Electric Shock and Human Body Dwarka Prasad, Ashwani Kumar Sharma and H.C.

Sharma Abstract: People often assume that any grounded obje t an be safely tou hed. A low substation ground resistan e is not in itself a guarantee of safety. !here is no simple relation between the resistan e of the ground system as a whole and the ma"imum sho k urrent to whi h a person might be e"posed. !herefore, a substation of relati#ely low ground resistan e may be dangerous while another substation with #ery high resistan e may be safe or an be made safe by areful design. !he se#erity of ele tri sho k to humans from low #oltage $%& H'( low sour e impedan e systems is dependent on many #ariables. !hese fa tors in lude the body impedan e, urrent magnitude and duration, #oltage and fre)uen y of the ir uit and the urrent path tra#ersed in the body. Se#eral resear hers ha#e in#estigated safe #oltage and urrent limits that humans an withstand. As a result, thresholds ha#e been established of the body*s response to %& H' alternating urrent of a few milliamperes in low #oltage systems. !his study will briefly e"plain the auses of ele tri sho k and their effe ts on human body. INTRODU TION +le tri sho k o urs upon onta t of a human body with any sour e of #oltage high enough to ause suffi ient urrent through the skin, mus les or hair. !he minimum urrent a human an feel is thought to be about ,$mA(. !he urrent may ause tissue damage or fibrillation if it is suffi iently high. Death aused by an ele tri sho k is referred to as ele tro ution. -enerally, urrents approa hing ,&& $mA( are lethal if they pass through sensiti#e portions of the body. !he standard power supply used in homes and laboratories is ,.& /, %& H' sinusoidal system in the 0nited States and ..& /, 1& H' in 2ndia. An ele tri al onta t with ungrounded ondu tor or with e"posed ondu ti#e parts of ele tri al e)uipment as a result of fault in basi insulation would result in an ele tri sho k to the person. 2t ould ause physi al injury or death due to effe ts like #entri ular fibrillation and respiratory arrest $Dawson et al., .&&,3 Parise, ,4453 6a7o a, ,44.3 8ernstein, ,44,(. !ATERIA"S AND !ETHODS Electric shock accident circumstances: !he ir umstan es that make ele tri sho k a idents possible are as follows9 : : : : : 7elati#ely high fault urrent to ground in relation to the area of ground system and its resistan e to remote earth Soil resisti#ity and distribution of ground urrents su h that high potential gradients may o ur at points at the earth;s surfa e Presen e of an indi#idual at su h a point, time and position that the body is bridging two points of high potential differen e Absen e of suffi ient onta t resistan e or other series resistan e to limit urrent through the body to a safe #alue Duration of the fault and body onta t and hen e of the flow of urrent through a human body for a suffi ient time to ause harm at the gi#en urrent intensity

ommon sources o# ha$ard: <f ourse, there is a danger of ele tri al sho k when dire tly performing manual work on an ele tri al power system. Howe#er, ele tri sho k ha'ards e"ist in many other pla es, thanks to the widespread use of ele tri power in the li#es. As the resear hers know, skin and body resistan e has a lot to do with the relati#e ha'ard of ele tri ir uits. !he higher the body*s resistan e, the less likely harmful urrent will result from any gi#en amount of #oltage. Con#ersely, the lower the body*s resistan e, the more likely for injury to o ur from the appli ation of a #oltage. !he easiest way to de rease skin resistan e is to get it wet. !herefore, tou hing ele tri al de#i es with wet hands, wet feet or espe ially in a sweaty ondition $salt water is a mu h better ondu tor of ele tri ity than fresh water( is dangerous. 2n the household, the bathroom is one of the more likely pla es where wet people may onta t ele tri al applian es and so sho k ha'ard is a definite threat there. -ood bathroom design will lo ate power re epta les away from bathtubs, showers and sinks to dis ourage the use of applian es nearby. !elephones that plug into a wall so ket are also sour es of ha'ardous #oltage $the open ir uit #oltage is =5/ DC and the ringing signal is ,1& / AC>remember that any #oltage o#er ?& is onsidered potentially dangerous@(.