Bagpipers lung

[OC Richard]

That story is rubbish IMHO.

Every few years some journalist makes a splash with a non-story like that. Seems that the General Public likes hearing strange bagpipe stories.

I've been playing over 40 years. I've been around pipers that whole time, dozens, hundreds of them, many have been playing longer than me.

Pipers can have shoulder issues, rotator cuff issues. They can have repetitive motion issues.

Lung problems from playing the pipes? Never heard of it.

The story cites ONE case. Evidently the guy didn't know how to operate bagpipes, how to maintain them.

Pipers who know what they're doing season the bag. The seasoning keeps anything from growing. (I'm talking the traditional sheepskin bag. I have both of my pipes on sheepskin bags.)

Many pipers use Gore-Tex bags. I played one for a couple years. It stayed dry and clean inside, the same as a Gore-Tex jacket.

Perhaps this poor fellow used improper seasoning. Perhaps he made the seasoning himself, and didn't use the right ingredients. Maybe he never seasoned the bag and it was rotting. The story doesn't say.

Their "damp-loving mould" couldn't exist in a bag seasoned with proper seasoning, nor in a Gore-Tex bag. There's no "damp" in any set of pipes I've ever played; everything is bone-dry, or covered in a layer of seasoning. Evidently non-pipers imagine pipes being different than they are.

(BTW this thread doesn't concern kilts, but rather musical instruments, and would be better placed in one of the Music forums.)