It may also be worth looking at the equality issues, as it has been noted on a Mike Holt video (USA) of at least one case where a pregnant lady was getting shocks from a poorly earthed pool fixture (common in Florida) but the potential wasn't enough for the rest of the family to comment.

I don't know if there has been any research on the issue, but it's likely that females were never included in original research [1].

Certainly Charles Dalziels work on Effects_of_Electric_Shock_on_Man despite the title, did actually include a no. of women in the study.

"Similar data were also obtained at the Electrical Testing Laboratories, New York, on 42 men and 28 women, using four different test electrodes and 60 cycle alternating current. The ratio of average
perception current thresholds for women to men was approximately 2/3. Thus it
seems reasonable to conclude that the threshold of perception for women can be
taken as 66 2/3 per cent of the corresponding value for men."

Of course there are fewer women than men in the study,  but it does not alter the conclusion that on average, the results did indeed suggest they are more sensitive in terms of shock threshold.

The results are more tellingly also scaled in more or less the same way for the muscle locking current levels as well.





"Prolonged exposure to currents only slightly in excess of a person's let-go limit
may produce exhaustion, asphyxia, collapse and unconsciousness followed by death."

As far as I know no-one has been brave enough to publish an experimental re-validation of  these results in more recently times, perhaps with a more socially representative participant group, although the suggested safety limits are often referred to when ADS levels and RCD trip times and so on are discussed. Perhaps in a better world, these too would need two limits, based on the sex of the person to be protected - RCDs for women, with a 20mA rather than a 30mA threshold ?

Mike.

Hello Mike:

Anyone who has lived with a women who is pregnant will tell you at certain times they can become extra sensitive to certain external stimulus.

Regarding dangers of having backyard pools (drowning or electrocution) was why we didn't have one built at our Florida residence.

Peter Brooks

Palm Bay Florida USA 

Hello Philip:

There are situations in medical research where opposite sex bias exists - example is in hip fractures where periodic tests for Osteopenia (using Dexascan) is recommended for women but not for men. It isn't because men don't get hip fractures but because there is little published research with men. The ratio of women to men for hip fractures is estimated to be 80:20 .

Peter Brooks

Palm Bay Florida USA  

Hello Philip:

As a follow on to my previous response:

Men can also get and die from Breast Cancer!

It happened to a guy who used to work with me.

Peter Brooks

Palm Bay Florida USA 

Peter Brooks said:

Men can also get and die from Breast Cancer!

Roughly 1% of cases.

Peter Brooks said:

Men can also get and die from Breast Cancer!

Roughly 1% of cases.