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Lightning fatalities are a significant cause of weather-related deaths in the United States, killing an average of 49 people a year. Based on a review of lightning related fatalities from 2006 through 2013, the National Weather Service concluded that an overwhelming majority of those fatalities came from outdoor activities: Implied in the above analysis is the conclusion that lightning strikes affecting people inside the safety of their home are relatively rare. Indeed, indoor lightning fatalities represent an ever-shrinking percentage of overall deaths, especially in the developed world. Still, this does not mean that indoor lightning fatalities are impossible, or that the mechanism of being injured or killed while taking a bath or a shower is impossible. Lightning-struck ground near homes can send devastating jolts up pipes and into sinks and bathtubs, a phenomenon that can be compounded by the metal pipes used in household plumbing, which provides effective conduits for the massive electrical charges released by even a single bolt. Such lightning-related injuries are relatively uncommon in the greater scheme of things because one has to be doing the dishes or bathing or showering in the right (or wrong) place at the precise moment when a bolt hits. However, people have occasionally been injured in this fashion: In regards to how to remain safe indoors during a thunderstorm, experts advise: The long-standing warning that it is dangerous to take a bath or shower during a thunderstorm is indeed a scientifically factual and documented occurrence, but it is a demonstrably rare one. As such, we rate this claim a mixture.
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