Death by iPhone Charger

If this is true... I am willing to bet that... counterfeit product has claimed another life.

The counterfeit product market for electrical goods was claimed to be (over a year ago by Interpol) to be over 6 billion US dollars a year.

The voltage gradient through the water could be such that, unless she was fully imersed in the water also, the friend would not be exposed to the potential.

***** WARNING *****

The Surgeon General determined that Living can be harmful to your health.

You have been warned.

Everybody dies from a sexually transmitted disease: childbirth.
The death rate is exactly 1.00000....

SOMEONE SHOULD DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS TRAGEDY...... er,.... Other than what their doing now.....

Yes, but what is the death rate from stupidity?

Easier to pull the cable out of the charger than the charger out of the wall.

If she did get a shock, her body may have jolted and yanked the cable free or her roommate may have thought to pull it out first. Who knows?

These are reporters writing the story and you can't expect them to always think to ask common sense questions.

From your sparse description it is quite possibly true, albeit it is confusingly phrased. If the charger and extension cord fell into the bath then it is easy to see the line cord voltage directly causing an electrocution. If the charger and line cord remained dry and the charger did not provide complete galvanic isolation from line voltages due to a hard to notice component failure or a poorly designed (counterfeit) charger then again it is easy to see this happen. If only low voltages (<<50V) with respect to earth made contact with bath salted water with maybe a cut or two, it is far less likely but I will not dismiss it as impossible.

Being only a professional in medicine, it was my good fortune to meet up with a professional engineer who allowed me access to a draft British Standards document, IEC/TS 60479-1, Effects of current on human beings and livestock. The scariest part of this document is that some of the most dangerous data appear to have been derived from personal voluntary experimentation. Some numbers: Total body impedance for a current path hand to hand a.c. 50/60 Hz for large surface areas of contact in water/wet conditions varies with touch voltage, being 4100 ohms @ 25V, 2050 ohms @ 200V and 1050 ohms @ 1000V. The values are almost identical for salt water. I doubt that cuts in the skin on either arm or both would significantly lower it, but 100mA flowing through the body for anything above 1 sec puts you in the very likely death zone (probability of ventricular fibrillation >50%)
The stories of microamps being sufficient to cause ventricular fibrillation stem from accidents with patient monitoring equipment involving an electrode within a vein. they are not relevant here.
The bit that bothers me is how you get a full 200+ volts hand to hand from a charger where presumably live and neutral wires are next to each other. I simply don't buy the idea that an electric field of that dimension could result from dropping a mains cable into the water. Neither do I buy the idea that the bath itself had a negligible resistance to ground. Informed opinion appreciated.

Well the mains voltage in Russia is 230 VAC at 50 Hz. If the charger fell into the bath then the mains voltage the charger was using to draw power from fell into the water also.

Yes, but the exposed live point and the exposed neutral point in the charger are right next to each other, and one expects the electrons to take the shortest path. Even allowing for a fuse not blowing, how does a field potential of 200V+ develop across the body?

Since the conductivity of water is about 10 million times less than that of copper, I'm not sure that that is a fair comparison. I'll believe there is an electrical field, but question its value. After all, for each tube of water carrying current to the right hand from the live side there is an immediately adjacent tube of water to carry the same current straight back to the neutral side without passing through the body to the left hand. Not only that, but there are also 2 tubes of water to carry current from the live side to the left hand and straight back, making it even more difficult to set up a potential difference between right hand and left hand.
Yours truly, Still Confused.

Yes, pure water is a very good insulator but bath water is never pure. Dirt, oils, soap, and salty sweat will be in solution or suspension in this water. These impurities (particularly the salty sweat) will increase the conductivity of the water. The saltiest of water will still not be considered a good conductor.

What many people forget in this scenario is that people are not very good conductors, too. So unless the impedance of other items in series with the person is at least two orders of magnitude greater than the person then a potentially lethal amount of current might pass through the person. It also matters the timing of the heart rhythm with the moment of electrical connection as to if the heart goes into a potentially fatal rhythm.

