Repeated exposure to electrocution from 120 outlets.

[southernboys]

Re: Repeated exposure to electrocution from 120 outlets.

Well when I first broke into the trade there was this guy Julio who would grap a hot wire and shake your hand. He got his jollies off every time he did this. Also told us he caught us doing it he would kick our a@@. ANyone else met someone like this cat?

 

[allenwayne]

Re: Repeated exposure to electrocution from 120 outlets.

When I was a baby electrician we thought it was cool to test by fingers i was working on a large J box singlinging out breakers.There were a bunch of laboreres that didnt believe that the 120 volt circuits were live and we were touching them.There were about 20 guys ai told to hold hands and the last guy had a grip on a 2 in hard copper riser.I lightyly touched the energized wire and felt the tingle and I called out fot the last guy to grab hold,he did and I grabed that #12 20 ocpd line and he lit up.In retrospect I was wrong was it funny heck yeah
I do not advocate doing this type of thing but it is a good war story to tell.PS (bet his hair is still frizzy

 

[rcwilson]

Re: Repeated exposure to electrocution from 120 outlets.

No one "builds up resistance to electric shock." What may be happening in these few individuals is dry skin or a higher than normal skin resistance. The resistance of the human body is almost all in the skin. Once current gets under the skin it only takes milivolts to get milliamps flowing through the heart. If this guy ever has a cut in his hand, or is sweating too much, he's dead.

I have worked with utility electricians who handed me hot 440V (ungrounded) and laughed when I got bit. One man I tried to fire was always touching hot stuff, especially on the 800 VDC rectifiers and the 250 VDC cranes. Other men in the crew bragged about Len's ability to never feel it. I wanted to fire him because we were training a bunch of apprentices and I didn't want bad habits passed on. (Company/union negotiations prevented it.)

My recommendation - at least buy a $30 voltage tester, your life is worth that. If you don't want to do that, get out of our business. I'm tired of investigating fatalities and talking to widows.

 

[physis]

Re: Repeated exposure to electrocution from 120 outlets.

Once current gets under the skin it only takes milivolts

Under the skin humans are a blob of saline type stuff. Salt water. Pretty conductive reletive to our skin. Electrically it's a really good thing we have skin.

 

[bthielen]

Re: Repeated exposure to electrocution from 120 outlets.

I've noticed that a few comments made point to the practical joker that thinks it is funny to shock someone. I wonder how these individuals would feel if their practical joke killed someone?

This is not a harmless practical joke! Just because one gets away with it a few times doesn't make it any less dangerous. Place a single cartridge in a six-shot revolver, spin the cylinder, and point it at your head and you have about an 83% chance that it will not go off when you squeeze the trigger. Pretty good odds if you're a bettin' man. How many of us would actually try it?

Bob

 

[molotov27]

Re: Repeated exposure to electrocution from 120 outlets.

I'm an engineer which means that I am not constantly opening panels, working around live parts, etc., so you can say that I am not confortable around live parts and equipment. Yes working everyday with the same thing over and over lowers the awareness no matter if you are an electrician, engineer or a housewife cutting lettuce with a knife. Would I ever bridge the neutral & hot....HELL NO!!!....call me a chicken, but my life is worth so much more than a what if, plus testers are very cheap these days.

Anyway.....way, way, way before I was old enough to study engineering (I was about 10-12) this guy lived across our house, he used to be a utiliy crewman, worked live lines, etc. The guy made contact with a 7620V line, spent 3 weeks in the hospital, but lived to tell the tale.

Years after his accident one day he calls me over to help him out with a DIY project and somewhere in the middle of it he hands me the end of a UF wire and I get zapped big time, screaming and cursing jajaja . The guy grabs the wire back, sticks out the tip of his tongue and touches the wire with it and says....hhhmmm, you are right, this is live. I swear to this day I still can believe it. Resistance to electricity...who knows, but it is a very good story that I will never forget.

 

[physis]

Re: Repeated exposure to electrocution from 120 outlets.

I wonder how his behaviour is or isn't related to his accident?

[ July 06, 2005, 10:07 PM: Message edited by: physis ]

 

[George Stolz]

Re: Repeated exposure to electrocution from 120 outlets.

Does anybody have electrocution stats by voltage?

 

[bphgravity]

Re: Repeated exposure to electrocution from 120 outlets.

Per the National Traumatic Occupational Fatality reporting system (NTOF), there are roughly an average of 224 worker deaths per year due to electrocution. (average from 1982-1994) This is persons actually working on or near electricity, not joe-homeowner changing a light bulb.

