The emergency light uses and RF up converter to change the low voltage DC battery to a higher voltage to run the fluro tube.
Due to the high frequency RF it has considerable skin effect which is because of the high frequency the current wants to run along the skin between air and surface interface and it will do it over humans, plastic and almost anything that is semi conductive.
If you want to see a no wire fluro tube take the raw tube and place it near the tip of a car CB antenna and turn the CB on ... the tube will magically glow :-)
(
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSYj2lEaxhY)
The normal voltage meter will not measure the current because it is AC and far to fast for the meter which is expecting around a 50-60Hz power signal.
>>>> WARNING <<<<
Do not try this on a high power commercial CB's you can actually get bad RF burns to the skin.
