The Null Device

Musically induced lung collapse

Loud music can do more than damage your hearing; it can make your lungs collapse:
One man was driving when he experienced a pneumothorax, characterised by breathlessness and chest pain. Doctors linked it to a 1,000 watt "bass box" fitted to his car to boost the power of his stereo.
It is thought the intense pulses of low-frequency, high-energy sound causes the lung to rupture because air and tissue respond differently to sound. The usual risk factors for collapsed lungs are smoking, illness that has weakened the patient, chronic obstructive lung disease or use of drugs that depress alertness or consciousness, such as sedatives, barbiturates, tranquilizers, or alcohol.

(via darwin)

There are 2 comments on "Musically induced lung collapse":

Posted by: steff http:// Mon Nov 1 07:05:19 2004

Darwin Award performance, to be sure.

Posted by: Mary Fri Mar 28 05:50:43 2008

I believe loud music at a concert ruptured a disk in my neck. This concert (Roger Waters) also had some explosive sound effects that I could feel thru my whole body. The next day I had odd tingling and numbness that eventually became quite painful and I ended up having an artificial disk replacement. Im feeling good now, but have 2 other disks that are bulging but cause no symptoms. I doubt I will ever go to another concert for fear of blowing out the 2 that are borderline bad :(