=== Electric shock data

The table of electric currents and their various bodily effects was
obtained from online (Internet) sources: the safety page of
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (website:
#link("http://web.mit.edu/safety")[\[\*\]]), and a safety handbook
published by Cooper Bussmann, Inc (website:
#link("http://www.bussmann.com/")[\[\*\]]). In the Bussmann handbook,
the table is appropriately entitled #emph[Deleterious Effects of
Electric Shock], and credited to a Mr. <NAME>. Further
research revealed Dalziel to be both a scientific pioneer and an
authority on the effects of electricity on the human body.

The table found in the Bussmann handbook differs slightly from the one
available from MIT: for the DC threshold of perception (men), the MIT
table gives 5.2 mA while the Bussmann table gives a slightly greater
figure of 6.2 mA. Also, for the \"unable to let go\" 60 Hz AC threshold
(men), the MIT table gives 20 mA while the Bussmann table gives a lesser
figure of 16 mA. As I have yet to obtain a primary copy of Dalziel\'s
research, the figures cited here are conservative: I have listed the
lowest values in my table where any data sources differ.

These differences, of course, are academic. The point here is that
relatively small magnitudes of electric current through the body can be
harmful if not lethal.

Data regarding the electrical resistance of body contact points was
taken from a safety page (document 16.1) from the Lawrence Livermore
National Laboratory (website #link("http://www-ais.llnl.gov/")[\[\*\]]),
citing <NAME> as the data source. Lee\'s work was listed here in a
document entitled \"Human Electrical Sheet,\" composed while he was an
IEEE Fellow at E.I. duPont de Nemours & Co., and also in an article
entitled \"Electrical Safety in Industrial Plants\" found in the June
1971 issue of #emph[IEEE Spectrum] magazine.

For the morbidly curious, <NAME>\'s experimentation conducted
at the University of California (Berkeley) began with a state grant to
investigate the bodily effects of sub-lethal electric current. His
testing method was as follows: healthy male and female volunteer
subjects were asked to hold a copper wire in one hand and place their
other hand on a round, brass plate. A voltage was then applied between
the wire and the plate, causing electrons to flow through the subject\'s
arms and chest. The current was stopped, then resumed at a higher level.
The goal here was to see how much current the subject could tolerate and
still keep their hand pressed against the brass plate. When this
threshold was reached, laboratory assistants forcefully held the
subject\'s hand in contact with the plate and the current was again
increased. The subject was asked to release the wire they were holding,
to see at what current level involuntary muscle contraction (tetanus)
prevented them from doing so. For each subject the experiment was
conducted using DC and also AC at various frequencies. Over two dozen
human volunteers were tested, and later studies on heart fibrillation
were conducted using animal subjects.
