Hazards of

electricity
Eng. Sami Abu-sharar
sasharar@sepco.com.jo
1
➢ Electricity is silent, invisible and odorless hazard.

what is the electricity ?? 2

• In the late 1800s, hotels had to place signs assuring their
guests that electricity is harmless.
• By the late 1900s, signs had to be hung to remind us that
electricity is a hazard.
• the transition of electricity from a silent coworker to a
deadly hazard is a change that many cannot understand
until it happens to them.

Hazards of electricity 3
• Arc (electric): The heat and light energy release that is caused
by the electrical breakdown of and subsequent electrical
discharge through an electrical insulator, such as air.
• Arc incident energy: The amount of energy delivered by an
electric arc to the clothing or body of a worker.
• Blast (electric): The explosive effect caused by the rapid
expansion of air and other vaporized materials that are a
superheated by the sudden presence of an electric arc.
• Contractor muscle: A muscle whose contraction bends or
closes a joint. The bicep is a flexor muscle.

Definitions 4
• Electrocution: Death caused by the passage of electricity
through the body. Death caused by electric shock.
• Extensor muscle: A muscle whose contraction extends or
stretches a body part. The tri-cep is an extensor muscle
• Fibrillation: Rapid and inefficient contraction of muscle
fibers of the heart caused by disruption of nerve impulses
• Plasma: A high-temperature, electrically ionized gas. it is
usually identified as a fourth state of matter.

Definitions 5
• Shock circuit: The path that electric current takes
through the body. If the shock circuit includes critical
organs, severe trauma is more likely than if it does not.

Definitions 6
 Arc Shock

Blast

Hazards of electricity 7
• Electric shock is the physical stimulation that occurs when electric
current flows through the human body
• The distribution of current flow through the body is a function of the
resistance of the various paths through which the current flows
➢ Shock symptoms
1. Mild tingling sensation
2. Violent muscle contractions
3. Heart arrhythmia
4. Tissue damage

Shock 8
➢ Burning: Burns caused by electric current are almost always third-
degree because the burning occurs from the inside of the body.
• This means that the growth centers are destroyed. Electric-current
burns can be especially severe when they involve vital internal
organs.

• Cell Wall Damage: cell death can result from the enlargement of
cellular pores due to high-intensity electric fields

Tissue damage causes 9

1. Physical condition and responses
2. Path of the current flow
3. The duration of the current flow
4. The magnitude of the current
5. The frequency of the current
6. The voltage magnitude

Shock influencing factors 10

• A given amount of current flow will usually cause less
trauma to a person in good physical condition.
• If the victim of the shock has any specific medical
problems such as heart or lung ailments, these parts of the
body will be severely affected by relatively low currents.

Physical conditions 11
• The amount of energy delivered to the body is directly proportional
to the length of time that the current flows
• Current flow through body tissues delivers energy in the form of
heat. The magnitude of energy may be approximated by

J = I^2*R*t

Current duration 12
Frequency 13
➢ Higher voltages can be more lethal for at least three
reasons:
1. At voltages above 400 V the electrical pressure may be sufficient to
puncture the epidermis. Since the epidermis provides the only
significant resistance to current flow, the current magnitude can increase
dramatically.
2. The degree of electroporation is higher for greater cellular voltage
gradients. That is, the higher voltages cause more intense fields, which
in turn increase the severity of the electroporation.
3. Higher voltages are more likely to create electrical arcing.

Voltage magnitude 14
• The magnitude of the current that flows through the body
obeys Ohm’s law, that is: I=V/R

Current magnitude 15
Current magnitude 16
Current magnitude 17
Current magnitude 18
➢ A discharge of electricity through a gas, normally characterized by a
voltage drop in the immediate vicinity of the cathode approximately
equal to the ionization potential of the gas
➢ The heat and light energy release that is caused by the electrical
breakdown of and subsequent electrical discharge through an
electrical insulator such as air.

Arc 19
• Arcs can be initiated in several ways:
1. When the voltage between two points exceeds the dielectric
strength of the air. This can happen when over voltages due to
lightning strikes or switching surges occur.
2. When the air becomes superheated with the passage of current
through some conductor.
3. When two contacts part while carrying a very high current

Arc 20
• Electric arcs are extremely hot, so that Temperatures at
the terminal points of the arcs can reach as high as 50,000
kelvin (K)!!!
• second-degree burns have been caused on exposed skin at
distances of up to 12 feet (ft) or (3.6 meters [m]) and
more
• Virtually all types of clothing fibers can be ignited by the
temperatures of electrical arcs

Do you know?? 21
Arc 22
• Arc energy is released in at least three forms—light,
heat, and mechanical.

Arc energy release 23

Arc flash 24
• Arc burns are thermal in nature and, therefore, fall into one of the
three classical categories:
o First-degree burning :causes painful trauma to the outer layers of
the skin.
o Second-degree burns: burns result in relatively severe tissue
damage and blistering.
o Third-degree burns: burns to the skin result in complete
destruction of the growth centers.

