Electrical Injury and Death

Sophie Pointer
and
James Harrison

April 2007
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
Canberra
AIHW cat. no. INJCAT 99

This Briefing provides an overview of hospitalisations and deaths occurring as a result of electrical injury or exposure to lightning. Serious electrical injuries are relatively infrequent and injuries occurring as a result of lightning are extremely rare events. Over the two year period 2002–03 to 2003–04 only 1,493 people were hospitalised as a result of an electrical injury at an age-adjusted rate of 3.78 cases per 100,000 population. Deaths occurring as a result of electrical injury or lightning are even rarer with 162 cases in the four years examined (2001–04).

The report is available as a PDF document (~ 151 Kb).

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