A Canadian doctor Thursday warned in a report in the New England Journal of Medicine that using a portable music player such as an Apple Inc. iPod outdoors when lightning threatens can be dangerous. (File Photo)

    BEIJING, July 13 (Xinhuanet) -- A Canadian doctor Thursday warned in a report in the New England Journal of Medicine that using a portable music player such as an Apple Inc. iPod outdoors when lightning threatens can be dangerous.

    "Most people hit by lightning get away with minor burns," said Dr. Eric Heffernan at Vancouver General Hospital in Vancouver, British Columbia, who is also the lead author of the report, which looks at instances of people who are struck by lightning while attached to electronic devices.

    "It's because skin is highly resistant and stops electricity from entering the body. It's called the flashover effect -- although it can stop your heart and kill you."

    Being plugged into earbuds -- a style of tiny headphone -- or other electronic devices can change the physics of flashovers.

    Contrary to some urban legends and media reports, electronic devices don't attract lightning the way a tall tree or a lightning rod does.

    "It's going to hit where it's going to hit, but once it contacts metal, the metal conducts the electricity," said Dr. Mary Ann Cooper of the American College of Emergency Physicians and an ER doctor at University of Illinois Medical Center at Chicago.

    When lightning jumps from a nearby object to a person, it often flashes over the skin. But metal in electronic devices -- or metal jewelry or coins in a pocket -- can cause contact burns and exacerbate the damage.

    The report tells a incident where a 35-year-old jogger was caught in a thunderstorm in a Burnaby, B.C., park in June 2005. He was hit by lightning, which is bad enough, as he stood under a tree listening to music from his iPod.

    The doctors didn't blame the iPod for attracting the lightning, they did say it contributed to his injuries. "Although the use of a device such as an iPod may not increase the chances of being struck by lightning, in this case, the combination of sweat and metal earphones directed the current to, and through, the patient's head," they claimed.

    In addition, they emphasized that it's not just iPods people have to be concerned about -- anything similar that requires headphones or even cellphones being held to the ear during the storm could result in similar injuries.

(Agencies)