Arc burns 25
• When an electric arc occurs, it superheats the air instantaneously.
• This causes a rapid expansion of the air with a wave front that can
reach pressures (4.79 to 9.58 kPa)
• Such pressure is sufficient to explode switchgear, turn sheet metal
into shrapnel, turn hardware into bullets, push over concrete walls,
and propel molten metal at extremely high velocities.

Blast 26
➢Skin
➢The Nervous System
➢Muscular System
➢The Heart
➢The Pulmonary System

Affected body parts 27

• Skin is the outer layer that completely encloses and envelopes the
body
• Each person’s skin weighs about 4 lb , protects against bacterial
invasion and physical injury of underlying cells, and prevents water
loss
• It also provides the body with sensation, heat regulation, excretion
(sweat), and absorbs a few substances

Skin 28
Most of the electrical resistance exhibited by
the human body comes from the stratum
carenum. Internal resistance is typically in the
area of 200 Ω.
Effects on Current Flow.
Since the body is a conductor of electricity,
Ohm’s law applies as it does to any other
physical substance. The thicker the horny
layer, the greater the skin’s electrical
resistance.
Workers who have developed a thick stratum
corneum have a much higher resistance to
electricity than a child with an extremely thin
layer

skin 29
Burns.
• Physical contact with conductors, tools, or other equipment that have
been heated by the passage of electrical current flow
• Current flow through the skin can cause burns from the I 2R energy
• Thermal or radiation burns are caused by the radiant energy of the
electrical arc.
• Contact with superheated plasma caused by the vaporization of solid
materials in the vicinity of an electrical arc.

skin 30
• The nervous system comprises the electrical pathways that are used
to communicate information from one part of the human body to
another.
• To communicate, electric impulses are passed from one nerve to
another. For example, the heart beats when an electric impulse is
applied to the muscles that control it. If some other electric impulse is
applied, the nervous system can become confused. If the current is
high enough, the damage can be permanent.

The Nervous System 31

1.Pain: Pain is the nervous system’s method of signaling injury. When
current flows through the nerves, the familiar painful, tingling sensation
can result
2. Loss of control: An externally applied current can literally
“swamp” the normal nervous system electric impulses.
3. Permanent damage : This damage takes the form of destroyed
neurons and/or synapses.

The nervous VS. Shock 32

• The muscular system provides motor action for the human body
• When the nervous system stimulates the muscles with electric
impulses , the muscles contract to move the body and perform
physical activity
• Skeletal muscles are either flexor or extensor muscles

Muscular System 33
1. Reflex action: When an externally induced current flows, through
a muscle, it can cause the muscle to contract, perhaps violently. This
contraction can cause workers to fall off ladders or smash into steel
doors or other structures.
2. Electrical paralysis : Current magnitudes in excess of 10 mA
may be sufficient to block the nervous system signals to the muscular
system.
3. Permanent damage: If the current is high enough, the muscle
tissue can be destroyed by burning. Currents of even less than 5 A will
cause tissue destruction if they last long enough.

Muscular system VS.

Shock 34
• The heart is a fist-sized pump that beats more the 2.5 billion times in
a 75 year lifetime. The atria and ventricles work together, alternately
contracting and relaxing to pump blood through your heart.
• The electrical system of your heart is the power source that
makes this possible.
• Normally a heart beat starts in the sinus node,
travels at approximately 7 ft/s (2.1 m/s)
through the AV node, “HIS bundle,”
and right and left bundle branches.
• The resulting contraction sends blood flowing from
the heart.

The Heart 35
• When the heart's electrical system is disturbed for any reason, such as
an outside current from an electric shock, changes in the heart’s rate
and rhythm occur. Such disruptions result in a large percentage of
heart deaths.
• An outside current of as little as 60 to 75 mA can disturb the nerve
impulses so that there is no longer a smooth, timed heartbeat. Instead
the heart fibrillates—that is, it beats in a rapid, uncoordinated
manner.
• When a heart is fibrillating, it flutters uselessly. Prolonged exposure
to an outside current exceeding 75 mA is likely to result in death.

The heart VS. Shock 36

• With the exception of the heart, the pulmonary system is the most
critical to human life.
• If breathing stops, which can happen with as little as 30 mA, all
other functions cease shortly thereafter.
• When the lower diaphragm moves down, it creates a partial vacuum
in the chest chamber. This in turn draws air into the sacs in the lungs.
The oxygen is then passed to the bloodstream through the tiny
capillaries. At the same time, carbon dioxide is returned to the air in
the lungs.
• When the lower diaphragm moves up, the air is forced out of the
lungs, thus completing the breathing cycle.

The Pulmonary System 37

38
• Current flow through the midsection of the body can
disrupt the nervous system impulses which regulate the
breathing function.
• This disruption can take the form of irregular, sporadic
breathing, or—if the current flow is sufficient—the
pulmonary system may be paralyzed altogether

The pulmonary VS. Shock 39