iPods and pacemakers don't make sweet music

Stan Beer
Friday, 11 May 2007 09:17

Your IT - Home IT

A new medical study has found that iPods can cause cardiac pacemakers to malfunction and even stop working. According to a Reuters report, a study at Thoracic and Cardiovascular Institute at Michigan State University, detected electrical interference with pacemakers in half of 100 patients tested.

It has long been known that mobile phones can cause interference with pacemakers, which is why hospitals ask visitors to switch them off. According to The Therapeutic Goods Administration, the Australian Government’s organisation responsible for ensuring the safety of therapeutic goods, interference may be caused by the transmitted radio signal from a phone, when held about 15cm (6 inches) from a user.

However, until now there has been no known study of the effects of portable music players on therapeutic equipment.

The iPod study, conducted by Assistant Professor Dr Krit Jongnarangsin and Jay Thaker, the 17 year old son of medical scientists, found that when iPods were held just 2 inches from the chest of the mainly elderly test patients, electrical interference was detected half of the time. Interference was also occasionally detected when iPods were 18 inches from the chest.

Although the study only used Apple iPods, the implications for the use of other brands of portable music players by patients with implanted pacemakers would appear to be obvious.

The study also raises questions as to whether regulations need to be enacted concerning the use of iPods and other portable music players in hospitals and other areas where patients with implanted pacemakers are likely to congregate.