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Chapter Twelve
The “Official” Limits

As BDSM players we always ask the question, “What is safe?” In electricity there is an “official” answer as to what currents are safe. But – as I’m sure you know by now - you need to know the limits of these “official” answers in order to understand what it means for you as an electrical player and how to use it.

For purposes of designing electrical equipment and safety systems, electrical engineers and designers use the current values from the following table prepared and published by the Underwriters 1 Laboratory.

You should know enough by now to recognize that while this table is extremely useful, it has its own limits.

When scientists developed this table many years ago, they actually used college volunteers and applied electricity to their bodies (at least for the lower, “safer” values). The subjects were seated on a chair and their hands gripped conducting metal bars in two separate trays. Their forearms were also immersed in salt water. (They really wanted a good contact, you see.) This was electrical play above the waist, but then the University’s health and life insurance was better.

One of the first things to understand is that this table really sets current values for the average person. Some people may be more sensitive and some less sensitive than this.

The next thing to understand is chat these values are generally good for household power frequencies (25 to 60 Hz). Some researchers, by the way, are concerned about the long-term health effects of 60 Hz magnetic and electrical fields, which are emitted by any electrical device – not just toys, but things tike electrical clocks, computers, microwave ovens and electric blankets. While the data on this subject are still unclear, you might want to do your own homework so that you can make informed decisions. See the Resource Guide for how to get more information on EMF (electric and magnetic fields).

A further explanation is needed here about the let-go current mentioned. At around this current level, the hand muscles gripped the bar so tightly that the student volunteer could not force it to open. This is the point also known as tetany (Chapter 9), where muscle effects become extreme.

Muscles typically work in pairs, with one muscle opposing the other. People who are electrocuted with sufficient current often have their stronger muscles affected most. The limbs and torso get contorted by tetany with the spine and head arched backwards, the legs extended, and the arms and hands twisted upward toward the face. To give you a better idea of where the stronger muscles are, look at figure 33. This will be useful if you are going to do electrical play on muscles.

Figure 31: Stronger Muscles Shaded

Understand that in electrocution, all the victim’s muscles are affected. The muscle trying to flex the forearm out is being contracted as is the muscle trying to extend it, except the flexor muscle – being the stronger – wins. Not only the limb muscles are affected; the diaphragm and chest muscles also contract, preventing the lungs from working.

In electrical play with muscles, you may be only affecting one muscle set, but you will need to be aware of where that limb is trying to go. A cattle prod to the thigh muscle is fun only up until the time that the bottom’s heel kicks you in the genitalia. Ouch! Also there has been at least one anecdote in which electrical play on a bound bottom resulted in the muscle contracting so hard agains the bondage that the bottom broke a bone. So be mindful of where that muscle is going to try to move.

The other aspects of the table we have discussed before – the tingling, the burning, etc. The nice thing, as I said before, is that the table provides a handy guide for some current values when you are designing equipment or wanting to take a look at safety issues. All these things too have their limits.

Now we can take a look at the last “P,” Psychology.