• Question: Have you ever hurt yourself or electrocuted yourself while doing your job

    Asked by EvieY on 17 Nov 2020.
    • Photo: Tris Warren

      Tris Warren answered on 17 Nov 2020: last edited 17 Nov 2020 11:31 pm

      I have electrocuted myself badly twice. Once was really bad – I think the only thing that saved me was my skin was very dry at the time and that reduced how dangerous the shock was. I also often get smaller electric shocks and they always hurt.

      In the UK we have a number of safety measures in place to try and prevent people from getting dangerous electric shocks*, but you should still be very careful around anything that plugs into the mains electricity. UK mains electricity is very high and can kill you – so please be careful.

      Otherwise, I’ve not hurt myself at work – touch wood.

      *the safety measures we have are things like earthing, fuses and plastic coverings. ElectroBoom a youtube channel I like did a video about the UK electrics – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abqMLqHwqpo

    • Photo: John Davies

      John Davies answered on 18 Nov 2020:

      Not that I can remember. Even though astronomy sounds very safe its actually not. I do know of one astronomer who was killed ‘on the job’ when he was crushed by a rotating telescope dome. We work at night, sometimes alone, often up high mountains where the air is quite thin, in observatories many kilometres away from the nearest doctor or hospital. So we all do regular risk reviews, have frequent safety training, have 1st aid courses and regular refreshers. In fact, I did ‘electrical safety’ only a couple of months ago. The same is true of our labs in at the UK Astronomy Technology Centre. We have high voltages, liquid nitrogen, vacuum systems and all kinds of potentially dangerous stuff so we have a very active safety programme and risk review everything new before we do it, then we re check those reviews every year. The nearest I ever came to getting electrocuted was a shock when rewiring Christmas lights when I was about 23 years old, but that’s not work!

    • Photo: Steve Williams

      Steve Williams answered on 18 Nov 2020:

      Most modern electronics runs at very low voltage so the risk of electrocution isn’t there. Currently I am working on a board that has several power rails the highest voltage of which is 28 volts which is very safe. Of course as a software engineer I seldom get near the hardware. Also because we can work on hardware that will be going into “flight”, that is on to a spacecraft – physical contact is therefore always very restricted.

      In fact the hardware is more at risk from people than people are at risk from the hardware. This is because people can and do build up a static electrical charge which can damage the electronics.

    • Photo: Declan Vogt

      Declan Vogt answered on 18 Nov 2020: last edited 18 Nov 2020 11:34 am

      I once needed to work inside a mains powered instrument. I turned it off at the main switch on the front panel, then proceeded to put my hand on the back of the main switch, where there was still a live connection, when opening the case. That gave me a very good shock, but luckily the current was all in my hand and didn’t get near my heart. That taught me to always pull out the plug!

    • Photo: Zaria Serfontein

      Zaria Serfontein answered on 18 Nov 2020:

      I’ve gotten a few scrapes and bruises from working in the lab and the workshop, but luckily nothing serious. In all the places I work in (even in the office!), we have detailed risk assessments and procedures to make sure that we’re all doing our work safely.

    • Photo: raam shanker

      raam shanker answered on 19 Nov 2020:

      Never hurt myself so far, fingers crossed!

    • Photo: Roy HAWORTH

      Roy HAWORTH answered on 19 Nov 2020:

      Yes when I was in the Royal navy and looking after Radar equipment we often had to do tuning and adjustments on live equipment and I once got a small electric shock whilst crouching over a unit on top of a bench, my hand hit my face which made me fall backwards off the bench, I wasn’t hurt except that 4 other sailors watched me do it and then couldn’t stop lauging at me for about 10 mins.
      However electricity is dangerous and I wouldn’t advise anyone working on live equipment unless you have done lots of training and there is no other choice!!!

    • Photo: Abbie Hutty

      Abbie Hutty answered on 23 Nov 2020:

      I actually did get a bit of a shock off a prototype Mars rover once, but it wasn’t too bad as it was only running on a big battery and not the mains, so nothing very dangerous. Was still quite a surprise, though!

      I can be quite clumsy as well so I’m always walking into things or scratching myself on sharp edges or whatever- another good reason for being a design engineer rather than somebody working on physically putting spacecraft together- I’d be such a liability!

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