Writing your Prescription for Electrical Safety            Mar 2012 

   Not all injuries from electricity stay on the skin surface: even though our skin offers some protection, if the current is strong enough it can pass through the skin into the body. Once past the skin, it travels best along your nerves and muscles.

 The pathway of current can be unpredictable but generally when the current enters the body it eagerly looks for an easy exit point to ground .

This is why electric shock victims often have an exit burn as well as an entrance burn.

An electrical current traveling through your arm and exiting through another extremity wreaks havoc all along the way - damaging organs, nerves, and muscles.

You've seen the "I can't let go!" current in cartoons. The reason you cannot let go is that the alternating current causes arm muscles to spasm. When these are severe they can extend to chest muscles preventing the victim from breathing.

Current intensity and its expected clinical results are below:

• 1 milliamps - Not perceptible, probable tingling sensation
• 3-5 milliamps - "Let go" current for an average child
• 6-8 milliamps- "Let go" current for an average woman
• 7-9 milliamps- "Let go" current for an average man
• 16 milliamps- Maximum current a person can grasp and "let go"

If the current travels from hand-to-hand through the heart it can cause double-trouble The heart has its own internal electrical system responsible for making it beat and a shock can interrupt it causing the heart to beat irregularly or worse - not at all!

Dr Joel Fish from Canada's Electrical Injury Rehabilitation Program at St John's Rehab Center in Toronto recently spoke to us at our annual Ontario electrical contractors  meeting. He shared results from current research showing that residential, lower-voltage shocks can have long term effects on invisible function including productivity, memory, and the capacity to do daily tasks.

Often the onset of these symptoms is delayed by months or years, perplexing the individual and their physician, because the symptoms can be similar to other disorders which have nothing to do with electrical shocks.

Respect your electricity and keep your electrical system and appliances in good working order. Your electrician doesn't touch live circuits, and neither should you!