Jul 11, 2007 2:07 pm US/Pacific
iPods & Lightning: A Bad iDea
MIAMI (CBS) ―
MP3 players like the iPod have become standard gear for joggers. But doctors say you want to be wary of the devices in certain weather.
For one man the music machine led to a shocking experience.
According to a report in the New England Journal of Medicine, the unidentified man wasn't' hit by a direct lightning strike but rather a sideflash after the bolt struck a nearby tree. These kinds of strikes usually pass over the skin, without doing too much harm but the iPod and the headphone wires became a dangerous conductor of electricity.
While traveling up the wires, the current burned the skin on his chest. The force caused muscle contractions in his face so powerful it fractured his jaw and blew out his ear drums.
Lightning strikes are rare, so wearing an iPod or any other mp3 device is not necessarily risky but Saint Luke-Roosevelt's Doctor Ron Fernandez says when the thunder clouds roll in, you should not only remove your iPod, but you should find shelter as well.
"If it's beginning to get cloudy and you can hear it you should go inside a building or inside a car," said Dr. Fernandez.
As for the man in the study, his burns and jaw have healed, but he lost 50 percent of his hearing. He does still job, but without the iPod.
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