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Re: Electrostatic Injuries



At 13:17 11/25/98 -0500, Jim Peters wrote:
I received a phone call today from a local industry asking if it was =
possible for a person to receive an injury from electrostatics. It seems =
that, on a production line, workers peal labels off of a paper strip and =
play around with the electrostatics in the process. Just as one person =
reached to touch a grounded control lever with one hand, another person =
touched the first person's other arm giving the first person an =
electrostatic shock which apparently traveled through the chest. I was =
then told that the first person was injured, taken to the hospital and =
was found to have bleeding gums and damage to heart muscle....

Jim Peters
Hillsdale College


Jim will forgive my cynical view - I have gained some little insight into
US business and industrial practice. There is no business that is unaware
of the cost of industrial injuries.

It is not out of the ordinary for supervisors to be asked to note employee
minor injuries and solicit their source (hopefully off the job)- so that
the company is in a better position to defend a subsequent injury suit.

There are some companies and supervisors that might well be tempted to
produce evidence of good-will efforts to investigate "mystery" injuries,
especially if an exposed operator control associated with an electrocution
injury was found to be live.



brian whatcott <inet@intellisys.net>
Altus OK