(MONEY Magazine) – It has been more than a year since the Consumer Product Safety Commission asked manufacturers to revamp their blow dryers to reduce the chance of acci- dental electrocution. The federal agency acted because the risk, though small, is sadly persistent: 172 people have died and 88 have been injured in the past 11 years. But don't conclude that your new dryer meets the safety standard. ''There was no product recall and no finding that the old dryers were actually defective,'' points out Ken Giles, a CPSC spokesman. ''So it's entirely possible you'll find on the shelves hair dryers made both before and after the standard.'' So how do you tell them apart? Good question. We asked the five top ^ manufacturers, which together accounted for 82% of all sales last year, and found the following hodgepodge of practices: Conair, the market leader, inscribes this message in red on the side panels of its 23 newer models: INCLUDES A SPECIAL SAFETY DEVICE THAT COMPLIES WITH NEW UL SAFETY STANDARDS EFFECTIVE OCT. 1, 1987. (UL, of course, means Underwriters Laboratory, the nonprofit concern that tests consumer products.) Frank Lindsey, Conair's vice president for marketing, says it's impossible to know how many old models are still for sale, ''but they're probably going to keep turning up for the next two years.'' Clairol flags the boxes of its 10 new models with an oval seal in the lower right corner and the message, NEW -- MEETS ALL UL ADVANCED SAFETY REQUIREMENTS. Windmere's two dozen or so post-standard dryers carry the phrase MEETS ADVANCED REQUIREMENTS OF UL. Sunbeam is marketing only one dryer, Safe Idea, that meets the standard and is now phasing out its dryer line entirely. Norelco, a leader when the standard took effect, hasn't made a new dryer since then and is also departing the business. Sharon Dalton, a spokesman for UL in Northbrook, Ill., says that while the new dryers are safer than the old, neither design is foolproof. ''Consumer misuse is the main cause of accidents,'' she says. ''For example, people keep their dryers plugged in and draped over a towel rack where small children can get at them.'' Even the new dryers can give you a shock if they're immersed with the power on. Both Conair and Windmere are developing models to prevent this. As a result, the best way to protect your family is to install a ground- fault interrupter outlet in your bathroom. This outlet, frequently seen in hotel bathrooms, has a built-in circuit breaker that cuts off the power before you can get a fatal shock from anything -- dryer, shaver, radio or whatever -- plugged into it. Cost: $30 to $50 from most hardware stores, plus $30 to $70 to install it if no one at home can.