NFPA 70E goes to great lengths when it comes to protection against the electric shock hazard.

Have you ever experienced an electric shock? Minor, major, at home, on the job, or anywhere.

• Yes
• No

More times than I care to admit!

During the 2011 ESW in Toronto, Dr. Joel Fish from St John's Rehab Hospital gave a presentation on what he called the "Hidden Shock Injury". In a nutshell, these were cases when a person received what appeared to be little more than a minor shock with no apparent serious injury. However, this was not the case. These people suffered from a long list of symptoms ranging from pain, fatigue and inability to concentrate. They would see a variety of specialists, go through a battery of tests but no signs of damage could be found. They were often accused of insurance fraud. But, their conditions were very real and they were unable to return to work at their former jobs. If you are a safety trainer I suggest you look this up and use it. It is frightening stuff.

Bob Ragsdale, P.E.

Thanks for bringing up this presentation. I recall it was a lot of great information and very important.

My son had a serious shock (not able to let go type of event) in 2003. He fell, which broke the circuit but I took him to the ER knowing that sometimes the effects are not noticeable for a while.

Initially he was fine (no heart damage) but he was visibly shaken. He developed a few heart rhythm problems afterwards that gave us a scare - it lasted a month or two.

As you say, and as we found out the hard way, it is important to follow up even if the shock appears to be minor. Fortunately nothing was permanent.

Thank!

Good question. I suspect if you were raised with electricity in your life, you have been shocked.

That would mean the only "no" votes would come from those that were not raised with electricity (amish?). Therefore, they would also not have internet access and could not cast their "no" vote. Is this a fair survey question?

This is called Diffuse Electrical Injury and is very real.
http://ecmweb.com/mag/electric_happens_electricity_doesnt/

A friend of mine got "hi-potted" at 25 kv DC!!! The guy doing the test was sorry and had taken several short cuts for his tests... In the end they said there was more we could have done to prevent it.. I guess 3 locks in the 90s was not enough....

Did he survive or die? If survive - any lasting effect?

He got thrown back into the reactor cage he was working in. Fortunately he was wearing leather gloves.. No lasting effects and no other injuries that day..