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Fri 7 Feb, 2014 10:01 am
On average, how many fatalities occur *worldwide* per year due to contact with electrical energy (electrocution)?
@cmeng14,
I had to see if this was even possible, and it apparently is. See -
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/3044/can-static-electricity-kill-you
However, I could not find stats specifically on it, probably because lightning strikes are pretty similar. Here's information on lightning strike fatalities (keep in mind that lightning strikes are generally - not necessarily always - going to be more powerful than static shocks) -
http://www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov/fatalities.htm
@cmeng14,
When I was a kid, I rubbed my feet on the carpet and touched my big brother's neck. He nearly killed me!
@jespah,
The problem is finding statistics worldwide.
Country by country is a lot easier:
Wikipedia wrote:There were 550 electrocutions in the US in 1993, which translates to 2.1 deaths per million inhabitants. At that time, the incidence of electrocutions was decreasing.[15] Electrocutions in the workplace make up the majority of these fatalities. From 1980–1992, an average of 411 workers were killed each year by electrocution.[13] A recent study conducted by the National Coroners Information System (NCIS) in Australia [16] has revealed three-hundred and twenty-one (321) closed case fatalities (and at least 39 case fatalities still under coronial investigation) that had been reported to Australian coroners where a person died from electrocution between July 2000 and October 2011.[17]
In Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway the number of electric deaths per million inhabitants was 0.6, 0.3, 0.3 and 0.2, respectively, in years 2007-2011.
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