It’s easy to accidentally die from electric current, but it’s extremely difficult to intentionally kill a person with electric current

Attention factor affects the outcome of electrical injuries

Unresolved issue of what is primary when fatal electric shock - damage to the respiratory system or cardiac arrest is largely due to the huge role of the central nervous system, which unexpectedly confuses our ideas about the mechanism of action of electric current. In some cases, the central nervous system forces the irreversible development of pathological changes, in others, on the contrary, it creates defensive (protective) lines against them.

Experimental electrical trauma cannot provide an unambiguous interpretation of these mysterious circumstances. The main object of study is too complex - the person, and therefore the transfer of data obtained during the experimental electric trauma caused to the model, i.e., to the animal, is too conditional. It is conditional primarily because such a transfer does not take into account the state of the central nervous system of a person, the most important role of which in the outcome of an electric shock is beyond doubt.

Already from the work of one of the founders of the electrical safety of Jellinek, completed in the twenties XX century, it followed that the differences between the central nervous systems of man and animal do not allow fully and comprehensively simulate the electrical injury of a person on an animal. Jellinek, perhaps, came closest to understanding the reasons that make it difficult to reconcile the experimental data with the data obtained by statistical and instrumental analysis of industrial and household electrical injuries. Just refer nand the idea repeatedly developed in his works on the role in the outcome of a defeat "Attention factor"i.e. about the dominant importance of the central nervous system.

Eloquently his statement: “Not every current kills, but every current can kill”, which in a slightly modified form sounds like this: “It’s easy to accidentally die from electric current, but it’s extremely difficult to intentionally kill a person by electric shock.

Jellinek was able to identify the importance of the attention factor during his investigations into electricity accidents. He wrote:

“The main feature of electric trauma is that the voltage of our attention, our firm will, is able not only to weaken the effect of electric current, but sometimes to completely destroy it. The crushing power of a falling beam or explosion cannot be weakened by courage and heroic endurance, but this is quite possible with respect to the action of an electric shock if it occurs during a period of intense attention. Indeed, he who hears a shot without seeing the shooter may die from a sudden shock, while he who looks at the shooter or shoots himself is not exposed to shock. ”

Here we have in mind not so-called involuntary attention, which is caused by some unexpected event, but that attention, which is directed by the force of waves to us at expected phenomena, events and irritations.

“The attention factor,” wrote Jellinsk, “plays an extremely large, maybe decisive role ...”, and further: “nothing happens to those who are in a state of concentrated attention ... He contrasts his attention like a shield , a terrible moment that could happen. "

The English say: “A man, whose mind is prepared, is worth two” (“A man whose mind is prepared is worth two.”) They express the same idea in other words: "Forewarned is forearmed" ("Pre-warned - pre-armed"). The French have a similar expression: “Un homme averti vaut deux” (“A forewarned person is worth two”).

Jellinek showed the importance of the attention factor not only on the materials obtained in the study of accidents, but also experimentally. The experiments were performed on cats. Those animals that were in a calm state died from a voltage of 220 V, and those that were teased with a stick and at the same time applied the same voltage perceived this electric shock as a stick and rushed at the experimenter.

Very interesting data on the effect of the attention factor on the outcome of electrical injuries were obtained by R. A. Vedentieva, who was experimenting under the guidance of G. Yu. Belitsky. The experiments were conducted on dogs. The closure of the electric circuit caused convulsions, and then a pathological reaction in the form of increased vascular permeability. A feature of the experiments was that the circuit was preceded by the supply of a conditional signal warning experimental animals about the impending impact. As a result of the experiments, it was undoubtedly established that the warning changed the pathological reaction mentioned above, and the nature of this change depended on the current value. And this means that the warning “smooths out” the difference in the strength of the reactions: it weakens the strong and strengthens the weaker.

The importance of the attention factor has found and continues to find increasing evidence in the results of accident investigations.

Of course, the “attention factor” is not the only reason explaining the existence of significant contradictions between animal experiments and observations of the effect of electric current in electrical injuries. But this is an important reason. This is why the study of attention factor should be strengthened. It must be assumed that the results of such a study will eliminate the existing contradictions in the assessment of dangerous values ​​of current and voltage for humans.

It should be noted that representatives of the school of V. A. Negovsky expressed their disagreement with the thought of Ellinek and his followers about the absence of a linear relationship between the value of the damaging current and the outcome of the lesion. They criticized this statement for its uncertainty, which, in their opinion, made it impossible to standardize the foundations of protective measures. But this criticism is untenable, since the initial values ​​of dangerous or non-hazardous currents do not at all predetermine a complex of effective protective measures. Both conducting preventive insulation tests and increasing the reliability of the equipment are measures that can be implemented with any uncertainty in the initial damaging parameters. Moreover, it is precisely the “vagueness" of Jellinek’s statement that aims at the implementation of organizational and technical measures that eliminate the conditions of defeat.

Manoilov V.E.

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