Posted on 12/10/2020 10:11:54 AM PST by nickcarraway
A 24-year-old Russian woman was electrocuted when her charging iPhone fell into the water as she was taking a bath, according to a report.
Olesya Semenova’s lifeless body was found by her roommate in their apartment in Arkhangelsk, East2West News reported.
“I screamed, shook her, but she was pale, did not breathe and showed no signs of life,” Daria told the emergency operator. “I was really scared. When I touched her, I got an electric shock.” She added that she found Semenova’s iPhone 8 in the water — still charging.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
It was also standard practice to work with only one hand. The other hand would be firmly in one’s pants pocket. This would reduce greatly the chances that a deadly current could flow from arm to arm, stopping the heart.
—
I remember that admonition while doing electrical panel work where you might not be able to turn off power on the panel. With two hands, there is the potential one hand is touching a ground, like the enclosure, when the other hand might make accidental contact with line voltage. Then the shortest path for the current is from one arm, thru the heart, to the other arm.
It does matter because even though it’s the amperage (A) that will do the actual cooking, the voltage at the right frequency can cause a heart to stop at a pretty low A.
A 12 volt car battery will kill you, because it's about 60 amps.
The charger that phone comes with is 1 amp, so I agree something is missing.
European voltage is more likely 220 V.
The output end of a smartphone charger puts out 5 volts. Russian current is 230 volts. I’m betting the 230 portion went into the water, comrade, and that the article is distorting facts to create anxiety, as they do so well.
Since it happened around bath water, if the cord was wet it may have provided an exterior path from the outlet.
“Your car battery is 12 volts. It will fry you quite effectively.”
With some very rare exceptions, 12v is not enough to pernitrate dry human skin. Even wet skin typically has enough resistance to prevent any harm, but might allow an unpleasant shock or sensation.
People who are harmed by 12v electrical systems are injured by the arc resulting from any type of short as they are about the temperature of the sun...so...
The batteries in our cars are 12 volt.
Wanna go grab those wires-both at same time.??
I sure don’t.
That’s right.
I live in a 120 year old house - the first thing I did when I moved in (1987), was replace all bathroom and kitchen outlets with ground faults.
I should probably do that with the laundry room in the basement - there’s a utility sink.
When it s really important is if there is a bathtub - but sinks can electrocute people too - just a lot less likely to be fatal.
Yep. Cheap insurance.
How about the extension cord kills the first gal. Fuse to that outlet gets blown.
Second gal touches the dead gal and gets a very minor shock from the phone being in the water???
Think of it this way: Voltage is the cause. Current is the effect. An online OSHA paper suggests that 50mA to 150 mA can cause death.
The human body is not a perfect insulator and it is not a perfect conductor. Many five volt chargers are capable of currents in excess of 1 amp. Five volts is typically not enough voltage to cause even 50 milliamps (50 thousandths of an amp) through the human body. Similarly, a 12 volt car battery is usually not able to cause 50 milliamps through the human body, though it is capable of causing hundreds of amps through the starter motor.
Typical house voltage of 120 volts is more than enough to cause heart stoppage and death. I once contacted 120 volts across a one inch part of one hand. The effect was very painful and the pain lasted for hours. If the same current had flowed through my heart I might have died.
“Electrocuted by LOW Voltage?? that charger put out 12 volts, something is missing from the story”
It’s AMPs that kills you.
If there was no breaker and the charging wire was big enough to carry the required current, it could happen. But I am skeptical. I suspect foul play - the roommate would be my first suspect.
No, she claimed she received a shock from the phone.
The problem with these modern switching power supplies is that the output is is not isolated from the input. So one side of the input is tied to one side of the output. If that common just happens to be the AC line voltage(Instead of the neutral). Then you have the potential to get zapped. The AC traveled through the water to ground. And this poor girl was in the path. An old fashioned charger with a transformer would have prevented this death , as would a GFI outlet.
Russia has 220 V standard, like most of Europe.
No the shock was from AC line voltage. Probably 220 volts.
LOL!
If it was on an extension cord, then yes, that’s what did it. Should have still blown the breaker if there was one. In that sort of situation the breaker probably won’t save the person in the tub, just the people that have to fish them out later.
No it won’t because your resistance is too high. Now if you take a bath in salt water then things might get interesting.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.