James Hrynyshyn is a freelance science journalist based in western North Carolina, where he tries to put degrees in marine biology and journalism to good use.
I love music as much as the next guy, just not when I'm actually out in the real world, which offers much more interesting -- and often critical -- sounds. But I had no idea just how dangerous iPods and their ilk could be until I read this.
From the current New Scientist:
A man in Vancouver, Canada, has discovered the hard way that listening to earphones in a thunderstorm can be a very bad idea. He was jogging while listening to an iPod, when he was struck by lightning. The earphones conducted the electricity through his head, bursting his eardrums and fracturing his jaw. ...The injuries have since healed, but in case you were wondering, "the iPod was destroyed irreparably."Two long, thin burn marks extended up his chest and the sides of his face, and there were "substantial" burns inside his ears. The sudden expansion of gases in his ears due to the hot earphones ruptured his eardrums, and he was deafened.
A cartilage graft from elsewhere in his body was used to patch up the ear-drums, but the patient still has 50% hearing loss and must use hearing aids, Heffernan told New Scientist.
Comments
This danger is independent of ipods. There was a similar incident many years ago involving a sony walkman. (Yeah, the tape player kind. It was a long time ago.)
Posted by: llewelly | July 13, 2007 7:05 PM
Not going to give up my non-iPod mp3 player/memory stick, though I will be sure to avoid wearing it outside in a thunderstorm.
Posted by: DuWayne | July 14, 2007 11:49 PM
The techno-critter attached to you is unimportant. A metal shaft & rib umbrella hoisted above your head is more likely to "target" you for an electrostatic breakover. There are electric field detectors available for golfers. The cautions are the same: Get to the lowest spot that you can find in a hurry and crouch down with your feet close together and make as much like a sphere as you can. Old Benny the Franklin could have been fried doing his famous experiment. He lucked out & lived to tell about it.
The earphone rig makes you about a foot taller in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Posted by: Skeptic8 | July 16, 2007 5:46 PM