iPods can glitch out pacemakers, teen warns

[Mark_Pogue]

17-year-old pairs up with heart docs to demonstrate hazard of being hip

iPods can cause cardiac implantable pacemakers to malfunction by interfering with the electromagnetic equipment monitoring the heart, according to a study presented by a 17-year-old high school student to a meeting of heart specialists on Thursday.

The study tested the effect of the portable music devices on 100 patients, whose mean age was 77, outfitted with pacemakers. Electrical interference was detected half of the time when the iPod was held just 2 inches from the patient’s chest for 5 to 10 seconds.

The study did not examine any portable music devices other than iPods, which are made by Apple Inc.

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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18598054/

[durtee librul]

1. Let's take up a collection for one for darth...n/t

[Mark_Pogue]

2. Quick!!!!!!!!!!!!

Everyone send your ipods to him!!!:evilgrin:

[Warpy]

4. Damn, you guys are fast

Ipods, who knew? They're much cheaper to mail than bulky faultily shielded microwave ovens from Asia!

[malaise]

6. LOL

I was about to send him a father's day gift. :D

[Mark_Pogue]

8. Happy Father's Day Darth!!!!!!!!

LOLOL!!!!!!!

[supernova]

3. Just 18 inches

'In some cases, the iPods caused interference when held 18 inches from the chest. Interfering with the telemetry equipment caused the device to misread the heart’s pacing and in one case caused the pacemaker to stop functioning altogether."

So, put your iPod further away than 18 inches from your chest. :shrug:

Interesting study though.

[AndyTiedye]

5. Ipods Don't Generate a Fraction of the RF that Cellphones, Bluetooth, and 802.11 do

not to mention all the bigger portable and mobile radio transmitters.

[Catherine Vincent]

7. I'll have to remember that.

My father has one and he recently got a cell phone.

[AndyTiedye]

9. This is the sort of thing the Pacemaker Makers SHOULD Be Testing For

[never_get_over_it]

10. So please tell your father

that you can't have an MRI if you have a pacemaker - I have had a pacemaker for years and no one ever told me until a few years ago that you can not have an MRI with a pacemaker or if you have any metal in you for that matter....and I don't even want to describe what they told me would happen if I had an MRI - freaked me out and I was just astonished that you know the folks who put in the pacemaker never mention this to me.....

By the way I've never had any trouble with a cell phone - however - there are many types of pacemakers for many differnt conditions - if mine stopped working it wouldn't kill me - so your father needs to look into this as it relates to his situation....

[Catherine Vincent]

11. Thanks, I will.

I appreciate all the tips about pacemakers. I only knew about the microwaves.

[Canuckistanian]

12. I tried to point this out in another thread about this subject

The kid tried to make the argument that the "music beat" interfered with the pacemakers natural rhythm.

Nonsense.

The only thing I could think of that could interfere would be the XTAL driver for the uP.

And even that is barely detectable outside the case.