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Understanding Low-Voltage Hazards

Low voltages can still be dangerous sources of electricity. The human body's resistance to electric current can vary depending on factors like health, contact area, and skin conditions. Even low voltages of 25 volts can be lethal if the body's resistance is low from perspiration. While 120 volts may cause a slight shock under some conditions, any contact with electricity without proper knowledge is dangerous and should be avoided.

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Syed Masudur Rahim
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66 views2 pages

Understanding Low-Voltage Hazards

Low voltages can still be dangerous sources of electricity. The human body's resistance to electric current can vary depending on factors like health, contact area, and skin conditions. Even low voltages of 25 volts can be lethal if the body's resistance is low from perspiration. While 120 volts may cause a slight shock under some conditions, any contact with electricity without proper knowledge is dangerous and should be avoided.

Uploaded by

Syed Masudur Rahim
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Low-Voltage Hazard

Whether in the area of safety or anywhere else, not getting the facts straight causes a lot of
troubleparticularly when people accept a mixed-up notion just because it is widely believed.
Quite a few such fictions regarding safety persist as common beliefs, even though they lead to
on-the-job injuries and deaths every year.
One of these is the widely held fiction that low-voltage electricity is not dangerous. The fact
is that most injuries involving electricity are from low-voltage power sources.
In fact, the amount of current flowing at any given voltage depends upon the resistance of the
materials through which it flowsincluding any human body that becomes part of the circuit.
Metals such as copper, iron, and aluminum offer low resistance, so they are good conductors.
Materials like rubber, ceramics, and dry wood (among others) offer high resistance to the flow of
current, making them poor conductors but good insulators.
The human body can act as either a poor conductor or a good one, depending on various factors:

The health of the individual

The duration of contact with the flow of current

The area of contact

The condition of the skin (wet, dry, greasy, etc.).

If you were to measure your body's resistance to the flow of current from one arm to the
other on a warm day on which you were perspiring freely, the resistance could be low enough
that 25 volts would produce enough current to kill you.
There are cases of deaths caused by 32-volt farm lighting systems, yet, under favorable
conditions, the body's resistance may be such that a 120-volt house lighting system might cause
only a slight tingling shock.
Here is a safe conclusion about electricity and the most important fact to remember: If you
know little or nothing about it, leave it alone! Conditions can vary so greatly that without
knowledge of all the factsand what they meanyou are sure to make an error. In working
with electricity, however, there is no margin for error: Make an unwise decision, and you may
be saying "sayonara."

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