from the marketplace voluntarily.
"as a result, many thousands and thousands of metres of the non-compliant cabling have been taken off the market."
He continued: "following this difficulty, the branch for business, strength and business approach funded hse to perform a market surveillance venture among 2010 and 2012. Most of the examined cabling met the relevant standards.
"hse reminded distributors of their criminal responsibilities and their liability for buying and selling hazardous products."
A spokeswoman for homebase stated: "the atlas kablo cable became withdrawn from sale in 2010, when homebase changed into nonetheless owned by domestic retail institution.
"following a full evaluation, home retail organization's team of professionals deemed the product low-danger, due to the required utilization of the cable for low-voltage items, and did now not trouble a public product recall.
"homebase, which became received through bunnings in february 2016, now not sells this product. The protection of our customers is our primary precedence."
The bbc was not able to hint all people connected with atlas kablo to remark.