Let's not forget this is a phone we are talking about. It might be that she had the faulty non-isolated, charging phone to her wet, soaked head and hair when she tried to adjust the faucet or drain with her other hand. That sounds like a very plausible way to dump current directly into the brain stem.

I should point out that the comparison I gave between water and copper was for salt water. However, I think we can say that the current flow from the charger/phone to the body surface is your territory, but the events within the body are most definitely in my competence. Even if the unwanted current happened when she was holding a phone to her head the skull bones represent a relatively good insulator. Current can flow in the skin/fat/muscle/blood vessel area but only a tiny amount would get as far as the brainstem, as her hand would provide a more plausible current path.
Postulating a current flow from one hand to the other is reasonable, with the assumptions that one hand is clutching a faulty phone and the other touching an earthed portion of the bath. It is then up to you to devise a fault arrangement whereby immersion allows the live side of the charger to contact the user while remaining isolated from the neutral side which offers a return path of low resistance.

"Neither do I buy the idea that the bath itself had a negligible resistance to ground. Informed opinion appreciated."

I would expect the bath tub to have a good ground if the plumbing was copper or metal, which is probably more true in Russia than the USA.

In most civilized countries, all the plumbing MUST be earth bonded.....all the piping and all the taps and any metal baths......

Which in this case probably helped to kill her. Anybody see any benefit from earthing the bath? If it was isolated, she could still be alive.

Well, both the NEC (National Electric Code) and the AWWA (American Water Works Association) are at odds over this debate and have been for some time.

On one hand the NEC wants pipes grounded to protect against user electrocution and the risk of fires from lightning.

On the other hand the AWWA feels that grounding the system puts installers and maintenance personnel at risk of electrocution and they don't want the responsibility of grounding the system; washing their hands of it, if you can stand the pun.

So, which is better depends on who you talk to, but with plastics like PVC and PEX storming their way into the construction industry it seems the the AWWA is getting their way.

As we have no way to know exactly how she was electrocuted, you cannot be certain.....none of us can be certain. But possible.

Using ANYTHING electronic/electric, both badly and well made, connected to the mains while in the bath is always dangerous. Most people know this (or should!).

Even electric razor power sockets in a bathroom need to have an isolation transformer in most westernized countries...just for safety.....

Also hair dryers should not be used in a bathroom for that reason. But many do, even children!!

The best and safest way to organise your mains in houses and offices that I know of are those CBs that when there is a ground fault on a phase (someone touching it for example), it simply drops that phase in a very short space of time.

I have 3 of them on my incoming mains to the house.

Though we have never ever had one drop yet in the house for any reason, they still test good, but I accidentally tested one with my finger at the office while holding a training class maybe 20 years ago....painful but not really dangerous.

There may be something better nowadays that I have not yet heard of....someone here will know!!

In the USA I don't think so. Plastic is replacing copper in new construction.

PEX is becoming a favorite for new homes and renovations. PEX comes on a roll, is reasonably flexible, and eliminates the need for elbows used in PVC lines. Works great for hot and cold plumbing as well as radiant heating.

PEX and PVC are not electrically grounded, so tubs, basins, and fixtures are not electrically grounded. However, there is a controversy over this idea.

Obviously plastic does not need to be grounded, but any metal baths for example should be grounded....

I would expect modern electrical code to cover that in some way.........

As I said, it is not defined due to the conflict between the two agencies.

'but any metal baths for example should be grounded....'

Obviously, Andy.

But why?

I believe the idea is that if a live wire contacts the hidden metal, the automatic circuit protection will open.

That must be presuming an ELCB or similar, as a fuse or std CB would mean Natasha is already dead.

So why not just ELCB, no earthing?

Actually the duelling parties should get the stats on electrocution vs the circuit arrangement for all deaths, do the numbers on what is the safest circuit.

