Music Players and Lightning Don't Mix
The BBC reports that doctors in Vancouver, Canada have determined that wearing portable music players during storms is a risky endeavor.
In a letter to the New England Journal of Medicine, they describe burns and hearing damage suffered by a patient hit by lightning while using his iPod.
The man, who was jogging in a storm, suffered burns to his chest and on his leg where he was wearing the player.
Doctors say the man's sweat and metal earphones helped channel the current.
Medical experts say electronic devices, such as music players or mobile phones, on their own do not attract lightning.
But in the Vancouver man's case, "the combination of sweat and metal earphones directed the current to, and through, the patient's head," wrote Drs Eric J Heffernan, Peter L Munk and Luck J Louis of Vancouver General Hospital.
In the Vancouver man's case the doctors say having the music player made getting hit by lightning even worse.
When the victim was brought to Vancouver General Hospital, doctors found that along with second-degree burns on his chest and left leg, the man also suffered substantial burns in the area around his metal earphones. In addition, both his eardrums were ruptured, resulting in severe hearing loss, and his jaw was cracked.
The man was wearing an Apple iPod at the time he a bolt of lightning struck a nearby tree.
Posted on July 16, 2007
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