Preventing Fatalities and Injuries

from Lightning Strikes

ADAM RITCHIE
TECHNICAL WRITING - WHITE PAPER PUBLICATION
Table of Contents
Table of Contents................................................................................................................. 1
Abstract................................................................................................................................ 2
Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 2
Reasons for High Fatalities and Injuries .......................................................................... 32
Rural vs. Urban Settings .................................................................................................. 3
Building Quality ............................................................................................................... 3
Recreational Sports and Open Fields ............................................................................ 43
Lack of Awareness ........................................................................................................... 4
Pushing Public Awareness .................................................................................................. 4
Cost of a Promotional Effort.......................................................................................... 54
Effectiveness of an Awareness Campaign ........................................................................... 5
Local Lightning Awareness ........................................................................................... 65
Past Public Awareness Efforts ....................................................................................... 65
Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 6
Appendices ........................................................................................................................ 87
Appendix A - Lightning Fatalities Analysis ................................................................... 87
Appendix B - Lightning Safety Awareness Promotions ................................................ 87
References ......................................................................................................................... 98
Image References .......................................................................................................... 98

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AbstractExecutive Summary
Lightning strikes are one of the deadliest weather phenomena in the world, causing an
estimated 24,000 worldwide fatalities per year, and injuring about 240,000 more (Holle
13). Though the rates of injuries and fatalities are clearly correlated with the
industrialization and economic growth of various nations, a public awareness effort to
push better safety around storms would have a positive impact on the rates of fatalities
and injuries resulting from lightning strikes.
Lightning strikes are extremely dangerous to humans and are responsible for thousands
of deaths every year, yet awareness about lightning safety is quite low. Other natural
disasters like floods and hurricanes have much more concentrated and dramatic effects
and are therefore more easily noticed, but lightning is a huge problem, particularly in
third world countries where people spend more time outdoors working, buildings are
lower quality, and there are few public safety requirements. Though the rates of injuries
and fatalities are clearly correlated with the industrialization and economic growth of
various nations, a public awareness effort to push better safety around storms would
have a positive impact on the rates of fatalities and injuries resulting from lightning
strikes. An effective solution is a public awareness effort in areas of the world with high
lightning activity, since local awareness efforts have shown promise, particularly in the
United States. Other public awareness campaigns have also had great impact, especially
efforts to raise awareness about animal endangerment and habitat destruction. Because
of these facts, a public awareness effort to educate both children and adults about the
dangers and appropriate response in a storm would be an effective and efficient
solution.

Introduction
Lightning strikes are one of the deadliest weather phenomena in the world, causing an
estimated 24,000 worldwide fatalities per year, and injuring about 240,000 more (Holle
13). Though the rates of injuries and fatalities are clearly correlated with the
industrialization and economic growth of various nations, a public awareness effort to
push better safety around storms would have a positive impact on the rates of fatalities
and injuries resulting from lightning strikes.
Lightning strikes, which specifically refer to an electrical discharge from a cloud that
hits an object on the ground, are also called cloud to ground (CG) lightning. CG
lightning can injure humans in different ways, and often the severity of the injury is a
result of the type of strike. Most people are not struck by the flash channel, which is the
main part of the lightning bolt, but rather injured more indirectly. Some examples
include a contact injury, which occurs when a person is touching a conductive object
that is struck, and a side splash, which occurs when smaller electrified “branches” jump
off of the main bolt and strike someone (Cooper). The different types of lightning
injuries are important because different safety measures should be used to mitigate risk
2
for a specific type of strike (avoid conductive objects for contact injuries, go indoors to
avoid side splash, etc.)

Reasons for High

Fatalities and
Injuries
A vast majority of lightning injuries and
fatalities can be prevented. So why are
there thousands of deaths and hundreds of
thousands of injuries each year? The
answer is quite complex, though there are
several major factors that influence the
rates of human victims of lightning strikes.
Figure 1 - Lightning deaths per million people
Many of the factors are products of
compared to the percentage of rural population
technological development and rapid
in the US (Holle 1)
globalization, which are beyond the scope
of the proposed solution in this report. However, it is important to understanding the
underlying factors that affect the rates of lightning deaths and injuries. Several pie
charts detailing lightning fatalities in certain contexts can be found in Appendix A.

