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From: (no name) (no email)
Date: Mon Jun 11 2007 - 10:15:43 EDT
This was sent to me privately, but my response might be of interest to
others.
>
>
> Sorry about your friend, Gene. Did a salty human body make a current path
> through fresh water to salty water below?
>
This was a "fresh water electrocution". In salt water it isn't so dangerous.
The current will dissipate over a large area, since saltwater is a good
conductor. The voltage will stay low since it leaks away. there is not so much risk
around a boat.
In fresh water it is a different story. Pure water isn't a conductor, fresh
water is not pure, but has little in it to make it conduct. Therefore it will
have an area around the source that is very charged. If you are swimming around
(as my friend was underwater) and get into this charged area, suddenly you
are paralyzed and cannot move. You'll suffocate since you cannot take air into
your lungs. You don't get electrocuted in the normal sense.
It's the same principal as the old method of "telephoning" fish, where a hand
crank telephone is cranked, letting the leads from the generator that would
normally ring someone on the other end, instead stun the fish. The difference
is fish survive because they get their oxygen from the water anyway.
They never found the source, apparently it was something on a boat that
failed or came on occasionally and did not charge the water any time they ran
tests. Scares the hell out of me.
Gene Gruender
Sun Chaser
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