Electric shock

Electric shock occurs upon contact of a (human) body part with any source of electricity that causes a sufficient current through the skin, muscles, or hair. Typically, the expression is used to describe an injurious exposure to electricity. Very small currents can be imperceptible. Larger current passing through the body may make it impossible for a shock victim to let go of an energized object. Still larger currents can cause fibrillation of the heart and damage to tissues. Death caused by an electric shock is called electrocution.

Wiring or other metalwork which is at a hazardous voltage which can constitute a risk of electric shock is called "live", as in "live wire".

IEC 60364-4-41 deals with electric shock in low-voltage electrical installations. Shocks can be caused by direct or indirect contact. Contact with an exposed conductive part under fault conditions is called indirect contact. IEC requires certain degrees of ingress protection against direct contact. Indirect contact protections can be achieved by earthed equipotential bonding and automatic disconnection of supply by using fuses for example.

Magnitude
The minimum current a human can feel depends on the current type (AC or DC) and frequency. A person can feel at least 1 mA (rms) of AC at 60 Hz, while at least 5 mA for DC. At around 10 milliamperes, AC current passing through the arm of a 68 kg (150 lb) human can cause powerful muscle contractions; the victim is unable to voluntarily control muscles and cannot release an electrified object. This is known as the "let go threshold" and is a criterion for shock hazard in electrical regulations.

The current may, if it is high enough, cause tissue damage or fibrillation which leads to cardiac arrest; more than 30 mA of AC (rms, 60 Hz) or 300 – 500 mA of DC can cause fibrillation. A sustained electric shock from AC at 120 V, 60 Hz is an especially dangerous source of ventricular fibrillation because it usually exceeds the let-go threshold, while not delivering enough initial energy to propel the person away from the source. However, the potential seriousness of the shock depends on paths through the body that the currents take. If the voltage is less than 200 V, then the human skin, more precisely the stratum corneum, is the main contributor to the impedance of the body in the case of a macroshock—the passing of current between two contact points on the skin. The characteristics of the skin are non-linear however. If the voltage is above 450–600 V, then dielectric breakdown of the skin occurs. The protection offered by the skin is lowered by perspiration, and this is accelerated if electricity causes muscles to contract above the let-go threshold for a sustained period of time.

If an electrical circuit is established by electrodes introduced in the body, bypassing the skin, then the potential for lethality is much higher if a circuit through the heart is established. This is known as a microshock. Currents of only 10 µA can be sufficient to cause fibrillation in this case.

Burns


Heating due to resistance can cause extensive and deep burns. Voltage levels of 500 to 1000 volts tend to cause internal burns due to the large energy (which is proportional to the duration multiplied by the square of the voltage divided by resistance) available from the source. Damage due to current is through tissue heating. For most cases of high-energy electrical trauma, the Joule heating in the deeper tissues along the extremity will reach damaging temperatures in a few seconds.

Ventricular fibrillation
A domestic power supply voltage (110 or 230 V), 50 or 60 Hz alternating current (AC) through the chest for a fraction of a second may induce ventricular fibrillation at currents as low as 30 mA. With direct current (DC), 300 to 500 mA is required. If the current has a direct pathway to the heart (e.g., via a cardiac catheter or other kind of electrode), a much lower current of less than 1 mA (AC or DC) can cause fibrillation. If not immediately treated by defibrillation, fibrillation is usually lethal because all of the heart muscle cells move independently instead of in the coordinated pulses needed to pump blood and maintain circulation. Above 200 mA, muscle contractions are so strong that the heart muscles cannot move at all, but these conditions prevent fibrillation.

Neurological effects
Current can cause interference with nervous control, especially over the heart and lungs. Repeated or severe electric shock which does not lead to death has been shown to cause neuropathy. Recent research has found that functional differences in neural activation during spatial working memory and implicit learning oculomotor tasks have been identified in electrical shock victims.

