Listen
to an iPod during a storm and you may get more than electrifying tunes. A
Canadian jogger suffered wishbone shaped chest and necks burn, ruptured
eardrums and a broken jaw when lightning travelled through his music player
wires.
Lightning
strikes can occur even when a storm is many kilometers away, so lightning
safety experts have been pushing the slogan‘When thunder roars, go indoors’.
Packaging for iPod and some other music players do include warnings against
using them in the rain.
A
Colorado teen ended up with the similar injures when lightning struck nearby as
he was listening to his iPod while mowing the lawn. Josan Bunch, 18, says it
was not even raining, but there was a storm off in the distance. Lightning
struck a nearby tree, shot off and hit him.
Emergency
physician report treating other patients with burn from freak accidents while
using personal electronic devices such as beepers, Walkman players and laptop computers
outdoors during storm.
Electronic
devices do not attract lightning way a tall tree or a lightning rod does.
According to Dr Mary Ann Cooper of the American College of Emergency Physicians
and ER doctor at University of Illinios Medical Centre at Chicago, once
lightning contact to the metal, the metal conduct the electricity. When
lightning jumps from a nearby objects to the person, it often flashes over the
skin. But metal in electronic devices or metal jewellery or coins in pocket can
cause contact burns and exacerbate the damage.