A 37-year-old man, who had been listening to his iPod at the time, was thrown almost 2.5 metres after a tree he was running by was struck by lighting in 2005. He reportedly suffered second-degree burns to his chest and left leg, and burns on his neck and inside his ear canal leading to serious hearing loss.
The new warning, which is published in Wednesday's issue of New England Journal of Medicine, quotes Eric J. Heffernan, Peter L. Munk, and Luck J. Louis of the Vancouver General Hospital saying that the combination of sweat and metal earphones could have possibly directed the current to and through the patient's head.
"Although the use of a 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," the doctors wrote.
When the lightning strikes a person, it causes him to jump to a person from a nearby object, such as a tree, a phenomenon known as a side flash. It can occur irrespective of the fact whether the person is using any electric device or not but the chances become more prominent when he is.
Other recent warnings for potential injury caused by MP3 players include temporary or permanent hearing loss due to the prolonged listening of loud music and repetitive strain injury in the fingers from using the scroll-wheels and buttons.
Also, the person using such devices can be injured from the leakage of the device's toxic chemicals when the players are heated. Though metal doesn't attract lightning directly but when electricity comes in contact with the iPod, it conducts the electricity and can cause secondary burns.
