Electric Shock in Swimming Pools

Inside water human body offers less resistive path for any current that is flowing through water and that means current density inside body will be higher than of rest of water in pool,In other words body is a shorter path for current than of water, and as you know current will always follow shorter path.

Try fitting an electrode at each end of a pool and going for a swim. Pool water usually has chemicals added so they should lower the resistivity of the water. In theory you should be OK, but I'll leave it to you to find out.

You can jump in, just be careful when you climb out!

Don't do it. The heart-lung group can be shut down by as little as half a milli-amp. This is why we invented the ground-fault circuit interrupter.

Falcon1

Current flows through even higher resistive paths. Just that more flows through lower resistive paths. So it doesn't matter if there is a resistance lower than the human-body resistance - the human gets his share (lol) as per the current divider rule.

To explain this in simple terms consider the diagram below.

The 1 kΩ resistance is much higher than the 1 Ω (1000 times), but a share of the total current will flow through it - even if its a small percent of the total current.

The voltage is 15 V, that implies that the total current is 15.015 Amps. Out of this only 0.015 Amps flows through the 1 kΩ, the remaining 15 Amps flows through the 1Ω.

Think of any "high resistance" object in a circuit in a similar manner. Current doesn't avoid any conducting path in the circuit. While dealing with low voltages (like the example of mine), many people work by placing their hands on the live wire - we don't even feel the current because its much less than what's hazardous to us. If the source is higher (like say the 240 V ac mains), one's got to be more careful.

What does the regulations like BS,IEC,NEC, VDE say regarding earth leakage protection in swimming pools and showers or wet locations?.

10mA?

This isn't the answer you are looking for, but it is a good answer.

Since you are asking there is probably a pool that is doing this. It is doing it because something is wrong and it could easily get "more wrong". No one should be in or around the pool until the problem is understood and corrected.

The chances of electrocution will exist if one is touching the live wire else I really don't feel the chances of electrocution exist at normal voltages, despite innumerable films on the subject.

As far as safety requirement one of this article is quite informative is this one and this

But afterall if he is not touching the wire I don't see, despite the parallel equivalent circuits shown, how the sufficient current would pass through the heart.

The waters, usually, are chlorinated, and the Cl ion would increase conductivity by quite an amount.

Then the surface salts on the body would have a lot of surface current passing through (rather than inside current)

Thirdly across the body length waht would be the potential difference?

If one goes to extreme, the lightning strike on water bodies (with millions of volts) is not too uncommon? Do all the fishes and other aqua creatures die?

Not too sure about fishes, but people do die, yes...they do.

In the SE of the USA the beach patrol will secure the beach for swimming and generally anybody out in the open when a lightning storm approaches.

After years of experience with people being killed in open water by nearby lightning, they take no chances.

Wet body, above waterlevel (had to be unless diving) - perfect lightning rod.

The fishes will die near the lightning strike point (due to the local potential difference of the million of volts and also the heat)

But as one goes away from the point, simply the electric field intensity will go down and the potential difference between points would be quite low (1/r²). Howmuch, may be calculated. But still at a distance of 1 meter from a demestic supply voltage I seriously don't see a fatal shock.

A full grown electric eel can produce an electric charge of up to 800 volts. This is enough to stun or kill a human that is foolish enough to snuggle up next to it. They live in the sea which is full of salt water making it nicely conductive.

In the case of a properly maintained swimming pool there will still be plenty of conductivity but most devices like pumps and lighting are carefully grounded. Therefore if the water is exposed to some electrical leak, it will usually seek that nice ground, but the path will be difficult to predict. In general, however, any current flow you might experience will be a function of your distance from the leaking power and the conductivity of the water.

If you were to shower and then swim in distilled water, you would have to be much closer to the source of electricity to feel the current. But in a flooded basement with an extension cord on the floor (covered by water) you will feel the current within a couple of meters. As you step closer, your legs will provide a lower resistance path than the water between your legs and you may very quickly reach dangerous levels of current. I don't recommend walking around in a flooded basement with power lines in the water or swimming in a pool that has loose power conductors in it either.

Lastly, to have any current flow, you must have a voltage difference. Being safe is a lot more fun than being dead.