Why does current kill

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Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy. Read More. Your Privacy Rights. But the more resistance a body offers to current, the slower the electrons will flow for any given amount of voltage. Basically, just how much voltage is dangerous depends on how much total resistance is in the circuit to oppose the flow of electrons. Body resistance is not a fixed quantity — it varies from person to person.

It also varies depending on how contact is made with the skin. For example, is it from hand-to-hand, hand-to-foot, foot-to-foot, hand-to-elbow, etc.? Sweat, being rich in salts and minerals, is an excellent conductor of electricity.

So is blood, which has a similar content of conductive chemicals. Contact with a wire made by a sweaty hand or open wound will offer much less resistance to current than contact made by dry skin. Individuals have been electrocuted by appliances using ordinary house currents of volts and by electrical apparatus in industry using as little as 42 volts direct current. The true measure of a shock's intensity is within the amount of current forced though the body, not the voltage.

Meaning, any electrical device used on a house wiring circuit is able to, under certain conditions, transmit a fatal current.