Researchers in the United Kingdom warn that lightning poses a threat to people who use mobile phones out of doors during a thunderstorm.
The doctors highlighted the case of a 15-year-old girl was struck by lightning while talking on her phone in a large park in London during stormy weather. Although she was revived, even a later she suffers complex physical, cognitive, and emotional problems.
The metal in the phone directs the current into the body, they say.
If someone is struck by lightning, the high resistance of human skin results in lightning being conducted over the skin without entering the body, explain the authors. This is known as flashover and has a low death rate. Conductive materials such as liquids or metallic objects disrupt the flashover and result in internal injury with greater death rates.
The authors claim to have come across three cases reported in newspapers in China, Korea, and Malaysia, all resulting in death.
"This rare phenomenon is a public health issue, and education is necessary to highlight the risk of using mobile phones outdoors during stormy weather to prevent future fatal consequences from lightning strike injuries related to mobile phones," say the authors.
"The Australian Lightning Protection Standard recommends that metallic objects, including cordless or mobile phones, should not be used (or carried) outdoors during a thunderstorm," they add.
"We could not find any advice from British telecommunication companies."
The case study appears in this week's British Medical Journal.
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