FDA: iPods Don't Interfere with Pacemakers

It has been proved several times in the past that certain devices which emit electro-magnetic waves can and will interfere with pacemakers. The iPod was one of the presumed such devices, following a student's suggestion that the iPod's functions could interfere with heart regulators. Recently though, the Food and Drug Administration has released a report confirming that Apple's music players are actually pacemaker-friendly.

Of course, many immediately questioned the student's results concerning interference between iPods and pacemakers, but the FDA had to do their job and started doing tests themselves, just to make sure. As such, the FDA has recently been able to confirm to Reuters that "iPods should not interfere with pacemakers."

Researchers tested a 4 gig iPod, an iPod video, an iPod nano, and an iPod shuffle. FDA folks used a bag of saline simulating the human body, placing electromagnetic sensors on it to measure emissions given off by each device. Additionally, they also went and measured the voltage of a pacemaker exposed to the magnetic fields, all this while placing the iPods a half-inch from the sensors, much closer than ever tested before (including the original study).

Not surprisingly (since Apple themselves must have put the iPod to rigorous tests before throwing it in the wild), the devices barely registered emissions and in a small area at that. In conclusion, all measurements have revealed that iPods represent no threat whatsoever to cardiac pacemakers, as the FDA wrote in the journal BioMedical Engineering OnLine.

"We measured magnetic field emissions with a 3-coil sensor placed within 1 cm (half an inch) of the surface of the player. Highly localized fields were observed (only existing in a one square cm area). [...] Based on the observations of our in-vitro study we conclude that no interference effects can occur in pacemakers exposed to the iPods we tested," they concluded, according to Reuters.

A rather upset reader posts this comment up on arstechnica.com: "I'm wondering why they only tested iPods. [...] It seems stupid to limit it to iPods. Makes me think there was some kind of lawsuit in mind."

Come to think of it, is sure does sound like that student was after the little iPod. Rest assured though, a disproval of the FDA's results is likely in order, so don't go too far.