Texas teen electrocuted after cell phone incident in bathtub

[zipplewrath]

Link

"There was a burn mark on her hand, the hand that would have grabbed the phone. And that was just very obvious that that’s what had happened," O'Guinn said

There's alot here that is in the strange pile. Any socket in a bathroom should have been in a GFI connected socket specifically to prevent this. Also, it talks about the burn on her hand, but there should have been an "exit point" somewhere to ground. Usually these are explained as touching the faucets or the drain. And I guess I'm also surprised that a phone charger can generate this kind of current. Most of them operate on very low voltages, around 5V. I guess I'd be surprised in can generate enough current at 5V through the human body. Usually it is difficult because the impedance is so high.

[Shell_Seas]

1. GFI plugs in bathroom.

Older houses might not have them.

I just bought a new house, built in the 80s. Some of the plugs in bathrooms and kitchen were not GFI, had to call an electrician to put some in.

Someone just sent me a link on Facebook of phone chargers causing fires on beds.

Who knows. But this is terribly sad.

[TreasonousBastard]

2. Yeah, simple phone chargers work with 5V at 1.1A-- no way would that kill you, unless...

it was another type of charger or she was plugging in the charger. 'Tis a mystery.

Bathrooms should have GFI sockets, but how many older bathrooms have them?

[dembotoz]

3. upgrade to gfi is on my bucket list

sadly its a long bucket list

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

4. A charger plugged into the wall would have had 110 v

(house current) coming into it. Anyhow, it isn't the voltage (pressure) that gets you, it's the amperage (current), and even very low amperage can be fatal. A typical circuit in a house is going to be 15-20 amps, and currents between only 100 and 200 mA (0.1 to 0.2 amp) will create a fatal shock. It's possible that this was an older house that didn't have a GFI installed in the bathroom.

A very sad, unfortunate accident, in any event.

[zipplewrath]

7. This was after the converter

I'd be surprised if the voltage and current at the phone was 110. More likely it was converted to 5V at the socket and had an upper current limit between 0.5 - 1.0 amps. But more to the point, at 5 volts, the resistance of the human body is pretty high and it's hard to generate enough current at 5V to cause death. Of course their could have been a multitude of related issues including cardiac ones.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

9. Might have been a defective charger that didn't adequately separate

the incoming AC current. The girl was wet, too, which would have had an effect.

According to NIOSH, "Under dry conditions, the resistance offered by the human body may be as high as 100,000 Ohms. Wet or broken skin may drop the body's resistance to 1,000 Ohms," adding that "high-voltage electrical energy quickly breaks down human skin, reducing the human body's resistance to 500 Ohms."

So, if current = voltage / resistance, the current would have been .005 amps at 1000 ohms and 5 volts - not enough to be fatal unless something was defective.

[zipplewrath]

11. Yup

If this is what happened, something went wrong because we were supposed to have figured out decades ago how to prevent these things. Heck, alot of plumbing these days has non-conductive pipes which make them lousy paths to ground.

[jberryhill]

27. Still, the converter had to be defective... OR...

There is a grounding problem in the house.

I'm leaning toward a grounding problem in the house, since it is hard to imagine that 110v would have been present at the business end of the charger without it having fried the phone first. That would have been one heck of a defective charger AFAIK

I've been known to use my phone in the tub. But if the charge is low, I hook it to a USB battery pack instead of tempting the gods.

[hunter]

5. Some no-name phone chargers are dangerous.

They don't adequately separate the low voltage side from mains power.

There are quite a few teardowns of these dangerous chargers on YouTube.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

6. I don't even know what a GFI connected socket is?

The newest home I've lived in was built in 1984, which may explain that bit of ignorance.

And I likewise am quite surprised that a cell phone being charged could possibly do this, but again, I don't know very much about the amount of electricity involved.

On a somewhat related note, I've known for forty plus years that you should not use a landline during an electrical storm, because of the supposed danger of electrocution. Such deaths surely must happen, but I've never heard of one.

[Towlie]

8. At the slightest bit of current flowing to ground, the circuit breaker trips.

It's standard for any plug near grounded objects, such as plumbing fixtures.

