Before you go and dig up all your old throw blankets to pile on your bed or couch for the cold weather, hear me out: If you get cold easily, an electric heated blanket could be the solution. Heated blankets are made with heating wires underneath the soft materials to provide some extra warmth and comfort, as well as potentially save you some money on heating bills if you want to be warm but don’t want to turn the heat on in your whole house. If you’re new to heated blankets, you might have heard some safety concerns arise with them in the past, but don’t worry — we’re here to make it all clear.
Though there’s a myth that the electric and magnetic fields (EMFs) in heated blankets can cause cancer, there’s no substantial evidence to support that hypothesis . As for the idea that electric blankets can cause house fires, the Electrical Safety Foundation reports that almost all of the 500 fires caused per year by electric blankets are because of blankets that are more than 10 years old (all the more reason to buy a new one). Basically, as long as your blanket isn’t super old or misused , you shouldn’t have to worry about it posing a threat to your safety.
Many blankets now have auto-shut-off features as well to avoid overheating. Better yet, you can look for blankets that have an ETL (Electric Testing Laboratories) certification or UL certification , both of which indicate that they’ve been tested for compliance with safety standards. Or, in this case, you don�.