When the current path is through the head, it appears that, with sufficient current applied, loss of consciousness almost always occurs swiftly. (This is borne out by some limited self-experimentation by early designers of the electric chair and by research from the field of animal husbandry, where electric stunning has been extensively studied)

Arc-flash hazards
One major corporation found that up to 80 percent of its electrical injuries involve thermal burns due to arcing faults. The arc flash in an electrical fault produces the same type of light radiation from which electric welders protect themselves using face shields with dark glass, heavy leather gloves, and full-coverage clothing. The heat produced may cause severe burns, especially on unprotected flesh. The arc blast produced by vaporizing metallic components can break bones and damage internal organs. The degree of hazard present at a particular location can be determined by a detailed analysis of the electrical system, and appropriate protection worn if the electrical work must be performed with the electricity on.

Body resistance
The voltage necessary for electrocution depends on the current through the body and the duration of the current. Ohm's law states that the current drawn depends on the resistance of the body. The resistance of human skin varies from person to person and fluctuates between different times of day. The NIOSH states "Under dry conditions, the resistance offered by the human body may be as high as 100,000 Ohms. Wet or broken skin may drop the body's resistance to 1,000 Ohms," adding that "high-voltage electrical energy quickly breaks down human skin, reducing the human body's resistance to 500 Ohms."

The International Electrotechnical Commission gives the following values for the total body impedance of a hand to hand circuit for dry skin, large contact areas, 50 Hz AC currents (the columns contain the distribution of the impedance in the population percentile; for example at 100 V 50% of the population had an impedance of 1875Ω or less):

Accurate measurement of the human body resistance: In practice, the real human body resistance cannot be measured directly with a multimeter (as ohms) e.g. by holding each probe with a hand. Instead a more accurate measurement is to determine the human body resistance by doing a current measurement: Take a power supply with a small voltage (<20V) and an ammeter. Connect one probe of the ammeter to the (+) line of the power supply and hold the other probe of the ammeter with one hand. Next connect the other hand to the (-) line of the power supply and you should be able to measure the amount of current that flows through your body. Apply the Ohm's law and you get the resistance of the human body: Rresistance_human_body = Upower_supply / Icurrent_flow

Point of entry

 * Macroshock: Current across intact skin and through the body. Current from arm to arm, or between an arm and a foot, is likely to traverse the heart, therefore it is much more dangerous than current between a leg and the ground. This type of shock by definition must pass into the body through the skin.
 * Microshock: Very small current source with a pathway directly connected to the heart tissue. The shock is required to be administered from inside the skin, directly to the heart i.e. a pacemaker lead, or a guide wire, conductive catheter etc. connected to a source of current. This is a largely theoretical hazard as modern devices used in these situations include protections against such currents.

Electrocution
The term "electrocution," coined about the time of the first use of the electric chair in 1890, originally referred only to electrical execution (from which it is a portmanteau word), and not to accidental or suicidal electrical deaths. However, since no English word was available for non-judicial deaths due to electric shock, the word "electrocution" eventually took over as a description of all circumstances of electrical death from the new commercial electricity. The word is often used incorrectly as a synonym of electric shock.

Factors in lethality of electric shock
The lethality of an electric shock is dependent on several variables:


 * Current. The higher the current, the more likely it is lethal. Since current is proportional to voltage when resistance is fixed (ohm's law), high voltage is an indirect risk for producing higher currents.
 * Duration. The longer the duration, the more likely it is lethal&mdash;safety switches may limit time of current flow
 * Pathway. If current flows through the heart muscle, it is more likely to be lethal.
 * High voltage (over about 600 volts). In addition to greater current flow, high voltage may cause dielectric breakdown at the skin, thus lowering skin resistance and allowing further increased current flow.

Other issues affecting lethality are frequency, which is an issue in causing cardiac arrest or muscular spasms. Very high frequency electric current causes tissue burning, but does not penetrate the body far enough to cause cardiac arrest (see electrosurgery). Also important is the pathway: if the current passes through the chest or head, there is an increased chance of death. From a main circuit or power distribution panel the damage is more likely to be internal, leading to cardiac arrest. Another factor is that cardiac tissue has a chronaxie (response time) of about 3 milliseconds, so electricity at frequencies of higher than about 333 Hz requires more current to cause fibrillation than is required at lower frequencies.

