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Loud Music Can Cause Lung Collapse
ahrenritter writes "This Reuters article discusses a report in the medical journal Thorax describing the cases of three young men who suffered a lung collapse (pneumothorax) apparently triggered by standing too close to very loud concert speakers. A fourth case occurred in a car that was outfitted with a 1,000 watt bass box. I guess deafness isn't all we have to worry about now!"
How about: This music is breath taking?
a report in the medical journal Thorax
I wouldn't trust anything in a medical journal made by Dr. Seuss.
Guy #1: Hey, I'm having a hard time breathing!
Guy #2: What!?!
Guy #1: Hey, I'm having a hard time breathing!
Act 2, Scene 5
JULIET
How art thou out of breath, when thou hast breath
To say to me that thou art out of breath?
The excuse that thou dost make in this delay
Is longer than the tale thou dost excuse.
Is thy news good, or bad? answer to that;
Say either, and I'll stay the circumstance:
Let me be satisfied, is't good or bad?
Your CPU is not doing anything else, at least do something.
I don't think it's fair to place this solely on music. There are many things far louder than your average concert. It's interesting nonetheless. If you've never seen bands like Floor, High on Fire, Khanate, or SunnO))), you really can't understand how sound waves can have that much power. When I saw Floor, my entire body shook. When they'd do sudden stops I felt like I was going to fall over. The only thing I've heard that is louder than them are top fuel (nitromethane powered) dragsters.
Before you ask, I wear earplugs at every show I go to.
'Standards' in computing only impress those who are impressed by things like 'standards'.
but anyone else ever been at a concert with such low rumbling rediculous bass that you can feel your heart beating a little off?
this only happened to me with dead voices on air, which uses a rediculous about of computer processing, but this was beyond nautious.
"But so-called primary spontaneous pneumothorax happens in the absence of an underlying disease, typically striking tall, thin, male smokers." So with enough bass, you could wipe out half the kids at any emo concert.
Sound is just a pressure wave through the medium of choice -- in this case air. It seems totally obvious in hindsight that in addition to affecting your ear canals, loud sounds can affect your lungs, especially when you're standing with your face by the source of the air compressions. It's no surprise that sound waves have been used to probe all sorts of cavities, everything from ultrasounds in pregnant women to determining the extent of underground caves. A big sound wave in a small cavity can cause damage -- I wonder why no one thought to apply that reasoning to lungs before? Maybe because the pulmonary cavities are so large compared to, say, the ear? As an aside, this article talks about the brighter side of sound, that using sound waves at just the right frequency can fight cancer.
Pure and Simple.
Don't think that a small group of dedicated individuals can't change the world. It's the only thing that ever has.
I used to sit in the back of my friend's cougar that has dual 12in 600W kickers (if I'm remembering correctly)... and I used to kinda joke about how it affected my breathing when I was back there...
...heh, well, I guess ignorance is bliss.
I had pneumothorax back in February, but it wasn't sound related. I was in the shower and for no apparent reason I felt as though someone had hit me in the chest with a sledgehammer. I thought it was a heart attack at first, but since I was only 21 I ruled that out as unlikely.
I waited 3 days before I actually went to the hospital and those were the most agonizing days of my life. I'd run out of breath walking from my apartment to my car (literally, 10 feet). I just had this sharp stabbing pain in the left side of my chest. When I went to the hospital the doctor told me that it was rare spontaneous pneumothorax, and that it usually happened to tall, scrawny males that were smokers (I'm not a smoker). Anyways, 5 hours later I left the hospital with a tube coming out of my chest and a prescription for some Darvocet. I had to keep that tube in my chest to relieve the pressure that was preventing my lung from inflating for 3 days.
It was really interesting to look at my chest x-rays though. My left lung had completely collapsed! It's never a good thing when doctors are telling everyone that's walking by the computer screen to "Check out how collapsed this lung is!"
Anyway, I just wanted to give some first hand experience.
. . . the punk boys with their $5,000 stereos in $800 cars will start dying from this in droves soon.
One CPU cycle wasted on digital restrictions management is ONE TOO MANY.
In short, the repairs hurt MUCH more than the injury.
:P
First they make a small incision and spread the ribs apart. Then take a blunt probe and S L O W L Y punch through the lining inside your chest cavity (pericadium?). No scapel allowed - it might damage delicate tissue.
Suffice to say, right before they performed the procedure (the tube insertion, to be exact), the doctor encouraged me to scream as loudly as I wanted (they didn't put me under because anaesthesia is too dangerous for this type of "minor" procedure).
The aftermath is that for a couple days you have a rubber hose coming out of your side that slowly sucks air out, thus re-inflating your lung. Not a lot of fun.
Moral of the Story: Turn down that music you darn kids!