Lightning strikes reported by iPod users

Dark Knight

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Listen to an iPod during a storm and you may get more than electrifying tunes. A Canadian jogger suffered wishbone-shaped chest and neck burns, ruptured eardrums and a broken jaw when lightning traveled through his music player's wires.

Last summer, a Colorado teen ended up with similar injuries when lightning struck nearby as he was listening to his iPod while mowing the lawn.

Emergency physicians report treating other patients with burns from freak accidents while using personal electronic devices such as beepers, Walkman players and laptop computers outdoors during storms.

Michael Utley, a former stockbroker from West Yarmouth, Mass., who survived being struck by lightning while golfing, has tracked 13 cases since 2004 of people hit while talking on cell phones. They are described on his Web site, http://www.struckbylightning.org

Contrary to some urban legends and media reports, electronic devices don't attract lightning the way a tall tree or a lightning rod does.
"It's going to hit where it's going to hit, but once it contacts metal, the metal conducts the electricity," said Dr. Mary Ann Cooper of the American College of Emergency Physicians and an ER doctor at University of Illinois Medical Center at Chicago.

When lightning jumps from a nearby object to a person, it often flashes over the skin. But metal in electronic devices — or metal jewelry or coins in a pocket — can cause contact burns and exacerbate the damage.

On the Net: http://www.nejm.org

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration: http://www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov/

More of this story at this link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070712/ap_on_hi_te/ipods_lightning&printer=1
 
Ugh, it's kind of common sense to not be out in the middle of a storm, let alone have an electronic device in close proximity to your body during that storm.
 
Ugh, it's kind of common sense to not be out in the middle of a storm, let alone have an electronic device in close proximity to your body during that storm.

I think most people assume if it isn't plugged into an outlet it is safe from lightning. Everyone knows using a corded phone is dangerous, as is taking a shower, for that matter, during lightning. But most don't think of cordless devices as being conductors of electricity.
 
No one should stand outside (even under an awning) with or without electronics during a lighting storm.

Even if you are not getting rain but can hear the thunder or see the lighting from a storm in a distance you can be struck.
 

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