# Can you be electrocuted while on the toilet during a thunderstorm? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 2, 2003, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-be-electrocuted-while-on-the-toilet-during-a-thunderstorm/172735 "2003-05-02T22:14:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![The\_Man\_With\_The\_Golden\_Gun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dc4da7/32.png) [@The\_Man\_With\_The\_Golden\_Gun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Man_With_The_Golden_Gun)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2003, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-be-electrocuted-while-on-the-toilet-during-a-thunderstorm/172735/21 "2003-05-03T01:40:16Z")
Thanks for the answers. I appreciate it. And Vixenation, you aren’t the only one. I posted this thread during a thunderstorm. ---
**Author:** ![Jadeusa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Jadeusa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jadeusa)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-be-electrocuted-while-on-the-toilet-during-a-thunderstorm/172735/22 "2012-06-03T01:12:39Z")
When I lived in Evansville, IN it made news when a wife died by being hit by lightening on the toilet in her home, so yes although rare it can happen. What a way to go though right? The news interviewed the entire family. Like I said we were in Indiana… I was an OSHA Safety Instructor. Water & metal conduct electricity so it is kind of a Rhetorical question right? ---
**Author:** ![joemama24\_98](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ce7236/32.png) [@joemama24\_98](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joemama24_98)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-be-electrocuted-while-on-the-toilet-during-a-thunderstorm/172735/23 "2012-06-03T01:51:13Z")
My apt buliding was struck while I was in college. It was very early in the morning the sound left my ears ringing so hard I could not hear the car alarms going off outside. My roomate, however, had been up and brushing his teeth. The finish in his porcelain sink had literally blown off in spots, and the drain stop was laying on the floor. He said it literally blew out of the sink just as he was about to lean over to rinse…so I suppose it is remotley possible that a porcelain toilet with metal pipes could channel enough juice to seriously injure or kill someone ---
**Author:** ![JustinC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justinc/32/8083_2.png) [@JustinC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JustinC)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-be-electrocuted-while-on-the-toilet-during-a-thunderstorm/172735/24 "2012-06-03T14:48:20Z")
More importantly, could this power be used to repel zombies? ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-be-electrocuted-while-on-the-toilet-during-a-thunderstorm/172735/25 "2012-06-03T15:13:35Z")
zombie or no the metal plumbing is a good path. if lightning stuck metallic plumbing where the toilet was in or adjacent to the path to ground it could. even without a metallic toilet you are inches away from its path. it is all one of those everything has to be the right unusual situation for it to occur. will a discharge cause or prevent a discharge? ---
**Author:** ![barbitu8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/839c29/32.png) [@barbitu8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/barbitu8)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-be-electrocuted-while-on-the-toilet-during-a-thunderstorm/172735/26 "2012-06-03T21:56:23Z")
> [@octothorpe](#): > > The reason that you are not electrocuted while in a vehicle is that there is no path through you to a different potential. This is referred to as being in an ‘equipotential zone’ and is the same reason that linemen sitting on helicopter platforms can work on energized transmission lines in excess of 750,000 volts. > > # Faraday’s cage: the electricity is conducted through the metal on the car to the ground. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-be-electrocuted-while-on-the-toilet-during-a-thunderstorm/172735.md?page=1)