“Listen to an iPod during a storm and you may get more than electrifying tunes,” Linda A. Johnson reports for The Associated Press.
“A Canadian jogger suffered wishbone-shaped chest and neck burns, ruptured eardrums and a broken jaw when lightning traveled through his music player’s wires,” Johnson reports. “Last summer, a Colorado teen ended up with similar injuries when lightning struck nearby as he was listening to his iPod while mowing the lawn.”
Johnson reports, “Emergency physicians report treating other patients with burns from freak accidents while using personal electronic devices… Contrary to some urban legends and media reports, electronic devices don’t attract lightning the way a tall tree or a lightning rod does.”
“When lightning jumps from a nearby object to a person, it often flashes over the skin. But metal in electronic devices — or metal jewelry or coins in a pocket — can cause contact burns and exacerbate the damage,” Johnson reports.
Johnson reports, “A spokeswoman for Apple Inc., the maker of iPods, declined to comment. Packaging for iPods and some other music players do include warnings against using them in the rain.”
Full article here.
Helen Branswell reports for The Canadian Press, “Wearing the device that is said to put ‘1,000 songs in your pocket’ during a thunderstorm may have sent millions of volts surging through the head of an unlucky Vancouver jogger.”
“His eardrums were ruptured, his jaw fractured and he suffered first- and second-degree burns from his chest – where the device was strapped – up into his ear channels, along the trail of the iPod’s trademark white earphones. He also had burns down his left leg and on the foot, where the electricity exited his body, blowing his sneaker to smithereens in the process,” Branswell reports.
“‘Using things like this, a mobile phone or an iPod, there isn’t actually an increased risk (of incurring a lightning injury),’ Dr. Eric Heffernan, a radiologist at Vancouver General Hospital, said from Vancouver. ‘But we just suggest that if you are unlucky enough to be hit by lightning while listening to anything with earphones you may be more likely to do yourself some damage.'”
“As for the offending IPod, well, it was ‘damaged beyond repair. Absolutely burned to a crisp,’ Heffernan said,” Branswell reports. “The man has bought another, the doctor reported. But as the old adage goes, once burned, twice shy. He no longer wears an IPod when he goes out for a jog.”
Full article here.
The New England Journal of Medicine’s report “Thunderstorms and iPods – Not a Good iDea” is here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “klapka,” “Shawn,” and “Pierre” for the heads up.]
Striking.
Sing along with me
“Paranoid will destroy ya!”
So, you’re kinda screwed anyway if a lightning bolt gets near enough to you to damage your iPod.
Personally, I warn against listening to “experts” on your iPod during electrical storms.
rule of thumb ,dont be outside during a thunderstorm.it is just common sense and has nothing to do with the ipod itself.it can happen with any device,it just makes it bigger news if you mention
an ipod
God, I hate these stupid non-articles.
48,000,000 iPods out there and we hear about 1 maybe 5 lightning hits. 1/48,000,000?
Lightning odds in the US are 1/400,000, possibly 1/700,000. (crappy research on my part suggests)
Yawn.
I could spin it so that it’s SAFER to wear an iPod with those numbers.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”smile” style=”border:0;” /> (Not really but no one does any research or cares about facts these days)
I’m simply electrified!
Why single out the iPod? I presume the Zune is just as conductive? Of course, someone would actually have to own one before they could be hurt by it…
Is this covered under the warranty?….
So the dead person struck by lightning while wearing an ipod is deader than the dead person struck by lightning while not wearing an ipod.
Not just stricking…also shocking news.
“In further news, a man in Montana singed his peripherals while urinating on an electric fence. Experts are now advising us that the male peripherals may cause groin burns.” – True Story*
*Well, maybe…..
MDN Word: Knew, as in ‘Who knew!?”
And for sure, NEVER wear steel tipped safety shoes or for that matter metal hinged eyeglasses or even metal filled tooth cavities or for that matter even metal belt buckles and I’ll not even get into ear-rings, finger-rings, or toe-rings, or even belly-rings, nose-rings, lip-rings, nipple-rings, ….and such.
If I don’t look when crossing the street and get run over, can I sue the auto maker of the car that struck me for making a device that doesn’t explicity say that “running over a pedestrian with the vehicle may result in death”?
Or when I buy gasoline, should gas stations have a sign up that says “pouring gasoline over your body and lighting it on fire may result in serious injury or death”?
