I’ve been tearing things open after ignoring the “dangerous if opened” stickers since I was 8 years old. I’m in my 30s, you’d think something would have caused me harm by now, but no.
There's a fair bit of survivorship bias in this. That said, modern power supplies use "bleeder resistors" to discharge the capacitors once powered off.
> There's a fair bit of survivorship bias in this.
Is there? This kind of statement has the potential to exhibit survivorship bias, but I feel like the opposite—"12-year-old dies replacing a power supply fan"—would make headlines. Definitely haven't seen that.
Capacitors should be respected for sure, but people don't routinely die in DIY electronics tasks.
Electrical injuries claim some 1000 lives per year in the states, and 20% of all electrical injuries are sustained by children (lethal and non-lethal). I don't think every electrocuted child makes even local headlines.
Sobering for sure, but I think vanishingly few of those are from residual energy in capacitors in unplugged appliances during disassembly, [1] and certainly far from the "this forum is missing x people just like doubled112 because of tragedies" that I imagine when you say "there's a fair bit of survivorship bias in this".
[1] a quick search mentions things like damaged cords, the classic metal object into the outlet, etc. I installed tamper-resistant outlets everywhere in my house to prevent the latter as part of child-proofing. I think they're mandatory now in new construction. I also may have gone a bit overboard trying to instill caution in my children about this this particular risk; my son tonight asked me if he was okay after his sleeve brushed against the metal part of a USB-C connector while he was plugging in his tablet.
I rather meant statements like "I did X and I didn't die" are open to survivorship bias, than asserting many must have died from this particular cause. I believe bleeder resistors are written in blood though, I vaguely remember electrocution tales from the times when people were expected to replace vacuum tubes in radios.
That's more than an order of magnitude less than fatalities from cars. In my book, that puts it into "be careful" territory but far from "don't even think about it".
As a child, I remember being up in the attic with my grandfather. He touched some wires, swore (which was unusual for him), and said 'that was 220'. I still have a healthy respect for power.
A lot of the risk is simply overstated. Yes, bad things can happen but that also goes for crossing the road yet we don't limit that to certified professionals. Just have some basic understanding of electricity, common sense, don't attempt the work while tired and you'll be fine.