From Reuters:
iPods can cause cardiac implantable pacemakers to malfunction by interfering with the electromagnetic equipment monitoring the heart, according to a study presented by a 17-year-old high school student to a meeting of heart specialists on Thursday.
The study tested the effect of the portable music devices on 100 patients, whose mean age was 77, outfitted with pacemakers. Electrical interference was detected half of the time when the iPod was held just 2 inches from the patient's chest for 5 to 10 seconds.
The study did not examine any portable music devices other than iPods, which are made by Apple Inc.
In some cases, the iPods caused interference when held 18 inches from the chest. Interfering with the telemetry equipment caused the device to misread the heart's pacing and in one case caused the pacemaker to stop functioning altogether.
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.
I imagine this is not terribly surprising and from the little I've read I get the impression that people with pacemakers are told to be cautious with any electrical devices. So I doubt this is big news for most regular people who might actually be affected by it.
What I find most interesting is two aspects of the coverage this story is getting online, based on articles and comments I've read at TechCrunch, CrunchGear, TechDirt, and Consumerist.
First there's the ageism: people assume that only old people have pacemakers and only young people use iPods. Newsflash: old folks like music! and they too like to take it with them. And one day you kids will be old and you'll still want your iPods, though you'll probably need extra large buttons by then because of the arthritis in your fingers from all the text messaging you're now doing.
Then there's the bizarre criticism that the study is invalid because they didn't test other music players, as if medical research is just Consumer Reports-style product testing. Apple virtually owns this market -- it'd be strange not to start with an iPod if you were doing this sort of study. I assume their message (to the heart rhythm specialists they presented this to) is that the medical community needs to be aware of this, study it further, and maybe make their patients more aware of it. It's silly to think that they're saying to anyone "buy a Zune instead."
Of course I should know better than to take seriously the stuff at TechDirt and its ilk. Reading TechSmug (as I like to call it) always irritates me. I should have stayed away from it like I swore I would months ago.
(For the record, I use an iPod and a Mac too!)
Hello Kevin
What do u mean by TechSmug?
Is www.techsmug.com
If yes what happened with the site?
Please describe
Posted by: mahdi | Monday, July 18, 2011 at 08:21 AM