A study presented by a 17-year-old high school student to a meeting of heart specialists has shown that iPods can cause cardiac implantable pacemakers to malfunction by interfering with the electromagnetic equipment monitoring the heart.

The study was held at the Thoracic and Cardiovascular Institute at Michigan State University. The results were presented at the Heart Rhythm Society annual meeting in Denver.
The study tested the effects of portable music players on 100 patients, whose mean age was 77, outfitted with pacemakers. When the iPod was held just 2 inches from the patient's chest for 5 to 10 seconds, electrical interference was detected.
Jay Thaker, lead author of the study and a student at Okemos High School in Okemos, Michigan, concluded that iPod interference can lead physicians to misdiagnose actual heart function. Thaker, whose father is an electrophysiologist and whose mother is a rheumatologist, said he asked his dad about a potential interaction between pacemakers and iPods.

While the study only used iPods for some reason, Apple's players are not that different from the other portable players out there and any such interference should be common across similar devices. Care should be exercised when using them, especially their placement. The iPods had to be close to the pacemakers to interfere with them, so placing them far away in a trouser pocket is preferable to a shirt pocket.

Hopefully this study will lead to more in-depth ones, not only of iPods but of all the other tens of nearly identical products that could potentially be just as harmful. Thaker also said he is interested in doing a similar study about how implantable cardioverter defibrillators, known as ICDs, are affected by iPods.