Lightning strikes mobile phones

Fri, 23 Jun 2006

Next time you find yourself talking on your mobile phone in the middle of a thunderstorm you may want to cut the conversation short.

UK doctors have warned of the danger of lightning strikes when using mobile phones outdoors during stormy weather.

Doctors want manufacturers to put warnings on the packaging of handsets outlining the risks of carrying a mobile during a storm.

The doctors fear the public do not realise that the metal in mobile phones can act as a conductor for electrical bursts during a storm.

Although the risk is small, there have been three reported deaths of this type in China, Korea and Malaysia .

Three experts have described how a teenage girl was struck by lightning while using her phone in a large London park. The girl, aged 15, was resuscitated, but a year later was still wheelchair-bound and found to be suffering complex physical, cognitive and emotional problems.

"This rare phenomenon is a public health issue, and education is necessary to highlight the risk," the authors said. Every year in Britain, between 30 and 60 people are stuck by lightening. Most survive with little harm done.

A spokesman for the mobile manufacturers forum said it was unlikely it would add the lightening risk to information provided with phones.

He said the risk was no greater with a mobile phone than holding any other metal object.

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