[zipplewrath]

10. Even more sensitive

Any difference between the hot side and neutral will trigger it. i.e. the current flow into the circuit should be the same as the current flow out. If it is not, there is another path (which could be to the ground wire, or it could be through you TO ground).

[Ilsa]

22. I take it that might be why the circuits

frequently have to be reset - they are very sensitive.

To those who don't have them, there is usually a Test button and a Reset button on the outlet.

[zipplewrath]

23. And how they go bad

when they go bad, when they seem to do about every 5 years or so, they start tripping just for fun. Not much you can do but replace them.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

12. A GFI protected circuit will have a little oblong button

on the socket plate between the two sockets, so you can easily see if there is one. New construction in most places requires them in bathrooms and kitchens (anywhere there is both electricity and water). If there are multiple sockets in a room the GFI will be in the one closest to the source.

[oneshooter]

14. And a GFI will react BEFORE you can feel it. n/t

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

17. They are good things.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

20. Is that a little red button?

I did have those in bathrooms in one house I lived in.

Not my current one.

Since I don't even blow-dry my hair these days and I don't charge my phone in the bathroom, I don't think I need to worry much about that.

Whoever eventually purchases this house after me may want to install them.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

21. Maybe in some installations. Mine are white, same color

as the socket plate, but they are new. Depending on the housing code in your area, you might be required to install them in order to sell the house.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

29. I sort of doubt it.

I bought this place in 2009, and there was no such requirement here. Of course that could change by the time this place is sold, but I won't worry about it until then.

[CottonBear]

15. Ground Fault Interrptor Circuit

GFIC outlets are used outdoors, in kitchens, in bathrooms and anywhere where there is water near an outlet.

[JoeStuckInOH]

13. PUT THE PHONE DOWN...

At some point, you would think people have to put down their phones to accomplish everyday life tasks. Surely, I would have put bathing in the category of things mutually exclusive to being on the damn cellphone. Guess not. Some people are just dying to be glued to those things right up to the very end.

[cwydro]

36. Probably addicted to video games.

Some people never stop with those things.

[malaise]

39. That fugging simple

Darwin strikes

[JoeStuckInOH]

16. Also, to answer some questions...

Any plug-in based transformer power source (properly isolated) should not trip a GFI no matter what you do with the output however safe or unsafe. 100% of the AC wall power coming out of the HOT will power the primary transformer coil and then 100% of that power will return back to the neutral. It is the secondary output of the transformer that goes on to cause problems - and unless the adapter has it's own internal fuse or gfi protection, then there is no protection. This is why 99% of wall-wart transformers only have two prong plugs - the ground circuit is pointless.

Although I do find it odd that a DC charger's output of such low power (probably <40w) could cause a problem. It must have been a cheap adapter not properly isolated from the mains power. in which case there should have been some sort of GFI trip in the bathroom... assuming the bathroom even had GFCI receptacles installed.

You would not need a specific exit point if you were in a tub full of dirty water that is touching the drain and pipe system of your house (an EXCELLENT ground if made of steel or copper). You'd get burns at the current entry point because that is the only spot where current enters and the density would be high enough to burn skin there. However if you could return current through entirety of most of your body surface (surrounded by water), it could keep surface densities low enough to avoid burns due to current exiting the body.

[zipplewrath]

18. The problem is the current

As you suggest, the real issue here is the current. In order to accomplish this, you either will need 110V going through the phone, OR you're going to need insanely low impedance through the human to ground. Achieving that whilst having the "outflow" be essentially a large surface area of the body seems in direct conflict. Of course if it is 110, then okay, you're potentially in trouble, although again, I'd be surprised just how much current the device could pass through these unintended circuits (both they body and the charging wire). Really, my suspicion is that that there was no functioning GFI in place (although they typically fail in the "off" position). And it would then seem the real lesson here is that one should bring things up to code once and a bit, especially something like this. And/or electronics should be properly wired and isolated.

[jberryhill]

30. What about improper grounding of the circuit to begin with

Is the ground reference on the DC side just floating relative to DC out?

[JoeStuckInOH]

31. Maybe the cheap charger was +120V on the DC(-) and +125V on DC(+) compared to ground??

Short the DC-side ground to the 120VAC hot input and the whole output system floats +120V over earth ground... Although a GFCI would trip in that case as soon as any current leaked from the faulty DC "ground".

