iPods OK for Pacemaker Patients, Study Says

Contradicts two reports from last year
By Laila Weir,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 1, 2008 11:14 AM CST
iPods OK for Pacemaker Patients, Study Says
An Apple customer uses a Apple iPod Nano at an Apple store in Palo Alto, Calif., in this July 24, 2007, file photo. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma/FILE)   (Associated Press)

Heart patients who have both pacemakers and iPods can rest easy: The music devices don't affect the cardiac ones, reports Reuters. Two studies published last year suggested that iPods created electrical interference, but a new report by a team of FDA researchers concludes, “No interference effects can occur in pacemakers exposed to the iPods we tested."

The researchers used a bag of saline as a stand-in for the human body and reported detecting "highly localized fields" around the four models of iPods under scrutiny. A measuring device placed with a centimeter of the iPod created a magnetic field too small to interfere with a pacemaker. (More product safety stories.)

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