Electric shock

Electric shock is the physiological reaction or injury caused by electric current passing through the (human) body.Typically, the expression is used to describe an injurious exposure to electricity. It occurs upon contact of a (human) body part with any source of electricity that causes a sufficient current through the skin, muscles, or hair.

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.

An electrical injury has many consequences to a body as the electrical currents can travel through the nervous system and burn out tissue in patches along the way. This can leave bizarre symptoms anywhere on the body and may lead to complex regional pain syndrome. 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".

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.

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-kilogram (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[6] 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.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.

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.

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[citation needed] and by research from the field of animal husbandry, where electric stunning has been extensively studied.