The comparison between the dangers of alternating current at typical power transmission frequences (i.e., 50 or 60 Hz), and direct current has been a subject of debate ever since the War of Currents in the 1880s. Animal experiments conducted during this time suggested that alternating current was about twice as dangerous as direct current per unit of current flow (or per unit of applied voltage).

It is sometimes suggested that human lethality is most common with alternating current at 100–250 volts; however, death has occurred below this range, with supplies as low as 32 volts. Assuming a steady current flow (as opposed to a shock from a capacitor or from static electricity), shocks above 2,700 volts are often fatal, with those above 11,000 volts being usually fatal. Shocks with voltages over 40,000 volts are almost invariably fatal. However, Harry F. Mcgrew came into direct contact with a 340,000 volt transmission line in Huntington Canyon, Utah, and survived. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, this is the largest known electric shock that was survived. Brian Latasa also survived a 230,000 volt shock in Griffith Park, Los Angeles, according to Guinness.

Epidemiology
There were 550 electrocutions in the US in 1993, which translates to 2.1 deaths per million inhabitants. At that time, the incidence of electrocutions was decreasing. Electrocutions in the workplace make up the majority of these fatalities. From 1980–1992, an average of 411 workers were killed each year by electrocution. A recent study conducted by the National Coroners Information System (NCIS) in Australia has revealed three-hundred and twenty-one (321) closed case fatalities (and at least 39 case fatalities still under coronial investigation) that had been reported to Australian coroners where a person died from electrocution between July 2000 and October 2011.

In Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway the number of electric deaths per million inhabitants was 0.6, 0.3, 0.3 and 0.2, respectively, in years 2007-2011.

Many people survive electrical trauma only to find a host of injuries including loss of consciousness, seizures, aphasia, visual disturbances, headaches, tinnitus, paresis, and memory disturbances. Even without visible burns, electric shock survivors may be faced with long-term muscular pain and discomfort, fatigue, headache, problems with peripheral nerve conduction and sensation, inadequate balance and coordination, among other symptoms. Electrical injury can lead to problems with neurocognitive function, affecting speed of mental processing, attention, concentration, and memory. The high frequency of psychological problems is well established and may be multifactorial. As with any traumatic and life-threatening experience, electrical injury may result in post traumatic psychiatric disorders. There exist several non-profit research institutes that coordinate rehabilitation strategies for electrical injury survivors by connecting them with clinicians that specialize in diagnosis and treatment of various traumas that arise as a result of electrical injury.

Medical uses
Electric shock is also used as a medical therapy, under carefully controlled conditions:
 * Electroconvulsive therapy or ECT is a psychiatric therapy for mental illness. The objective of the therapy is to induce a seizure for therapeutic effect. There is no sensation of shock because the patient is anesthetized. The therapy was originally conceived of after it was observed that depressed patients who also suffered from epilepsy experienced some remission after a spontaneous seizure.  The first attempts at deliberately inducing seizure as therapy used not electricity but chemicals; however electricity provided finer control for delivering the minimum stimulus needed.  Ideally some other method of inducing seizure would be used, as the electricity may be associated with some of the negative side effects of ECT including amnesia. ECT is generally administered three times a week for about 8-12 treatments.
 * As a surgical tool for cutting or coagulation. An "Electrosurgical Unit" (or ESU) uses high currents (e.g. 10 amperes) at high frequency (e.g. 500 kHz) with various schemes of amplitude modulation to achieve the desired result - cut or coagulate - or both. These devices are safe when used correctly.
 * As a treatment for fibrillation or irregular heart rhythms: see defibrillator and cardioversion.
 * As a method of pain relief: see Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulator (more commonly referred to as a TENS unit).
 * As an aversive punishment for conditioning of developmentally delayed individuals with severe behavioral problems. This controversial skin-shock method is employed only at the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center, a special needs school in Massachusetts.
 * As a treatment for Hyperhidrosis with the device called iontophoresis

Entertainment
Mild electric shocks are also used for entertainment, especially as a practical joke for example in such devices as a shocking pen or a shocking gum. However devices such as a joy buzzer and most other machines in amusement parks today only use vibration that feels somewhat like an electric shock to someone not expecting it.