Rural vs. Urban Settings

Figure 1 on the right clearly shows a strong correlation between the number of
lightning-related deaths per million people, and the percentage of people who are living
in a rural area. This intuitively makes sense, because rural areas do not have tall
buildings to act as attractors for lightning, and most individuals living in rural areas
typically spend a lot more time performing outside work, like farming. The tendency of
the United States toward industrialization over the time period shown in the graph
(1880 - 2000) explains the reasoning for the results, and can also be seen in Appendix
A, work-related activities. This fact leads in to the next reason for high fatalities and
injuries: building quality.

Building Quality
The quality of a building’s construction, in terms of both lightning safety procedures, as
well as quality of the building materials, has a significant impact on the safety of its
occupants during a storm. Low quality building materials, like dirt and thatch, offer
little to no protection against lightning striking the building, because they are worse
conductors than the people inside. In contrast, higher quality building materials like
steel conduct the electricity effectively and route the current around the people inside.
Because of this fact, coupled with the increased risk in rural areas, first world countries
are at a much higher risk for lightning fatalities and injuries.

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Recreational Sports and Open Fields
Several incidents involving a lightning strike and recreational sports have occurred in
fairly recently, particularly on large open fields that are not surrounded by taller
structures. In August 2008, a soccer training camp in Wald-Michelbach, Hesse,
Germany was struck by lightning, injuring 32 people (Elsom 1405). The lightning can
strike an object or even a person on an open field and spread through the ground to
everyone else standing on the field. Other potentially dangerous sports and activities
include golf and outdoor swimming, among others (see Appendix A, sports-related
activities).

Lack of Awareness
Though these reasons are all significant and real, they can all be tied to a simpler, more
elegant reason: lack of awareness. Consistently, people are injured or killed by lightning
because they were doing something they would not have been doing if they were
properly aware of the dangers associated with lightning strikes. For example, sports
teams and other groups in large open areas should immediately go indoors if thunder is
heard or a storm appears to be imminent. Individuals inside homes or buildings should
avoid touching anything conductive, like metal sinks, and should not use corded
telephones, since an electrical current can travel through the conductive telephone wires
and cause trauma and hearing loss (Cooper). These are all significant threats which
many people are not aware of.

Pushing Public Awareness

An effective and low-cost solution to the issue of lightning injuries and fatalities is to
push a major public awareness effort to the dangers of lightning and steps to take to
help mitigate the risks. There are many examples of public awareness efforts that are
promoted by harnessing the interconnectivity and globalization of society, through
social media and other efforts. The solution involves promoting images and graphics
detailing what to do when a storm is imminent or happening through a promotion effort
on social media like Twitter and Facebook. Examples of lightning safety graphics and
promotional material can be seen in Appendix B. Additionally, this solution would
include educational videos and images to be promoted in schools and possibly even
physical advertisement locations. These educational materials could also be translated
into different languages to be spread to other areas of the world with a high risk of
lightning strikes, as described in the next section.

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Cost of a Promotional Effort
Though this promotional effort
may sound expensive, it would not
need to be equally promoted in all
areas. Figure 2 shows that the
southeastern United States is far
more likely to be struck by
lightning than the rest of the
country, with Florida being the
extreme example. A public
awareness effort for lightning
safety should be concentrated in
this area of the United States and
can be extended to a global effort. Figure 2 - Frequency of lightning strikes in the
Lightning activity is concentrated continental US over a 14-year span (image
in very specific regions of the credit Vaisala)
world, and so a public awareness
effort should be concentrated in those areas. Figure 3 shows that the southeastern US,
Central and South America, central Africa, and southeast Asia would be the primary
targets (Voiland).

Figure 3 - Frequency of lightning strikes across the world (image

credit NASA)

Effectiveness of an Awareness Campaign

It is natural to question the effectiveness of public awareness campaigns, particularly in
a culture where they are extremely common and many times intended to raise money
for a specific cause. However, a lightning safety awareness campaign is effective as long

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as people see the information. No one needs to donate any money, just spread the
information and put it to use in their own lives.

Local Lightning Awareness

The National Weather Service in the United States already has a social media campaign
promoting lightning safety and awareness during the summer months, and certain
communities and states have specific campaigns. For example, Wilmington, Ohio has a
Lightning Safety Awareness Week intended to promote good decisions and educate the
local populace about the dangers of lightning and what to do when a storm appears
imminent (“Lightning Awareness”). Encouraging more communities to promote this
information to be publicly available and posting images like those found in Appendix B,
particularly those that experience a high number of lightning strikes, would clearly
decrease the number of lightning related injuries and fatalities in those communities.

