50
Views
15
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
Research Article

Electric current perception study challenges electric safety limits

&
Pages 168-172 | Published online: 04 Aug 2009
 

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.

Reprints and Corporate Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

To request a reprint or corporate permissions for this article, please click on the relevant link below:

Academic Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

Obtain permissions instantly via Rightslink by clicking on the button below:

If you are unable to obtain permissions via Rightslink, please complete and submit this Permissions form. For more information, please visit our Permissions help page.