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An
electric shock occurs when a person comes into contact
with an
electrical energy source. Electrical energy flows through
a portion of the body causing a shock. Exposure to
electrical energy may result in no injury at all or may
result in devastating damage or death.
Burns are
the most common injury from electric shock.
Electric shocks
on 120V or 277V circuits. Death occurs when voltage pushes
electrons through the human body, particularly the heart.
An electric shock from as little as 50VAC for as little as
1 sec can disrupt the heart's rhythm, causing death in a
matter of minutes.
The
severity of electric shock depends on the current flowing
through the body, which is a function of the electromotive
force (E) in volts, and the contact resistance (R) in
ohms. Plug these values into the formula I=E÷R to find out
how much current will flow through the body.
Electric shock can come in several forms, and the
following descriptions apply to the various levels.
Electric sensation
Tingle sensation occurs at about 0.25mA to 0.5mA for an
adult female and between 0.5mA and 1mA for an adult male.
Uncomfortable sensation
Current greater than 1mA to 2mA is very uncomfortable to
either gender.
Maximum let-go level
The maximum let-go threshold level for a female is about
9mA and about 15mA for a male.
Fibrillation level
This is a function of current over time. For example,
you will get fibrillation with 500mA over 0.2 sec or 75mA
over 0.5 sec.
Let-go threshold
This is the
current level at which humans lose muscle control; the
electricity causes muscles to contract until current is
removed.
According to
IEEE Std. 80, you can determine the maximum safe shock
duration by the formula, T=0.116÷(E÷R), where T is
duration in seconds, E is the electromotive force in
volts, and R is resistance of the person, which is a
constant 1,000 ohms (see Figure).
For a 120V
circuit, maximum shock duration=0.116÷(120V÷1,000)=1 sec
For a 277V
circuit, maximum shock duration=0.116÷(277V÷1000)=0.43 sec
An overcurrent
protection device (OCPD) protects against electric shock
caused by a ground fault on metal parts of electric
equipment. The time it takes for an OCPD to open, clear a
ground fault, and remove dangerous voltage is inversely
proportional to the magnitude of the fault current.
If the
installation is in accordance with the NEC, an inverse
time circuit breaker or fuse should quickly clear a ground
fault, thereby removing dangerous touch voltage. However,
the circuit must have a low-impedance ground-fault path
that permits fault current of at least six times the
rating of the OCPD. For a 20A circuit, the ground-fault
current must be at least 120A to clear the fault quickly.
The impedance
of the fault current path plays a critical role in
removing dangerous voltages from metal parts and
preventing electric shock by facilitating the opening of
the branch-circuit overcurrent protection device. Be sure
you don't take this path for granted. Terminate
equipment-grounding conductors properly and make sure all
mechanical connections are secure. One final tip: Only a
GFCI can protect you from direct contact with an energized
conductor.
Other See the way
Kent Carey
Materials Science, Hewlett-Packard, Palo Alto, California
It does not always, but if there
are charged atoms or molecules in the water it could. Electrical current is
moving charges and water usually contains some charged impurities. If there is
voltage applied to the water and your body is all that is needed to complete the
circuit you could be in for a shock. Why take a chance?
Absolutely pure water does not conduct
electricity very well at all, but the tiniest amount of salty impurities (any
kind of salt, not just table salt) will cause water to be a conductor of
electricity. The reason is that salts, when they dissolve in water, break up
into ions that have an electric charge, and if you place a couple of electrified
wires in the water, the positively charged ions flow toward the negative wire,
and the negatively charged ions flow toward the positive wire, and you
effectively have an electric current running through the water. It is almost
impossible to get water so pure that it will not conduct, and even the most
perfectly pure water will conduct a TINY amount of electricity, since a TINY
amount of water (H2O) breaks into hydrogen ions (H+) and hydroxide ions (OH-).
Only about one in 10 million molecules do this, however, so not
much current can flow.
Christopher Neufeld
Physics, University of Toronto,
Canada
An electric shock is felt
whenever electricity goes into your body. Your body can resist electricity quite
well, the skin blocks a lot of the electricity so that you don't feel it very
much. If the skin becomes wet, it becomes very bad at blocking electric current,
and you feel the current much more severely, and it damages your body more
severely. Further, large amounts of water, such as a lake or a bathtub, often
contain dissolved minerals. While water itself is a poor conductor of
electricity, even a small amount of soap, salt, or dissolved rock in the water
makes it into a very good conductor. This lets the water carry electric current
quite easily, so that sharing a bath with an electric appliance is very likely
to kill you.
electrical energy source. Electrical energy flows through
a portion of the body causing a shock. Exposure to
electrical energy may result in no injury at all or may
result in devastating damage or death. 
The
severity of electric shock depends on the current flowing
through the body, which is a function of the electromotive
force (E) in volts, and the contact resistance (R) in
ohms. Plug these values into the formula I=E÷R to find out
how much current will flow through the body.
