Electrocuted by Cell Phone?
Tuesday March 14, 2006
Citing a one-of-a-kind instance of a 31-year-old Indian man fatally electrocuted while answering his charging cell phone, this frequently forwarded email warns consumers never to use their phones when plugged in for recharging. "Cell phones are a very useful modern invention," the email concludes. "However, we must be aware that it can also be an instrument of death." An overstatement?
Comments
This is all baloney, a mobile phone and charger when functioning properly doesn’t deliver enough current to kill you, if this did happen the phone would have been destroyed as soon as it was plugged in because of the amount of current required for charging compared to amount needed to kill. I suspect this is simply a lie because generally phone cases are made of plastic, requireing a very large amount of current needed to jump through the plastic casing and into the person. If a phone casing was somehow carrying that much power, i dont think it is possible for it to ring, as this amount of power would have pretty much instantanously destroyed it.
The news item that a man got his ear region scorched causing deafness (while answering cell phone during charging)appeared with photograph in ” The Hindu”, a newspaper known for its truthful reporting in India.
I am a product safety engineer and have worked at two Nationally Recognized Test Labs.
99% of Cell phone chargers sold in the USA and Canada are UL/CSA Listed/Certified. They output low voltage/low current DC voltage (check the manufacturer’s ID label). An energy hazard exists when there is 240 VA (Volt-Amps) or more available. My charger, which is probably typical, has a 5.9 VDC/350 mA output. That means the available energy is (5.9 x 0.0035)= 0.021VA - Not enough to warm up a hotdog with.
This story implies there was a catastrophic short-circuit between the AC mains voltage available at the socket-outlet and the phone. That would mean the internal step down transformer and rectifier circuit in the charger all had to short out and get to some metal part on the phone where Jo-Jo the dog faced boy was a path to ground (also unlikely). Cells are mostly plastic housing and the pins are recessed and difficult to touch. What a load of hooey!
Well however unlikely it may seem, it cannot be ruled out as impossible… have any of you rocket scientists that have left previous comments here heard about a little something called a power surge? the ammount of voltage that can travel through a charger and even through plastic in a split second is outstanding. Why do you think people are urged not to use television sets and other electronic equipment during a thunderstorm? if lightening were to strike in the same manner then the results would be quite similar!! this story can easily be true, so don’t knock it!
Warning!!! - don’t ever drive on highways! In the early outset of pavement, the government mandated that all highways had to have a straight stretch of 1 mile for every 5 miles paved so there were emergency landing strips for aircraft. What if an airplane landed on your car?? You’d be killed!
(While we’re talking about someone picking up a ringing, plugged-in cell phone, in the middle of a thunderstorm, precisely when a lightnight strike hits the house, and all the electrical devices conduct the lightning bolt thru the plastic cell phone and maiming poor Jo-Jo The Dog-Faced Boy.