I applaud your efforts to improve the understanding of electrical safety and electrocution... I am some waht offended that most electricians ans engineers understand how little current it takes to "kill"...

is there a reason you made this statement? can you support it? to the credit of the engineers and electricians I work with, we are all acutely aware of how few milliamps it takes to do one in...

14 months ago, I was electrocuted by 277v, with a wire stuck into the web of my finger, and my other hand clenching a 1/2" conduit. My apprentice estimated it was about 10 seconds before he knocked my 7' ladder out from under me to break the circuit.

3 hours later,I checked myself into an emergency room. Though my heart didn't suffer permanent damage, it was still quivering from the shock. I just had extensive surgery to repair the damage to my shoulder caused by the fall, but I feel very fortunate to be alive.

In the past, I always felt anything over 110v would knock you clear. I now know very differently. Though the shock was caused by shoddy work done by another company (it was an open wire hidden in a j-box), I now take a lot more precautions then I ever thought necessary (gloves, saftey glasses, buddy system, de-energizing if at all possible)

Hopefully, my story can help others to take the same precautions.

Remove me from your mail list please.

Can you tell me the original date the article " Electrical Safety in Industrial Plants was first published. Thanks

I have also been shocked by picking up a 1.5 volt D cell by the ends. When I was a kid I would play with my electrical stuff for hours without washing my hands which would allow perspiration salts to build up. Enough in the way of perspiration salts would lead to a nasty shock from 1.5 volts. Since then I wash my hands once an hour if possible when working on live electrical equipment when doing things such as sticking in voltmeter probes.

I have encountered a few things that were not as deenergized as advertised. One of them is that some old style 3-way and 4-way switches can have 2 hot wires and 2 neutrals feeding 1 light bulb. That is how a 3-way switch can apply 240 volts to a 120-volt light bulb!

Mike Cole, mc5w at earthlink dot net