The code here and the UK requires it....I am sure they are not alone.....the USA appears to have a problem if what you say is true.....

I believe that the basic idea behind such code is if there is a mains short to the piping (where metal) and/or the the bath (if metal), a heavy current should flow, CBs should drop, fuses should blow.....

As its usually code in most civilized countries I believe, there is nothing to think about, simply do it!!

If you don't follow code and someone is injured, there could be big problems.....especially insurance ones......

Thats my take.

Assuming that the lady was immersed in water, your thoughts are not needed as to the conduction of well soaked skin with be complete.

Cuts and other injuries will not, could not make it any worse than the bath water had already made it........

The problem here is that the output of the charger was not well isolated from the mains, eg. in a simple safe charger, there would have been a tiny isolation transformer in the wall plug part.....

Also, especially in a well designed SMPS version, which would also have been made very efficient too.....

Cheap knockoff chargers (and batteries) can be very dangerous. If it hasn't been properly evaluated, leave it alone!!

I wonder why such units can be imported and sold, the seller should be made financially responsible as well.....

Does the Russian grid & residential power tie-in involve a grounded neutral? What's the possibility that there was a grounding issue that brought the charger far above 50 volts? Do Russian electrical codes call for GFCI's in the bathroom? Here in the US, it's against code to have an outlet near a bath or sink without it being GFCI.

There's far more to this story than is being reported.

I personally suspect that there's no actual liability on Apple's part, but that this is an attempt to smear Apple given Russia's current political atmosphere (Think McDonalds). It wouldn't surprise me to see more articles like this over the near future.

I feel there is something missed in this sad story,.. also, I wonder why she was charging her iPhone in the bathroom. Anyway, I'll work as an engineering analyser here. Supposedly the story is right and complete, then I would say that the girl's death was due to the very low resistance of her body, which in turn indicates that the victim was so delicate!!
I hope peace for everyone here!!

Doesn't surprise me, I have heard of other incidents, all relating to counterfeit knock-off products that failed in an unsafe way.

I agree, the likelihood is a knock-off failing, but see my post above. Not an Apple liability, nor necessarily a knock-off, and even a working GFCI would not have helped IF (BIG, BIG, IF here) the cuts were present, and exposed.

Point being, there are WAY too many possibilities for any of us to want to risk drawing conclusions on the sensationalist writ(h)ings of a reporter on a deadline looking to make a name for him/herself.

IIRC, Apple offered to replace the counterfeits with the real product, for $10 each -

From our favorite source:

Giz Explains: How Electrocution Really Kills You - Gizmodo

"If 7 milliamps reaches your heart continuously for three seconds, "your heart goes arrhythmic," he explained. Then everything else starts shutting down. "You could quite easily kill someone with a 9-volt or AAA battery directly to the heart."

while in US, GFCI trips at 6mA fitted for a single receptacle,why in UK the RCD trips at 30mA for a group of sockets?.

Good points, Jmueller, and a GA from me. I knew this, but not in the detail, nor in the supporting explanation you provided. Thank you. I'll bow out now since you've done so much better at this than I ever could. I sent this discussion to my daughter who is a nurse on the Pumonary Intensive Care Unit at our local hospital, and I think she'll find it interesting to see that we do actually discuss this kind of thing on an "engineering forum". I love CR4!!

The British Standard document I quoted in post #28 puts a 5mA AC current as being safe for 10 seconds, and probably indefinitely. This is *not* affected by soaking/skin damage, though the voltage required to generate the current will be less.

Thanks, Lyn. I didn't see this before my lengthier posts above. And for once, Giz got it right. For just this once, anyway!

I'm not buyin' it.....I got a call once the guy was getting shocked when taking a shower....I found 110v line directly tied to plumbing....I took my multi-meter and held one lead in the stream of water, and held the other one with my fingers...the reading was fluctuating from 60-120v....I felt some tingle but trust me when I say it was nothing compared to some jolts I've gotten over the years...5v at 2a, don't make me laugh.....

