After Electrocution Death, Coroner Says iPhones Should Carry Warning

Dropping a phone in the bath while it is charging can be as deadly as chucking a plugged-in hairdryer in there, a coroner warned during an inquest into the death of a British man last December. Richard Bull, 32, was apparently using his iPhone in the bath when it slipped into the water and electrocuted him, the Telegraph reports. Coroner Sean Cummings said he plans to write to Apple to warn of the danger. "These seem like innocuous devices, but they can be as dangerous as a hairdryer in a bathroom. They should attach warnings," he told the inquest, per the Guardian. "This was a tragic accident and I have no reason to believe at all that there was anything other than it being completely accidental."

Bull, who had used an extension cord from the hallway of his London home to bring the phone into the bath while it charged, suffered burns so severe that when his wife found his body, she thought he had been attacked and called police. The rugby player had been getting ready to meet family members and exchange Christmas presents. "When you are younger you are taught about electricity and the bath, but you don't think about this," his brother Andrew said. "I still find it hard to believe that between the charger plug and the phone would be enough electricity to kill someone." (The NYPD says keeping a phone under your pillow is also a bad idea.)