Citation
(2006), "Lightning safety: an issue with international significance", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 15 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/dpm.2006.07315eab.002
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2006, Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Lightning safety: an issue with international significance
Lightning safety: an issue with international significance
Each year, lightning is responsible for an estimated 24,000 deaths and 240,000 injuries worldwide. Protecting people and facilities from lightning is a global issue that requires more attention and education, especially in lesser-developed nations where villagers, farmers, and rural school children lack a sufficient understanding of the threat posed by lightning. Teaching lightning safety should be fundamental to every community's public safety education efforts. How to react when one hears thunder or sees lightning should be common knowledge:, e.g. avoid isolated trees, water, proximity to metal objects, and elevated or open spaces and structures; seek low ground or shelter in an enclosed building. Such public knowledge can reduce deaths and injuries.
For several years, the National Lightning Safety Institute (NLSI) in Louisville, Colorado, has exported its methodologies and practices overseas. Lightning research centers and lightning awareness centers have been established in several countries to mitigate the hazard. Groups in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Bhutan are communicating lightning safety messages to their communities through targeted meetings, public speaking engagements, media cooperation, printed materials, and more. The South Asian Lightning Awareness Program, a joint effort by institutions in these three countries, was developed to provide the general public and the engineering community in the region with much needed awareness and expertise on lightning safety to protect individuals and limit damage to property, both public and private, and minimize potential economic disruption.
Similar work is being conducted in East Africa through the Pan-African Lightning Protection Agency. While the importance of lightning safety does seem to be slowly gaining international recognition, there is much still to be done. Areas of urgent need include India, China, the Middle East, and West Africa. For more information about the NLSI's International Lightning Safety Initiative, contact Richard Kithil Jr, National Lightning Safety Institute, 891 North Hoover Avenue, Louisville, CO 80027; (303) 666-8817; e-mail: rkithil@lightningsafety.com; www.lightningsafety.com/nlsi_history/intl_safety_initiative.html.
(Natural Hazards Observer, Vol. XXX No. 5 May 2006)