Furthermore erotic electrostimulation involves the application of electrical stimulation to the nerves of the body, with particular emphasis on the genitals. Electrostimulation has been associated with BDSM activities, and erotic electrostimulation is an evolution of that practice. Erotic electrostimulation is the use of electrostimulation in an erotic or sexual manner versus the more sadistic or painful electric shocks in BDSM.

Law enforcement and personal defence
Electroshock weapons are incapacitant weapons used for subduing a person by administering electric shock to disrupt superficial muscle functions. One type is a conductive energy device (CED), an electroshock gun popularly known by the brand name "Taser", which fires projectiles that administer the shock through a thin, flexible wire. Although they are illegal for personal use in many jurisdictions, Tasers have been marketed to the general public. Other electroshock weapons such as stun guns, stun batons ("cattle prods"), and electroshock belts administer an electric shock by direct contact.

Electric fences are barriers that uses electric shocks to deter animals or people from crossing a boundary. The voltage of the shock may have effects ranging from uncomfortable, to painful or even lethal. Most electric fencing is used today for agricultural fencing and other forms of animal control purposes, though it is frequently used to enhance security of sensitive areas, and there exist places where lethal voltages are used.

Torture
Electric shocks are used as a method of torture, since the received voltage and current can be controlled with precision and used to cause pain and fear without physically harming the victim's body.

Such torture uses electrodes attached to parts of the victim's body: most typically, while wires are wound around the fingers, toes, or tongue; attached to the genitals; or inserted in the vagina to provide a return circuit; the voltage source (typically some sort of prod) of precisely controllable pressure is applied to other sensitive parts of the body, such as the genitals, vagina, breasts, or head. The Parrilla is an example of this technique. Other methods of electrical torture (such as the Picana) do not use a fixed wire but the prod has two electrodes of different polarity a short distance apart so as to make a circuit through the flesh between them when it is placed on the body, thus making it easy for the operator to target the shocks accurately in the places that cause the victim most pain and distress, such as the genitals, vagina, breasts, or head. When the voltage and current is controlled (most typically, high voltage and low current) the victim feels the pain of electric shock but is not physically harmed. Repeated shocks to the genitals or vagina will result in the victim losing control of his or her bladder and unintentionally urinating, while extensive passage of the current through the buttocks will cause the victim to unintentionally defecate.

Electrical torture has been used in war and by repressive regimes since the 1930s: The US Army is known to have used electrical torture during World War II; Amnesty International published an official statement that Russian military forces in Chechnya tortured local women with electric shocks by attaching wires onto their breasts; Japanese serial killer Futoshi Matsunaga used electric shocks to control his victims.

Advocates for the mentally ill and some psychiatrists such as Thomas Szasz have asserted that electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is torture when used without a bona fide medical benefit against recalcitrant or non-responsive patients—however such arguments do not apply to ECT when used after the patient has been anesthetized. See above for ECT as medical therapy. A similar argument and opposition apply to the use of painful shocks as punishment for behavior modification, a practice that is openly used only at the Judge Rotenberg Institute.

Capital punishment
Electric shock delivered by an electric chair is sometimes used as an official means of capital punishment in the United States, although its use has become rare in recent times. Although some original proponents of the electric chair considered it to be a more humane execution method than hanging, shooting, poison gassing, etc., it has now generally been replaced by lethal injections in states that practice capital punishment. Modern reporting has claimed that it sometimes takes several shocks to be lethal, and that the condemned person may actually catch fire before the process is complete.

Other than in parts of the United States, only the Philippines reportedly has used this method, from 1926 to 1976. It was intermittently replaced by the firing squad, until the death penalty was abolished in that country. It is legal in at least 10 states of the United States.