[BainsBane]

19. I don't know anything about electric current voltage

but I do know not to use anything electronic in water.

[hunter]

24. Don't be blaming the victim...

We shouldn't expect a teen girl to be an electrical engineer. In today's sad world being careful with electrical devices in the bathroom isn't common knowledge.

Not all homes have been retro-fitted with functional GFCIs, and even worse, cheap dangerous chargers are for sale everywhere.

[JoeStuckInOH]

32. I wouldn't consider that "victim blaming"... at least not unjustafiably.

You wouldn't expect a 14 year old to walk off a cliff because they can't show newton's derivation of the laws for gravitational attraction... would you? No, of course not - you expect normal people to avoid falling off cliffs to their death.

I entirely expect a 14 year old to know not to use plugged-in electrical devices in near water of any kind (shower, bath, sink, puddle, sprinklers, etc...). To be honest, I would expect electrical safety on the order of "keep cords away from water" from someone even as young as 10 years old.

[BainsBane]

40. I blame the parents

Teach your kids not to use electrics around water. No need to be an electrical engineer. I certainly am not.

[Mariana]

25. Very few bathrooms have outlets

so close to the bath that someone could grab a phone that's charging. It would be nice if the story were more clear about the circumstances of the accident. Was GFCI in place and working? Was there an outlet very close to the bath? If not, did she have an extra long charger cable? Was there an extension cord involved? Etc. Lots of questions how this happened.

[NCjack]

26. Excuse me for a minute -- I must check the outlets in the bathrooms. I have a guest with

a baby.

Added note:
1. the guest bathroom has the safety outlet.
2. my bathroom does not. (gotta get an electrician on that)

[JoeStuckInOH]

33. Get a GFCI outlet with the safety socket (so you can't jam stuff into the holes)

They're a single part... probably $20 @ Home Depot or $15 on amazon (amazon prime day is today!).

Easy to install yourself too as long your house wasn't wired by a boob (like the previous owners of my house had done.

[NCjack]

34. Thanks for tip about safety socket. nt

[Hassin Bin Sober]

37. It's possible your bath is protected by the GFCI in the other room.

Often times, baths built back to back are wired that way. Especially tract homes. It's cheaper to use one GFCI to protect several receptacles.

Easy way to tell is plug a radio (don't stand knee deep in the tub) in to the non GFCI receptacle and trip the GFCI in the other room. If the radio shuts off it is protected.

One GFCI can protect several receptacles "loaded" off that GFCI. IIRC, they should be within 6 feet of the protecting GFCI.

The electrician is supposed to place a little sticker on the protected receptacles but most don't. Or they fall off.

I read an electrician on line say his favorite house call is the $75 dollar GFCI reset. Sometimes the GFCI may be in the unused guest bath so when it trips the owner doesn't think to look.

An ethical electrician would tell you to check before coming out.

A couple years ago I asked an electrician on one of my jobs how people get electrocuted. He said it happens when people can't "fall away" from the power source when shocked.

I've been shocked several times and, like the electrician said, you let go or jump back. Where you get in trouble is when you are in a tub, or like a case he told me in town, you are on top of your dryer trying to plug it in. Or another case in town of a guy on his back in a crawl space using an old metal cased ungrounded drill.

My electrician said a lot of victims are in the basement barefooted. The water is dangerous because you are grounded to earth when you are connected to water pipes. The basement (or outside) is dangerous because you are grounded by your feet. This is why outside outlets, garage outlets AND basement outlets should be GFCI.

Note: some homes may have a GFI circuit breaker. You can tell by a separate reset button in addition to the trip lever for the circuit. Also, arc fault breakers are required now. But that's another story

[iluvtennis]

28. OMG...so, so sad. Will share this with my teen girls as I could see them doing the same thing.

[Warpy]

35. Yes, this one smells bad. There needs to be an autopsy

unless there had been an electrical storm in the vicinity. Lightning could have done it.

[struggle4progress]

38. :(

[Skittles]

41. tragic

and it is sad this girl could not bathe without her phone