Revealed - how bagpipes can be deadly
Pipers urged to clean their pipes to avoid 'Bagpipe lung'
Bagpipers are being warned by doctors over possible lung damage after a player is believed to have died from a reaction to mouldy pipes.
Doctors writing in the journal Thorax have said instruments should be cleaned regularly to avoid “bagpipe lung''.
The 61 year old patient was treated by a team at Wythenshawe Hospital in Manchester who say that if caught early, similar problems could be treated with a good prognosis.
The report says he practised every day and had been ill for a number of years.
Doctors realised the bagpipes might have been the cause of the problems when he travelled abroad for a few months without his instrument and his condition improved.
He is thought to have developed a bad reaction to mould and fungi that was found to have developed inside the moist interior of his bagpipes when they were checked in a lab.
Inhaling pathogens had caused inflammation and eventually led to irreversible scarring.
Musicians are being urged to clean their instruments regularly and consider whether a cough or any breathlessness could be linked to their practice.