MP3 users should ‘watch out for lightening’
Medical experts in the US are warning people against using their MP3 players in bad weather - after a string of incidents in which people where struck by lightening while listening to their favourite tunes.
The metal inside electronic devices such as MP3 players or personal stereos acts like a conductor during electrical storms, it has been claimed. So, although the devices do not increase the likelihood that you will be struck during a storm, they do worsen injuries should you be hit by lightening.
"In the last couple of years there have been a lot of rumours going around that electronic devices, cell phones or any kind of metal you are carrying attracts lightning, metal does not attract lightning, metal conducts lightning once its hit," Dr Mary Ann Cooper from the American College of Emergency Physicians is quoted by the Independent Television News service as saying.
Jason Bunch was one person unlucky enough to be hit while listening to his MP3 player.
"The i-Pod headphones were almost disintegrated, all the white plastic was completely melted, all that is left is the inside threads of the headphones," he said.
