Report: iPods Don't Zap Pacemakers

New research shows that iPods don't hinder pacemakers.

That finding comes from the FDA's Howard Bassen, who conducted lab tests after reading media reports last year about a reported case of an iPod interfering with a pacemaker.

Bassen tested four iPods -- an iPod nano, an iPod shuffle, an iPod classic, and an iPod classic with video. He positioned the iPods in the air, an inch above a pacemaker placed in salt water to simulate a pacemaker in a person's chest.

The iPods gave off "miniscule" voltages, Bassen writes. He concludes that "it is not possible for interference to be induced in a pacemaker by the music players we tested."

Bassen's findings appear in BioMedical Engineering OnLine.

By Miranda Hitti
Reviewed by Louise Chang
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