Electric current perception study challenges electric safety limits

Abstract

Although a key parameter for safety regulations, the electric current perception threshold is not sufficiently established yet. Present knowledge suffers from a lack of women's data, small numbers of data on investigation of men and investigated samples non-representative for the general population. With measurement at 708 adults aged between 16 and 60 years (349 men and 359 women) these deficiencies could be overcome. The results are important. They show that the perception variability among the general population is 100-fold higher than estimated so far and that the currently used estimate of the threshold is more than 10-fold too high. Besides this, it could be shown that there are an over-proportion of more sensitive women compared with men indicating the need for revision of the present assumptions on gender-specific differences in electrosensibility. The results show that the existing assumptions on safety limits and remaining safety factors need serious review. In any case, relaxation of safety requirements is not justified.