Or should doctor’s offices have signs up that say “excessive masturbation may lead to hairy palms, brain damage, and/or death”?
Please make sure you all remove your “prince alberts” during a thunderstorm…
Bonano….priceless!
Expect AAPL to drop significantly tomorrow upon increased awareness of this story.
I see stupid people.
Let’s see… Don’t wear metal objects on your person so if you get STRUCK BY LIGHTNING (and live to tell about it) the damage won’t be as severe. That’s like saying you should wear leather instead of denim clothing while playing on the freeway so if you get struck by a car (and live to tell about it), you will have less severe road rash.
If it ruptured his eardrums, how did he expect to listen to his new iPod? I guess the shock didn’t knock any sense into him. Free second rate health care in Canada tho’, eh?
Best advice:
Do Not Jog in an Electrical Storm!!!!
It is not the iPod per se that does the damage. It is the type of music you are listening to.
Punk rock and rap are the worst offenders. When listening to this genre you don’t even notice that you are being struck by lightning and therefore you just stand there and take multiple strikes as opposed to falling to the ground where the lightning will no longer hit you.
And in other news, a man wearing his iPod in a waterproof case was bitten by a shark off the coast of Florida. The doctor who examined the bite said that the iPod provided no protection whatsoever from the shark’s razor sharp teeth.
Shark experts said that sharks are attracted to electrical impulses, and that the shrill voice of Clay Aiken coming from the iPod’s headphones may have driven the shark into a feeding frenzy.
Apple, Inc. was contacted minutes before this article was uploaded, and did not respond quickly enough to satisfy this journalist, therefore appearing guilty of promoting shark attacks.
File this under “duh”. I live where thunder storms are common. I have knoen since I was 5, read five years old, not to be out side if at all possible when thunder storms are visible in the area.
It’s almost as dangerous as using an iMac in an earthquake!
Try the Belkin lightning rod next time. Double plugs into yer iPod and outta yer ar… never mind.
The problem remains that lightning programming is still done on normally unpatched Windows computers. It’s the defective implementation of that program within the defective operating system that is the real culprit here! Yes, all can be traced backed to Microsoft…
An Aussie iPod collection in no particular order, but the YEAH YEAH YEAHS are my favs lately – Couldn’t think of many more right now, but there are soooo many others. Aussie music has always rocked !!!
Tune into FBI – a Sydney – local indie radio station.
FBI
Anyway – every one of them is worth check’n out, course some will be familiar to you. As Ian “Molly” Meldrum the iconic aussie presenter of Count Down would say “… Do yourself a favor and check them out …”
PTY LTD
SPIDERBAIT
THE BIRTHDAY PARTY
THE ANGLES
JOHN BUTLER TRIO
ARCHITECTURE IN HELSINKI
NICK CAVE
THE LIVING END
SNEAKY SOUND SYSTEM
AUGIE MARCH
JET
PARKWAY DRIVE
BLACK SORROWS
THE HERD
DIVINYLS
HILLTOP HOODS
YEAH YEAH YEAHS
ROGUE TRADERS
GRINSPOON
THE AUDREYS
THE WAIFS
THE WHITLAMS
INXS
LITTLE RIVER BAND
THE SAINTS
COLD CHISEL
LASH
THE CHURCH
YOU AM I
SEVERD HEADS
SONIC ANIMATION
THE VINES
1200 TECHNIQUES
WOLTHMOTHER
INSTITUT POLAIRE
THE AVALANCHES
EVERMORE
POWDER FINGER
–
If Apple could pre-load an iPod with this lot, I reckon that would be a kinda cool, coz i like em … again, no particular order. tracks in parenthesis are Grade’
AIR
THE CURE
KULA SHAKER
LEMON JELLY
SLADE
ST GERMAIN
45 DIP
NICK DRAKE
LIBERA
SIGUR ROS
DJ SHADOW
GRACE JONES – REMIXED
SEELENLUFT
DIRECTIONS IN GROVE
THE DOORS
JEFF BUCKLEY
JIMMY SMITH
KOSHEEN
L. VIZZANA
OMD
QUEEN
RINOCEROSE
ROOT DOCTORS (I’D RATHER GO BLIND)
TONY SCOTT
MARC MOULIN (INTO THE DARK)
STEVE LAWLER (2 BKACK 2 GAY)
CORNELIUS
Get em off iTunes.
