Don't use iPod in lightning storm, doctors warn

Started by Sportsdude, Jul 11 07 07:12

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Sportsdude

Three Vancouver doctors are urging those with portable CD and MP3 players of a potential danger, after a local man was seriously injured while jogging in a thunderstorm.[/p] The incident happened the summer of 2005. Witnesses saw the 37-year-old man thrown almost 2.5 metres after a tree he was running by was struck by lighting. The jogger had been listening to his iPod at the time. [/p] The patient suffered second-degree burns to his chest and left leg, and burns on his neck and inside his ear canal. [/p] Both of the man's eardrums were ruptured, and he suffered serious hearing loss and fractures in the jaw region. [/p] Eric J. Heffernan, Peter L. Munk, and Luck J. Louis of the Vancouver General Hospital published their report, [em][a href="http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/357/2/198?query=TOC" target="_top"]Thunderstorms and iPods -- Not a Good iDea[/a],[/em] in today's issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. [/p] The reports says the use of an electronic device such as an iPod may not increase the chances of being struck by lightning, in this case, the combination of sweat and metal earphones directed the current to and through the patient's head.
[/p]There have been other recent warnings for potential injury caused by MP3 players. Some of them are: [/p] [ul][li]Temporary or permanent hearing loss due to the prolonged listening of loud music; [/li][li]Repetitive strain injury in the fingers from using the scroll-wheels and buttons; and [/li][li]Injury from the leakage of the device's toxic chemicals when the players are heated. [/li][/ul] Safety officials have also warned of the dangerous and potentially deadly scenarios that can occur on the roadways when pedestrians and cyclists are listening to MP3 players and not paying attention to their surroundings. [/p] Police and school administrators have also warned against the dangers of children being mugged while carrying the devices.
[/p]Full Story:
[a href="http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070711/mp3_dangers_070711/20070711?hub=TopStories"]http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070711/mp3_dangers_070711/20070711?hub=TopStories[/a]

[hr style="width: 100%; height: 2px;"]Well duh.
Just like metal bats in baseball. Brilliant Idea.
"We can't stop here. This is bat country."

Lil Me

does this mean I should stop wearing my tinfoil hat?  
"In the absence of clearly-defined goals, we become strangely loyal to performing daily trivia until ultimately we become enslaved by it."  Robert Heinlein

Sportsdude

i believe so, that would be a good idea  
"We can't stop here. This is bat country."

Russ

Lil Me wrote:
does this mean I should stop wearing my tinfoil hat?  
   No otherwise the CIA, FBI, and other number/letter agencies will take over your brain and help our southern neighbors take us over.
Mercy to the Guilty is Torture to the Victims

P.C.

I think it was just Mother Natures way of slapping him upside the head for jogging in a thunderstorm.
Sir Isaac Newton invented the swinging door....for the convenience of his cat.

Lise

I've told this one before. My dentist's friend was jogging in Central Park in light storm listening to his music device when he was thrown a few feet. Lightning literally struck a tree where he was jogging. To this day, he's unable to do anything much. I think he's paralysed from half his body, not sure where.

  Tough lesson learnt.
Always end the name of your child with a vowel, so that when you yell the name will carry.
Bill Cosby.

Sportsdude

Colorado teen today got struck by lightening while using an ipod. ipod desintegrated much like that iphone in tb's thread.  
"We can't stop here. This is bat country."