“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.
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.
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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.