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15 hurt as mobile triggers lightning |
axxxr
Joined: Mar 21, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: Londinium
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FIFTEEN tourists were injured by mobile-phone-induced lightning on a section of China's Great Wall, state media and officials said today.
The accident happened at the Juyongguan part of the Wall, 50km from Beijing when an elderly visitor's mobile phone acted as a lightning rod as he made a call, the China Daily reported.
Fifteen people were injured and taken to hospital, all Chinese except for one Slovenian national who was rushed to the Sino-Japanese Friendship Hospital in Beijing.
"He felt a little dizzy, but he's been discharged now," an official with the hospital told AFP.
Following the freak accident, management at the Juyongguan section of the Great Wall decided to immediately put up boards telling visitors to turn off their mobiles when lightning occured.
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whizkidd
Joined: May 14, 2004
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From: India
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My god. Looks like i have to watch out! Its monsoon here in india. So thunder storms are common.
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macdid
Joined: Jan 14, 2003
Posts: 65
From: earth
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wow.better switch off your phone during raining
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batesie
Joined: Feb 13, 2004
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From: London, UK
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keep calling Bush on his mobile ;-)
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whizkidd
Joined: May 14, 2004
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From: India
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Oh Bush! Can he stop the monsoon? Atleast the thundershowers? Please save me!
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Sammy_boy
Joined: Mar 31, 2004
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From: Staffordshire, United Kingdom
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This guy wasn't on a Nokia was he!? 
"All it takes for evil to flourish is for good men to do nothing" - Edmund Burke
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axxxr
Joined: Mar 21, 2003
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From: Londinium
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I've no idea what brand of phone he was useing?..But i would'nt be at all surprised if it was a nokia.
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switchbitch
Joined: Apr 29, 2003
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From: ELF Pap Cop (Avatar pending)
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Mobile phones do not act as lightning rods any more so than parts of the body such as limbs etc...
Lightning occurs when the difference in electrical charge between cloud base and ground becomes sufficient enough to induce a plasma streamer- a thin trail of ionised atmosphere- along which the charge can flow. This plasma streamer takes the course of least resistance through the atmosphere, meaning it will favour anything with lesser resistance than air to pass through, such as trees, buildings and even people. In this circumstance, the person would have been struck regardless of whether he was holding a phone or not, since the presence of said device would not create an area of significantly decreased resistance between cloud and ground any more so than the presence of the human body, which is in fact an excellent electrical conductor.
One also senses a reporter with a rather dry sense of humour- "The man has now been discharged"!
good gravy......
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Patrick-in-CA
Joined: Jul 21, 2004
Posts: 0
From: Sourhern Oregon, USA
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Quote:
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On 2004-07-26 19:27:33, axxxr wrote:
"He felt a little dizzy, but he's been discharged now," an official with the hospital told AFP. |
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Hahahahahahahahahah hahahahahaha hahahahahahaha
Thanks for taking the time to read my post. |
axxxr
Joined: Mar 21, 2003
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From: Londinium
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Man Talking on Cell Phone Dies From Lightning
A man talking on a mobile phone died after being struck by lighting in Changhung, South Cholla Province, on Monday. Such a death is the first of its kind in South Korea and the incident is expected to raise the question of the safety of cell phones.
Police said Tuesday that the fatal accident occurred when the 46-year-old man, identified as Park, was using a cell phone under heavy rains accompanied by lightning. A 43-year-old woman, who was beside him at the time, was taken to the hospital after collapsing from a subsequent flow of current from the lighting.
A hospital official said that Park sustained burns, presumably from an electric shock to his left ear, assuming that lightening struck his mobile phone.
Police are trying to confirm if there is any link between the accident and the cell phone. An official of the Radio Research Laboratory said it is not certain whether a cell phone’s electromagnetic wave directly induced the lightning strike, but holding a cell phone during lightning can be dangerous because it is made of metal which serves as a conductor of electricity like a lightning rod.
However, the use of mobile phones in stormy weather has been reported to cause death and injury accidents also in China.
On July 23, mobile phone-induced lightning injured 10 tourists on the Great Wall in China. The incident occurred as an elderly visitor was talking on a mobile phone at the Juyongguan part of the Wall. According to the investigation, the mobile phone acted as a lightning rod when he made the phone call during bad weather.
A woman in Changchun city, China was also struck by lightning while using her mobile phone on a rainy day in June, the reports said.
Chinese safety experts said that people should switch off their mobile phones on rainy days for safety in case of lightning.
The experts added that use of mobile phones can be fatal because the electromagnetic waves emitted by mobile phones are conductors of electricity in bad weather although the antenna of a mobile phone is small.
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methylated_spirit
Joined: Jul 07, 2004
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From: Bonnie Scotland
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He felt a little but he's been discharged now...
Hello, Scroto!
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switchbitch
Joined: Apr 29, 2003
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From: ELF Pap Cop (Avatar pending)
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A mobile phone conducts electricity, but the electricity still has to pass through the rest of the body. Therefore, your watch, earrings, fillings etc will act as conductors equally as effectively, since they are also metallic conductors.
Furthermore, consider the resistance of a human body, head to toe. Now imagine youre holding a phone to your ear. Effectively, all youre doing is lowering the resistance of about 3 inches worth of your body size. So... using a mobile will reduce your bodily resistance by a few Ohms, which is negligible considering the resistance of a human body to be several hundred Ohms. (About 450 to be precise)
Now lets consider the resistance of air between cloud and ground. Assuming the cloud base to be at 1000 feet, reducing the resistance of 3 inches of this 1000 foot gap would be of very little consequence. Essentially, if you were 5 foot 6 inches, and were holding a 3 inch mobile phone above your head, you would be equally likely to be struck by lightning as a 6 foot tall person standing next to you.
As for the electromagnetic radiation conducting electricity; this is highly unlikely to contribute, considering the perpetual presence of EM noise.
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Lynx69
Joined: Feb 22, 2004
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From: [ENGLAND]
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 Yesterday me and my mates went to a park and we were chilling and then it started raining  the lighting hit a branch on ta tree that we were under but luckily none of us got hit 
We were soaked and my jeans were so drenched that they looked like leather trousers 
 >>*Wow 2100+ posts*<< |
switchbitch
Joined: Apr 29, 2003
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What a fantastically interesting story, that truly brightened up my day.
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Posted: 2004-07-26 19:27
>>*Wow 2100+ posts*<< 
