iPods can damage pacemakers
A little scary news appeared today on almost all big news servers: A 17-year-old high school student in Michigan has uncovered that iPods can cause pacemakers to malfunction. In a study that tested 83 elderly patients, an iPod was placed just two inches from the patient’s chest for five to 10 seconds. Telemetry interference occurred in 29 percent of the patients, and a pacemaker misreading the heart’s function occurred in 20 percent of patients.In some cases, electrical interference was detected from as far as 18 inches away, and in one patient, the pacemaker stopped working. Jay Thaker, son of an electrophysiologist and a rheumatologist, was put in touch with Dr. Krit Jongnarangsin, assistant professor in the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine at the University of Michigan, to help investigate the effects of iPods on pacemakers.
“We took patients from a pacemaker clinic, got consent, and we put the pacemaker programmer on them to view what was going on inside the pacemaker on a screen,” said Thaker. “And then we took the iPod and held it about two inches above the implant site of the pacemaker. If the pacemaker is inhibited by the iPod and the patient does not have their own rhythm, they can be in serious problem,” added Jongnarangsin. Dr. Jongnarangsin astutely points out, “Most pacemaker patients are not iPod users,” but adds that the phenomenon needs to be studied more. Only iPods were used in the test, and it’s unclear if other portable music players may also pose such a risk to pacemakers. I hope my iAudio player isn’t that dangerous…
Comments(15)
Bad news , I stoped use it long time ago .. Thank god.
I think you’re all avoiding the real issue here. How dangerous is it for an iPod to be exposed to a pacemaker? Did anyone ever think of the poor iPods? Racists.
I totally agree with hikaricore
^_^
What a bull crap, maybe ipods are the cause of global warming to. How much does an ipod differ to all other comparable technical devices?
Fast, let’s start more invetigations concerning the fact that technical devices may interfer with pace makers. Till then, be sure you aren’t coming near you coffee machine televisions and so on.
OMG. I gave my grandma an Ipod Mini for her 80th, and a week later she died (of old age we thought back then). Damn you Apple!
Unsurprisingly, both the original article this blatantly plagiarizes and the resulting comments are far more enlightening –
http://www.dailytech.com/iPods+Can+Cause+Pacemakers+to+Malfunction/article7248.htm
Oh crap, ipods also cause global warming, headaches, and give my car 20 hp extra too. U should should know!
THat would be a cool science project, no ?
Well ipod is basically a harddrive a battery pack that last 12 hours, the ipod itself has a laxium of 18 month life to them then you have to buy a new one and the battery pack is not removable, but I say mod the ipod for yourself to make the battle pack removable, but I think if you do that you will be opening the hardrive. There are better mp3 players out there, ipod is hot shit cause it is on tv and and alot of fan boys like apple. I have a ipod but I never had a portable mp3 playeron harddrive, so I thought it would be a great idea, but next tiume i shop around for the cvheap and best one.
Serves them right, damn old people and their fucking ipods
xD
that’s why i always keep my ipod away from my crotch. someday, someone might come out with a study that says ipod causes impotence, and/or the shrinking of the penis.
Long live the ipo…
obviously they weren’t buying official ‘made for apple’ pacemakers… they should have read the fine print… ipod should work on manipulating the pacemaker to the rhythm of the music, much like the vibrator accessories… or offer a ‘made for apple’ defibrillator just in case peoples hearts stop beating while listening…