Safety awareness

Why is electricity dangerous?

Electricity flows more easily through water than through air and always tries to find the easiest path to the ground.

Human bodies contain 70% water, meaning that if you touch an electric current it will pass through your body as it tries to find the easiest path to the ground causing you to suffer an electric shock.

Electric shocks can cause:

• heart failure - as your heart depends on a small regular electric stimulation to keep beating, a large shock can change the way it beats or stop it, resulting in death
• difficulty breathing –  a large electric shock can paralyse the muscles you use to breath
• muscle contractions – electricity causes your muscles to contract, effectively sticking you to the source of electric current and causing partial or total paralysis
• shock – an electric shock can cause your body to go into 'shock' meaning that your blood pressure falls, your pulse gets faster and you can lose consciousness
• burns – at the point it enters and leaves your body on its way to the ground.