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I was reading some other questions when I came up with this.

People are often warned about the danger of electric currents passing through the body. Is charging the human body with a small current harmful, or up to what extent is it safe? Suppose the human is insulated, apart from this charging current. While this answer may suggest that staying on a wire is safe, the other answer suggests that for a spherical human made of water, being charged by more than $2.6*10^{-6} C$ would be unstable.

Qmechanic
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Ma Ye
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1 Answers1

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There’s a wide range of potential physiological effects from electrical current passing through the body, from harmless to fatal, which include, but are not limited to, perception, involuntary (startle) reaction, muscle tetanus (a.k.a, inability to let go), ventricular fibrillation, and cardiac arrest.

The electrical current required to produce each of these effects can involve a wide variety of interrelated factors including, but not limited to, magnitude, duration, wave shape, and pathway through the body.

A compressive description of all the above, including specific thresholds, can be found in IEC 60479-1:2018 Effects of current on human beings and livestock Part 1 General Aspects.

Hope this helps.

Bob D
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