Here's how it breaks down:

Over 600 volt =

601-7199 = 16
7200-7620 = 80
7621-12,999 = 13
13,000-13,800 = 18
>20,000 = 21

Under 600 volt =

120 v = 26
240 v = 15
277 v = 12
480 v = 16
600 v = 6

Remeber that these are just averages per year.

 

[George Stolz]

Re: Repeated exposure to electrocution from 120 outlets.

Thanks, Bryan!

 

[charlie b]

Re: Repeated exposure to electrocution from 120 outlets.

Originally posted by georgestolz: Does anybody have electrocution stats by voltage?

Yea. It happened once. That was one time too many.

 

[charlie b]

Re: Repeated exposure to electrocution from 120 outlets.

I think it?s time for me to post this again. This is a message to anyone out there who thinks that it is OK to touch live conductors for any reason. If you know someone who believes that, please feel free to show them this post:

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

I like to use the following analogy, whenever someone tells me, ?It?s never been a problem before.?
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• <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Suppose that just before you back your car out of the driveway each morning, you put on blinders and earmuffs.</font>

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• <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Suppose that you wait for a random amount of time, and then just back into the street.</font>

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif"></font>

• <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">When you get into the street, you can take off the blinders and the earmuffs, and drive to work.</font>

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• <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Question: If you do this ten days in a row, and if you don?t hit anything during those ten days, would you conclude that this is a safe driving habit? Or would it take 20 consecutive days without incident, to convince you it was safe? 30? How many?</font>

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Everyone is welcome to steal this analogy shamelessly. But give me authorship credit, if you wish to use the following aphorism:

?An accident waiting for a place to happen will, given time, find that place.? Charlie Beck

 

[bphgravity]

Re: Repeated exposure to electrocution from 120 outlets.

Here's a good stat site:

Electrical Fatality Statisitics

 

[George Stolz]

Re: Repeated exposure to electrocution from 120 outlets.

Thanks for the link, Bryan.

And your typical words of wisdom, Master Beck.

 

[apauling]

Re: Repeated exposure to electrocution from 120 outlets.

I think the stats are probably deceptive in that the whole population is in the proximity to 120/240. it runs in their walls and they nail it, put ladders on it, hang tools on it, and generally treat it as harmless. say 200 million people in the proximity to residential type wiring would be conservative. half the deaths

the other half is for workers in the electrical industry (for the most part), being generous and liberal with definitions, lets say 5 million workers.

That means that the higher voltages are only 40 times more deadly. Even if you push the stats, the general conclusion should still be the same.

paul

 

[iwire]

Re: Repeated exposure to electrocution from 120 outlets.

Originally posted by apauling:
I think the stats are probably deceptive in that the whole population is in the proximity to 120/240.

Paul the stats Byran provided do not include Joe average homeowner at all.

The stats are only electrical workers.

I would say if we include the whole population that 120 volts kill more people than the other voltages entirely for the reason you stated...it's everywhere.

I doubt many people actually get 240 volt shocks, they get one side of 240 to ground.

 

[jwelectric]

Re: Repeated exposure to electrocution from 120 outlets.

Let?s try and remember that a statistic is to prove a point by the one taking it.

Example: I took a pole a couple of years ago and the response was 100%

The pole was, am I a handsome man? Of the three people I ask 100% agreed, my mom, wife and myself.

 

[LarryFine]

Re: Repeated exposure to electrocution from 120 outlets.

Just where you took the "pole", I don't want to know!

 

[apauling]

Re: Repeated exposure to electrocution from 120 outlets.

well I just sort of waded through that posted link and by gosh I'm still right. Of any one trade, the linemen managed to be the highest group, and high voltage is the most killing. If you read the whole article to the end, that is their conclusion.

As a whole there are more electricians than linemen and the electricians are way down the list, and all the other construction workers are even further down the list.

So again, the many had fewer fatal accidents with lower voltages than the few did with higher voltages.

paul

 

[iwire]

Re: Repeated exposure to electrocution from 120 outlets.

Originally posted by apauling:
well I just sort of waded through that posted link and by gosh I'm still right.

Paul your always right that has long since been established.

Your in that elite crowd of posters that is never mistaken.

I would say if a person is going to get a shock a higher voltage is more likely to kill them.

However if you look at the total number of electrocutions in this county you will find more deaths from 120 volt sources.

No homeowner got a 13.8 KV hit while installing a new receptacle.