Let's discuss electrical earthing in relation to the human body

On this very day, I went to mount/track a satellite dish on the top of a residential building; I climbed via a ladder then started tracking the satellite dish. At a time I rested my bare hands on the aluminium roof of the building. Alas, I was electric shocked by that aluminium roof. What could have caused that aluminium roof to shock?

Earthing

The internal surface of the earth is a conductor and this attribute is usually is usually exploited in electrical power system connections. Have you seen any naked conductor(wire) buried inside the ground and the other end connected to an electrical power system - let us say transformer or over headline mechanism?. What do you think is the purpose of burying that conductor in the ground?

^{Earthing transformer: flickr}


Earthing or grounding as preferably labelled in some places is an act of channelling the electrical energy discharge or leakage current into the earth through a good conductor of low resistance. It is usually done with a thick galvanized non-insulated conductor in high power systems like in transformer or over-head lines. In most electronic devices, grounding is done with a relatively thin cable.


The process of earthing is a relatively easy one, even a novice in electrical engineering can conveniently earth an electrical power system. In order to earth an electrical power system, a thick conductor is firmly connected to a metal within the system. Thereafter, the conductor is extended downward towards the earth and connected to a copper or aluminium plate. A hole of about 5 inches deep is then dug in the ground and the copper/aluminium plate is buried within it and fully covered with sand.


In the case of an electronic device, a cable wire is attached to any negative terminal(-ve polarity of a capacitor can serve) and extendend to the metallic enclosure of the electronics. Most of the times, however, electronic devices are already earthed by manufacturers.

Better safe than sorry!

The main reason for earthing is safety - the slogan of electrical engineers. Assuming the insulation of a live conducting wire peeled off and bridges with a metal(maybe the metallic casing of a transformer or even the metallic casing of a DVD player), there would be a leakage current on that metallic casing and if such device comes in contact with someone, electric shock or electrocution results. However, if the electrical power system or electronic device is properly earthed, the leaked current would be discharged directly to the earth through the earthing conductor.

^{By Dmitry G - CC BY-SA 3.0, Link}


This is exactly what happened in the story above where the subject went to track a satellite dish and got shocked by electric current leakage into the roof. The insulation of a live wire peeled off and made contact with a metal, causing the aluminium roof to conduct current without means of discharging the leakage into the earth. The hypothesis was further verified by the subject...

I went to a wall socket in the building and fixed my screw driver voltage tester on the “earth channel” of the socket, my tester indicated that there was voltage(leakage current) in it. I quickly reported this to other occupants of the building so that we can collectively find a means to earth the electrical power system of the building.

Human earthing

Growing up in a local village somewhere here in Nigeria really exposed me to a certain level of superstitious beliefs. A lot of these I debunked with my exposure to scientific education and this has always made me question beliefs/sayings that tend to sound unscientific.


Hence, you all can imagine my reaction when I first heard some people saying walking onthe ground with bare feet has a lot of medicinal benefits. I never took them seriously and swiftly waved it off as one of those superstitious or pseudoscience beliefs. However, the topic came up again recently while interracting with fellow steemstem authors within the stemng discord server and this made me explore the internet to see if really there are scientific basis to the claims. You can imagine my surprise when I found out that there is.

^{By Western Arctic National Parklands - Footloose, CC BY 2.0, Link}


The human body is actually in a way an electrical system. The heart contracts through the activities of certain group of cells that generate electrical impulses in the pace maker cells surrounding the heart. The electrical activities and contraction of the heart happen at intervals leading to the production of normal heart beats of human.


Apart from the electrical activities of the heart, the whole human body is an electrical system of nerves that work as a unit to form what is known as the nervous system. The system act as the power source for normal body functioning and exchange of information. The electric charges are generated from the body electrolytes which contain sodium and potassium ions (sodium-potassium pump).



^pixabay


Different researches have shown that the body system can derive a lot of benefits from the enormous negative charge the earth carries. The electron it posses has been touted to have an antioxidant ability as well as free radical bursting potentials. There have been arguments that the human body is designed in such a way that a regular flow of energy between it and the mother earth will induce it to function maximally.


Human earthing - the process of making the human body to be in contact with the earth has been shown to have a lot of health benefits. Some of the researches proving this fact even argued that the modern lifestyles that tend to separate or keep humans off contact with earth may be one of the factors that are causing a rise in the number of health-related issues. This simple act of keeping the body in touch with the earth has been implicated to promote better sleeping pattern, reduce pain and inflammations and even improve moods.


In 2011, a group of researcher carried out five independent experiments using human subjects to verify the effects of earthing on some physiological processes in the human body. They concluded that connecting the body to the earth have statistically significant effects on some physiological processes of the body system. Details of the research can be found here


In conclusion, just as earthing/grounding is necessary for the safety of electrical system, gadgets and buildings, the same is essentially beneficial to the human body. The therapeutic effects of connecting the body to mother earth have been reported in several journals. The earthing can simply be done by walking with bare feet, sleeping on bare grounds or any other action that will directly connect the body to the earth. Even though technology and sophisticated lifestyles have totally disconnected some of us from the earth, retracing our steps could be the saviour we have all been waiting for.


Thank you all for reading.

References

tending to your body electrical system

body electrical grounding

national library of medcine

journal

research gate

circuit globe

[electrical technology]