Ah … ok so I’m a dead dingos donga, wrong bleed’n thread.
Sorry, will now bore everyone again in the right thread re
Yellow submarine / Beatles / iPod rumor.
my bad
26 days straight, working – long days as well.
Getting a bit loopy now… need a day off.
Gee Sky Lark,
Are you plugging FBI (a pretty good station) or commenting about this story. Now as the station is Sydney based why don’t you link the story to the fact that Sydney has more thunderstorms than any capital city in the world. Now wouldn’t that be relevant? (However, many of your listed bands are pretty damn good.)
This a good reminder that if you are caught out in a thunderstorm you shouldn’t be listening to any mp3 player…especially Zunes. (It’s one thing to be zapped, it’s another thing to end up in hospital shouting I HAVE NO TASTE AND I HAVE NO STYLE!)
I have no connection with FBI, just like them.
But the more rain we get here the better.
Any way it’s all about thinning out the herd and gene pool.
Actually that’s a bit flippant, don’t like to see or hear of anyone get hurt,
iPod Bites Mailman
It says that he was listening to Metallica while mowing the lawn. Must have been songs from “Ride the Lightning”.
The chance of getting hit by a lighting is pretty damn small. Unless you’re swimming during the the thunder storm, that would be just plain stupid.
Listening to an iPod during a thunder storm is really safe compared to a finninsh Juhannus (a mid-summer fest): Get really drunk and go to Sauna (80-120C), then prove that Tarzan wasn’t such a great swimmer. After that it’s good to go fishing, and naturally everyone in the boat is standing. If you’re still alive you should take fastest car available and pack it full drunken people and see how fast it really is.
If wake up the next morning, that’s good thing. You’re alive. Roughly 15 people die during 2 days, which is pretty low considering the risk factor.
Zune’s repel lightning. And vampires.
Go Zune!
My Zune works best while still in the box, on the shelf in the store.
..what about the xbox ..is it ok to wear an xbox. what about a Volkswagon. What about wearing down your so-called friends with pathetic drivel ..in a thunderstorm. What about a homonym ..like where am I or werewolves don’t wear windbreakers in the merry month of may ..what about a prophylactic widget.. Can you carry this too far ..and if you could maybe you’d like to keep it in that stupid iPod sock. Can lightening make you stupid. The answer to all these questions is yes.
Just another article based on the fact that they did not get in on the stock. Zune is a consumer repellent.
The iPhone will attract tornados and cyclones near water.
The iMac will make the locusts come back….
Come on Bill, just make a product that works and stop paying
these so-called experts..
Just a why do we listen thought….
QUOTE “He also had burns down his left leg and on the foot, where the electricity exited his body, blowing his sneaker to smithereens in the process,”
Lightning eminates at ground level and goes up to the sky. Not the other way, as commonly believed. Like Windows, it is counter-intertuitive!
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”smile” style=”border:0;” />
Sorry, just couldn’t resist…
lmao good one ‘doc’ they come in the wrost of colors too lol no taste indeed
MDN MW: “zebra” as in they’ll be announcing their new zebra striped zune any day now, they say its gonna be a big hit, its gonna sell 2! more zunes than all the others! (then steve ballmer can say thier selling millions of millions of millions of zunes, whats apple selling?)
It should be common sense not to wrap a wire around your neck in a lighting storm. And shouldn’t that apply to all music players?
Maybe that Jogger shouldn’t take up Golfing.
Skylark wrote: “An Aussie iPod collection in no particular order, but the YEAH YEAH YEAHS are my favs lately – Couldn’t think of many more right now, but there are soooo many others. Aussie music has always rocked !!!
Tune into FBI – a Sydney – local indie radio station.”
I like OZ stuff. Attended UNSW for year.
In any case, disappointed that FBI only steams via WMP.
Did like this picture though.
http://www.fbi.org.au/content.php/753.html
@ troy
Just goes to show how ubiquitous the iPod is in reality.
MDN word – and “growing”
Wait! Wait! I got it! The new xgame phenomenon! Listen to the iPod and do the Robot in an open field during an electrical storm, with wire coat hangers in each hand (steel toe boots a must)! Last one standing wins!
Personally I gave up bathing with a toaster a ling time ago…
Every new iPod and iPhone will be packaged with this warning sticker.