Well, that assumes a ground is functional on the wall socket or that the charger doesn't have proper isolation between AC hot and the transformer secondary.

As I said earlier, the story is not a forensic study, rather a tear jerking story.

Whatever the cause, it is a tragedy of stupidity on the part of the victim and possibly the manufacture of the charger. We don't and probably will never know the whole truth.

It's a horrible waste.

My guess is the charger was on a cord and the charger got into the water.

The iPhone charger units have an integrated power plug so they must plug directly into a line voltage socket. If the charger falls into the water, whatever type of line voltage receptacle it was plugged into will also be there providing the necessary joules.

How many joules is required to kill an adult,how much required to kill an infant?.

It appears to be the product of amps and seconds which defines the risk, so I am not sure that joules are the appropriate units. Moreover, there are ethical difficulties in experimenting with children and the number of electrocution events in children is too small to draw statistical conclusions. However, I have some statistics for different sizes of animal in respect of comparisons of currents required to cause ventricular fibrillation in humans (accident reports) and in pigs and dogs. It seems that the necessary currents are much the same in pigs and humans and 2-5 times less in dogs.

In USA they classify danger zones due to fire/arc flash in switchboards,fire pump controllers on the basis of joules as well as distance away from it.

In post#28 i quoted an impedance of 2050 ohms, together with a current of 100mA and a time of 1 sec to give a 50% risk of death. That is sufficient to calculate the joules. The point is that the same number of joules would not be sufficient to kill you if applied over a longer period of time. 1mA and 10000 sec is not the same as far as the heart is concerned.

True but 1.7 micro amperes of current for 3.8 billion seconds is virtually guaranteed to kill.

That's the same 20. 5 Joules, too.

I have measured the voltage out of a typical USB charger port. +5V ,GND, around .22V on two poles as a sensing voltage. I find it hard to believe someone can die of this as its in milliamps. It would take the short circuit of the actual wall plug in voltage to be dangerous.

What's the ampere?

Varies from charger to charger but around 400-600 ma.

It's not the voltage that causes the electrocution, it's the 6mA of current passing through the heart muscles.

Also; If the phone was plugged into a charger that was/is plugged into a wall outlet the charger could be defective and passed the source voltage from the wall outlet through the water.

Depending on where the incident occurred and the impedance of the charger fault, the woman could have been subjected to at least 220V.

Obviously, they don't require GFI protection in bathrooms in Russia.

Wow, this woman was beautiful (of course, she's Russian).

What a shame.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2950641/Woman-electrocuted-iPhone-dropped-bath-charging-looked-Russian-version-Facebook.html

Unfortunately, either she lacked the judgement to prevent her death or was never taught how foolish she was.

The room mate did it with lamp. The cell phone just a cover up. Hog the bathroom one too many times.

Haha! No, it was the "disgruntled" butler who placed the electric eel in the tub. V/t...where's Tesla when we need him?

It is certainly a tragedy, and a horrible loss to her family!

We can conjecture that the short in the water only provided a current path from Vss, through her skin, through her heart, and on to ground (common). We do not have the schematic of the actual circuit employed, but we can also suspect that if this device has a separable connection from the power cord on the input side (where AC power is applied, then there is nothing to prevent a higher current, higher voltage electrocution. The statistics on such incidents are available (mainly due to radios falling in the tub, etc.). Even if the unit was sealed on the power input side, and well insulated, then the possibility remains of sufficient current-time as (amp-seconds) to put the heart muscle into fibrillation, as long as a sufficiently low impedance path was formed (don't ask me how).

(1)Don't play with BB guns, you will shoot your eye out!

(2)Don't play with superglue, you will glue your mouth shut!

(3)Don't play with electrical devices in or near water, you might put your heart out!

(4)Don't get inebriated and walk out into traffic, really bad idea!