Russians Blame Mobile Phones for Lightning Strike Deaths
Russian officials are putting the blame for a sudden surge in deaths from lightning strikes at increased mobile phone ownership. The most notable case was Marina Sadykova who was talking on a mobile phone when struck by lightning. When her body was recovered, the mobile phone was found melted to her hand.
Various Russian newspapers have also cited several instances in the past couple of weeks where the victims were using mobile phones when hit by a lightning strike.
Leonid Tarkov of the weather observation center, FOBOS laid the blame firmly at the increased us of mobile phones. However, there is no scientific evidence to support the idea that the fairly tiny radio emission from a mobile phone could affect the likelihood of a lightning strike being formed in storm clouds that are on average some two to five thousand feet above the phone user.
A more likely reason is that the country has simply had a higher than average number of storms in the past few weeks.
There have been a few reports over the years of people being struck by lightening when using a mobile phone, but in none of the reports has any direct provable link between the lightening strike and the use of a mobile phone been found. A quick Google search actually found more reports of people being struck by lightning while walking their dog - which presumably suggests that dogs have an affinity with lightning strikes.
Posted to the site on 20th July 2008