COME IN OUT OF THE RAIN!
You’d think that if someone was smart enough to choose an iPod, they’d be smart enough to know to come in out of the rain.
I could see this happening to a Zune owner.
Perhaps the guy got his iPod as a Christmas present.
I wonder if getting hit by lightening instantly charged up his battery? Maybe there are some advantages.
Hmmmm, maybe it was the sneakers that caused the damage??? Afterall, they were totally destroyed, weren’t they!!
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”grin” style=”border:0;” />
“Wearing sneakers while running in the rain can increase the chance for having foot burns while getting struck by lightning!!! ” If you run in the rain, do not wear sneakers. You will have a higher chance of getting struck by lightning but if you do get struck, your feet will be less likely to be burned by melted plastic!!!
Boy, what a crock of experts!!
en
I smell a Discovery Channel Mythbusters opportunity.
http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/mythbusters/mythbusters.html
(It’s also mostly crap science but Kari Byron is hot.)
Stupid is as stupid does.
I can see how one might get caught in a storm whilst out running, especially a long one. That happened to me once and it was hella scary. That was before I had an iPod.
But getting hit by lightening whilst cutting the lawn. That’s just plain stupid.
The guys should count themselves lucky that they are still alive, rather than complaining about their injuries.
Since the iPod is so dominant it is to be expected that any incidents like this will involve an iPod or that people will use the name iPod when generally referring to mp3 players. That’s the price of fame!
Did anyone read the NEJM article abstract? I liked this part:
“Although the use of a device such as an iPod may not increase the chances of being struck by lightning,3”
And the footnote points to “Farragher RM. Injury from lightning strike while using mobile phone: statistics and physics do not suggest a link. BMJ 2006;333:96-96”
I liked how they blamed the iPod for the guys ruptured eardrums, then said, “Perforations are commonly seen in patients who have been struck by lightning…”
IOW, this really has nothing to do whatsoever with the iPod, except, like change in your pocket or other metal on your person, you might get some extra burns.
Jeesh, I know iPod is everywhere, but does EVERYthing have to be about the iPod? I’m beginning to suspect iPod (and iPhone by extension) have paranormal powers beyond this realm, FFS! (I think maybe, “It is also a rather interesting shade of mauve.”)
MW: school, as in these researchers need to go back.
No one is going to stop me from wearing stainless steel underwear.
How else am I going to guide ships to safety?
TMF…Stainless steel undies? You are lucky. Mine are iron.
They may rust but at least I always know where north is.
The article only mentions that iPods (and phones) are at risk. Time to switch to a Zune. With so few of them out there, the risk of getting hit with lightning with one of them are much lower.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”wink” style=”border:0;” />
Does the article talk about which songs are more likely to attract lightning?
Buster:
It’s time for you to upgrade. Ore else.
@Twisted
Thanks for the laugh.
Was one of those guys actually mowing their lawn in a thunderstorm? Tough parents!!! Yikes!!
Shiva: I’m here to serve but protection is not cheap. Or reliable.
‘Or should doctor’s offices have signs up that say “excessive masturbation may lead to hairy palms, brain damage, and/or death”?’
I’ve got one up in my office.
Shiva,
Yes, he was. And, he was an adult – not a kid.
In other news:
Experts Warn Against Taking a Nap While Driving
Look if we start warning people about lightning too, how the hell is human evolution supposed to continue?
Just my $0.02
ridiculousness abounds…
which is a bigger killer?
cell phone induced cancer or iPod induced lightning burns…
you know – because people don’t have headsets for phones.
So 100 million iPods have been sold TO DATE.
10 times that many cell phones are sold EVERY YEAR.
And the iPod is more likely to kill you?
right.
I have a neighbor who is always outside mowing his lawn or using an edge-trimmer– obsessively so, in fact; and he will even be out there with his lawn trimmer in an electrical storm. I keep waiting for the day I’m in my house, hear the loud pop, and look outside to see my neighbor toasted like a Quizno’s sub. And then we will hear from all these “experts” who discuss whether edge-trimmers are dangerous because they may conduct lightning, and wait to see the manufacturers of edge-trimmers sued by the evolution-challenged. Good times.
Ray said: “Look if we start warning people about lightning too, how the hell is human evolution supposed to continue?”
Agreed which explains why we have so many republicans running around. Not enough of them are getting picked off by natural predators.