Lightning strikes tongue stud
 

On Sun, 6 Jul 2003 18:39:11 +0100, "a" wrote:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/b...re/3047436.stm

*ouch*

why would lightning do that? Why would it hit a tiny bit of metal inside her
mouth and not her lips or head etc? (is it time for everyone to get their
metal fillings removed? :-)



Bit of journalistic licence, I feel. The lightning did not of course hit her
tongue stud, the discharge probably "hit" at the point nearest to where it
"bounced " off a nearby arch, probably the top of her head.

The blisters can be explained by the current, which would normally pass over the
skin and wet clothes (if it's raining) taking a temporary short circuit through
the mucous membranes of the mouth. The blisters are probably caused by local
heating of the saliva. The tongue stud would also act to concentrate the
current and so heating of the stud could have occurred.

She was very lucky, probably saved by wet clothes and so preventing current
passing through her heart.

Most ELCBs (earth leakage circuit breakers) as used on garden tools trip out at
20 milliamps, because not much more than that is required to stop the heart
beating.

JPG