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Russian woman dies after dropping charging iPhone into bathtub — The Independent

rui no onna said:
I think one of the takeaways from that article is this:





At just 1000 Ohms resistance, you need far less voltage for current to pass through.



V = IR



Dry Skin: 0.1 A * 500,000 Ohms = 50,000 V



Wet Skin: 0.1 A * 1,000 Ohms = 100 V



Mind, you might have muscle spasms, etc at lower voltages.
Click to expand...


That calculation is for DC, you need AC to kill you at low currents.

V = IR is also not going to get you the result of how much voltage is required to deliver current to the heart to kill you.

It's far more complex, however yes obviously being wet is a big factor. The bath is the worst possible scenario with let's say a million times the surface area contact with the electrode compared to a point contact.
 
Any "news" story from the Interweb must be true. I can't imagine why anyone is questioning the journalistic integrity of Internet news from Russia in 2014!
 
I make toast all the time while taking a bath. Toasters are a lot heavier than phones, and I've never once dropped my toaster in the bathtub.
 
I feel bad that she died, but common sense, don't use electronic devices when you're in the tub... or by water period. Water and electricity don't get along too well.
 
rui no onna said:
Voltage is not an issue. It's the current that kills you and 1A is definitely enough to do that.
Click to expand...

It's true that current is what kills, and it only takes very little, but as it has been pointed out human skin has resistance.

When dry, this is very high (which is why we can generally touch up to ~24V before we notice). Wet skin is much lower though as the surface area is effectively increased. Still, 5V wouldn't be able to create much current through a person. 1A is the maximum the charger can produce even if it had extremely low resistance.

In any case, it makes some sense that it was an extension cord or similar as the iphone charging cables tend to be really short and 5V is unlikely to be able to do serious damage at worst.
 
zorinlynx said:
Cheap chargers can suffer from leakage, where they output the necessary 5V to charge, but the entire circuit is also a hundred volts AC or so above ground potential.

The result is it seems to work fine, but parts of your phone inside are hovering right around line voltage. Drop this into a bathtub and you become part of a complete circuit and it can kill you.

This is why GFI outlets are so important. They detect this leakage to ground and cut the circuit immediately. A GFI would have saved this woman; I'm surprised one wasn't used so close to a bathtub. US code requires it, at least. Don't know about Russia.
Click to expand...

In the UK, even GFCI sockets are not approved for bathrooms. Only transformer-isolated shaver sockets. GFCIs can fail.

That said, I doubt this is a GFCI failure, I imagine one just didn't exist.
 
McDaddio said:
"I pulled my friend out and noticed that her body was shaking from the shock"

yeah, no.

But waiting for the "gate" people to claim "tubdeathdate"
Click to expand...

The friend didn't get shocked by pulling her out of the water while she was shaking from the shock? Does that mean the electricity was still pulsing through the water?
 
Although it is hard to believe the story here, it is also unbelievable somebody would be laying in a bath and using a plugged in device. We all die one day but we hope we don't meet our maker after being stupid. Silly lady but very sad also.

Why did her friend not get a shock when she lifted her out of the bath? It could be this lady had a heart attack and the phone simply dropped into the bath during or afterwards? Unless of course it tripped the box, but the story doesn't indicate that. Still, very sad.
 
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