Re: Let Go Current of Male vs Female

In article <nlfnv39n2o86pst5relvmtpc2oo5s7odac@xxxxxxx>, D from BC wrote:
While roaming the net, I tripped across this:
http://www.anesth.uiowa.edu/uploads/Electrical%20Safety.PPT#29
The 'Let Go Current for Men and Women'.

Ha! I can imagine the posters:
'Male and female volunteers wanted to participate in electrocution
experiment'

I'm not surprised the graph has
'average for 28 women'
'average for 134 men'


I remember from the early 1980's from my Drexel co-op job at the
Philadelphia Naval Shipyard reading some book or document saying how much
current has what effects on men and women.

I thought they were trying to support a notion of women being weaker
when they gave figures close to 1/3 lower for women than for men.

The graphs at the above site showing gender differences indicate women
suffer a given effect with about 2/3 to 70% as much current as men do.
Another graph at that site indicates relationship with body weight.

=======================================

I also see "maximum non-fibrillating current (0.5%)" being almost 63%
of "minimum fibrillating current (0.5%)". Somehow I suspect they used a
small sample size or unusually controlled conditions or both. I would
have expected a much wider range between 99.5% survival and 99.5%
fatality. That graph does not state sample size nor species for those two
lines, though I suspect those two lines are supposed to apply for humans
in an arm-to-arm shock.

=======================================

Also note that this site says typical fibrillation threshold is 100 mA -
for a 1-second shock. If a shock victim is shocked into latching onto a
conductor, the shock duration can be much longer and lower currents can be
fatal. Being unable to let go of a conductor can occur at 10-20 milliamps
according to the above site.

- Don Klipstein (don@xxxxxxxxx)
.