'Electric touch' blows up goods

Mrs Price said she has spent thousands of pounds replacing the goods

A grandmother claims she only has to touch an electrical appliance to break it because she generates too much static electricity.

Mavis Price, 60, of Telford, Shropshire, said she has spent thousands of pounds replacing kettles, irons, vacuum cleaners and televisions.

She said she first noticed the problem in the 1950s.

There is an electricity sub-station at the bottom of her garden but she said the problems started before it arrived.

BBC Midlands Today's science reporter David Gregory said static electricity was known to cause problems. However, he said it was unlikely Mrs Price, of Dawley Bank, was generating enough electricity to blow up the appliances.

'Wall was black'

"It was in the 1950s when it was the first time it happened," she said.

"I went to plug in the television at home and the next thing, I was across the room, the wall was black, the television was no good and the plug was in pieces.

"I've gone through kettles, vacuum cleaners, irons. A few people have suggested that I go to the doctors about it, but I don't know what good it would do if I went."

Mrs Price said the most important factor in her buying new goods was the shop's returns policy.