Past Public Awareness Efforts

Typically, public awareness campaigns have been used to raise money and reduce
animal endangerment and poaching. Examples include the Ivory Challenge put forth by
the United States Fish and Wildlife Service in September 2014, in which they destroyed
six tons of illegally obtained elephant ivory. In 2006, environmental protection
organization WildAid used a campaign called Say No to Shark Fins to push public
awareness in China of the effects of shark fin soup consumption on the shark
population, and a follow-up report in 2012 showed that roughly 66% of survey
respondents said they would stop purchasing the soup because of awareness efforts
(Lagrone). Coca-Cola’s Arctic Home project raised over $2 million to help maintain
polar bear habitats, which are vulnerable due to increased rates of sea ice melting from
climate change (“Coke”). These are just a few examples of past public awareness
campaigns that had major positive impacts on their intended domain, and a lightning
safety awareness campaign would have similar effects.

Limitations of Awareness Campaigns

While a public awareness campaign is an effective solution to this problem, any
awareness effort is not without its share of limitations. The effectiveness of this solution
is dependent upon individuals exposed to the campaign. They need to spread their
knowledge of lightning dangers to others who are not aware and may not be exposed to
the awareness effort in any way. Furthermore, those people who are aware of the
dangers of lightning strikes must actually act upon that knowledge quickly. Many who
are struck were attempting to reach safety at the time, and simply did so too late, when
the storm was already too close.

Conclusion
Lightning strikes are an underrated and unnoticed killer, due to the relatively low
casualty rate they have when compared to the concentrated effects of other natural
6
disasters. However, lightning safety is still very important, particularly in first-world
countries where people spend much more time outside and buildings are built out of
poor quality materials. First-world countries are not immune, however, especially in
flat, open areas like soccer fields and golf courses. Public awareness efforts like safety
weeks and educational materials posted in public areas are effective in local settings,
and this efficacy can be extended to spread awareness in other vulnerable areas.
Educational materials should be introduced with an emphasis on poorer countries
whose citizens are not properly educated about the dangers of lightning. This public
awareness effort would be an effective solution to dramatically reduce the number of
lightning-related fatalities and injuries across the world.

7
Appendices

Appendix A - Lightning Fatalities Analysis

Appendix B - Lightning Safety Awareness Promotions

8
References
“Coke Raises More Than $2 Million to Save Polar Bears.” Coca-Cola.com, Coca-Cola,
2012, www.coca-colacompany.com/our-company/coke-raises-over-2-million-to-
save-polar-bears.
Cooper, Mary Ann. “Lightning Injuries.” Medscape.com, Medscape, 20 Nov. 2017,
https://emedicine.medscape.com/article/770642-overview.
Elsom, Derek M. “Lightning Threats to People and Activities.” Lightning - Nature and
Culture, by Derek M. Elsom, Reaktion Books, 2015.
Holle, Ronald L. “Annual Rates of Lightning Fatalities by Country.” ResearchGate, 20th
International Lightning Detection Conference, 8 Jan. 2015,
www.researchgate.net/publication/267855823_Annual_rates_of_lightning_fata
lities_by_country.
Lagrone, Cameron. “Are Public Awareness Campaigns Effective?” Global Wildlife
Conservation Group, University of Texas at Austin, 30 Sept. 2014,
https://sites.utexas.edu/wildlife/2014/09/30/are-public-awareness-campaigns-
effective/.
“Lightning Safety Awareness Week.” National Weather Service, National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration, www.weather.gov/iln/lightningsafetyweek.
Voiland, Adam. “NASA Researchers Explore Lightning's Noxious Impact on Pollution,
Climate.” NASA.gov, NASA, 22 Oct. 2009,
www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/nox_lightning.html.

Image References
https://www.vaisala.com/sites/default/files/styles/product_main/public/images/PRO
D-NLDN-2007-2016-density-map-sqm-1280x960.jpg?itok=ooaP5rXf
https://www.weather.gov/images/wrn/social_media/2017/Lightning_Do_and_Dont.p
ng
https://www.weather.gov/images/iln/safetyweeks/thunder_roars.jpg
https://www.weather.gov/images/iln/safetyweeks/Work.png
https://www.weather.gov/images/iln/safetyweeks/Sports.png
https://www.nasa.gov/images/content/396081main_lightning-map.jpg