iPods Can Download Lightning During Storms

Wearing Device And Ear Buds During Storms Can Draw Dangerous Electric Current

(WebMD)  Next time you're in a thunderstorm, skip the soundtrack on your personal music player.

The reason isn't aesthetics -- it's safety. Case in point: the 37-year-old, iPod-wearing Canadian man described in the July 12 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine.

The man's doctors, Eric J. Heffernan, MB, and colleagues say the man was jogging during a thunderstorm. A lightning bolt hit a tree that he was passing. As lightning often does, it jumped from the tree to the man in a phenomenon called a side flash, throwing the man 8 feet away.

Fortunately for humans, skin has high resistance to electric current. Unless something interrupts the flow, the lightning is often conducted over the surface of the body -- a "flashover."

This didn't happen to the Canadian jogger. His iPod didn't draw the
lightning strike. But when the flashover hit, the iPod, resting against the man's sweaty skin, drew in the powerful electric current.

The man had burns along his chest and neck where his earphone wires lay. The insides of his ears also were burned -- and then the ear buds conducted the current into his head.

The man's jaw was broken on either side. His eardrums burst, and the tiny bones inside his ears were dislocated. One inner ear canal filled with blood.

Doctors were able to set the man's jaw from the inside and repair his
eardrums.

The lesson, as the NEJM headline puts it: "Thunderstorms and
iPods -- Not a Good iDea."

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  By Daniel DeNoon
  Reviewed by Brunilda Nazario
  ©2007 WebMD, Inc. All rights reserved.

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  Add a Comment

  by rational_1 July 12, 2007 8:48 PM PDT

  With a bit of luck this also applies to cell phones. Then maybe a few of those sorry twits wandering around oblivious to everything around them while they talk into thin air will get a charge out of the next thunderstorm. One can only hope...

  Reply to this comment

  by July 13, 2007 12:29 AM PDT

  Some how I just see this as a freak of nature, and not an Ipod thing

  Reply to this comment

  by erasmus6 July 13, 2007 12:40 AM PDT

  My aunt got zapped while talking on a land phone.

  Reply to this comment

  by incog-nito July 13, 2007 1:14 AM PDT

  I fail to see what the iPod has anything to do with this. It could be any portable player, or anything metallic for that matter. Are you any safer if you switch from an iPod to, say, a Sony?

  Reply to this comment

  by hypnotoad72 July 13, 2007 7:45 AM PDT

  Cell phones, mp3 players, PDAs with headphones. I think it transcends one piece of overpriced Apple fluff.
  
  I agree. Sloppy journalism. And if Apple actually sued CBS for defamation, given the prevalence of "iPod" over generic names that encompass portable electronics of this nature in general, it wouldn't be easy deciding which side to be on.

  Reply to this comment

  by mdc76082 July 13, 2007 8:04 AM PDT

  Do you people even read, or do you just look at the pictures? The article doesn't "blame" the iPod, nor does it "state" that the iPod is the single "cause" of this incident. As for cell phones, that warning has already been out as has sitting near a computer station or any electrical device during a thunderstorm and the device doesn't even have to be "on". As has stay away from windows, a non-electrical device. Apple agreed to the findings in this article (check it out with them). Apple isn't suing anybody and it isn't "sloppy journalism", the incident happened while someone was wearing an iPod, the iPod amplified the situation, and the iPod left it's mark on the person's body. Those are the FINDINGS & the FACTS. Oh, by the way it isn't CBS who breaking this story. It's on every newswire.

  Reply to this comment

  by hypnotoad72 July 13, 2007 9:24 AM PDT

  mdc76082 - I did read. The link from the main page specifically states "ipod". The title of this article says "ipod". This entire article also centers on the "ipod" despite one token reference to "media players" at the start.
  
  Did you read?

  Reply to this comment

  by hypnotoad72 July 13, 2007 9:28 AM PDT

  MyOpinion1 - also true. Just because one makes one point doesn't mean there aren't others hiding underneath. At least from my standpoint, I was focusing on how the majority of references are blaming the "ipod", but the sad reality is that many would read the article and think "Okay then, I'll get the mp3 player from that other company and I'll be fine to skip and prance all I want during the next severe thunderstorm warning!"
  
  After all, it's the same reason why TV shows and commercials used to have big disclaimers reading "Don't try this at home". But then, I've never been fond of fiction in commercials either...

  Reply to this comment

  by hedonist3 July 13, 2007 12:14 PM PDT

  Anyone who would put anything electronic - manufactured by whatever company - close to his/her ears during a lightning storm rather seems asking for trouble. Hmmm, perhaps it's a cleansing of the herd...
  
  

  Reply to this comment

  by latazman July 15, 2007 12:07 PM PDT

  Duh!!! So can a golf club or fishing rod.

  Reply to this comment

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[rational_1]

With a bit of luck this also applies to cell phones. Then maybe a few of those sorry twits wandering around oblivious to everything around them while they talk into thin air will get a charge out of the next thunderstorm. One can only hope...

Some how I just see this as a freak of nature, and not an Ipod thing

[erasmus6]

My aunt got zapped while talking on a land phone.

[incog-nito]

I fail to see what the iPod has anything to do with this. It could be any portable player, or anything metallic for that matter. Are you any safer if you switch from an iPod to, say, a Sony?

[hypnotoad72]

Cell phones, mp3 players, PDAs with headphones. I think it transcends one piece of overpriced Apple fluff.

I agree. Sloppy journalism. And if Apple actually sued CBS for defamation, given the prevalence of "iPod" over generic names that encompass portable electronics of this nature in general, it wouldn't be easy deciding which side to be on.

[mdc76082]

Do you people even read, or do you just look at the pictures? The article doesn't "blame" the iPod, nor does it "state" that the iPod is the single "cause" of this incident. As for cell phones, that warning has already been out as has sitting near a computer station or any electrical device during a thunderstorm and the device doesn't even have to be "on". As has stay away from windows, a non-electrical device. Apple agreed to the findings in this article (check it out with them). Apple isn't suing anybody and it isn't "sloppy journalism", the incident happened while someone was wearing an iPod, the iPod amplified the situation, and the iPod left it's mark on the person's body. Those are the FINDINGS & the FACTS. Oh, by the way it isn't CBS who breaking this story. It's on every newswire.

[hypnotoad72]

mdc76082 - I did read. The link from the main page specifically states "ipod". The title of this article says "ipod". This entire article also centers on the "ipod" despite one token reference to "media players" at the start.

Did you read?

[hypnotoad72]

MyOpinion1 - also true. Just because one makes one point doesn't mean there aren't others hiding underneath. At least from my standpoint, I was focusing on how the majority of references are blaming the "ipod", but the sad reality is that many would read the article and think "Okay then, I'll get the mp3 player from that other company and I'll be fine to skip and prance all I want during the next severe thunderstorm warning!"

After all, it's the same reason why TV shows and commercials used to have big disclaimers reading "Don't try this at home". But then, I've never been fond of fiction in commercials either...

[hedonist3]

Anyone who would put anything electronic - manufactured by whatever company - close to his/her ears during a lightning storm rather seems asking for trouble. Hmmm, perhaps it's a cleansing of the herd...

[latazman]

Duh!!! So can a golf club or fishing rod.