Lightning Warning to iPod User

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.