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By Stevie Smith May 11, 2007, 15:10 GMT
Study: iPods able to crash pacemakers
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Older Talkback
Looks like the fanbois are out early on this one. Sanity, how do you know this was a flawed experiment? Have you read the reports? Or did you just dream this up on your way to the Nobel committee meeting? Obviously, NOT ALL electrical objects cause the same types of interference. Microwave ovens can disrupt pacemakers, but there's no problem with a pacemaker user making a trip to the fridge, which last time I checked was also an electrical appliance, magnetic field and all. The study wasn't conducted by a kid, but by a group of medical professionals. Now stop trying to apologize for apple before they've even been blamed of anything. If this is a potential widespread problem, it's better to learn of it BEFORE people start kicking off, and the resultant lawsuits multiply. Now, of course, there needs to be other studies to find if this is something that's endemic to ipods, or if all portable media players with hard drives cause this problem, and how severe the problem actually is.
Why just iPods? Is it a possibility that the Lithium-Ion battery generates too strong a magnetic field, or could it be the metallic casing which helps amplify the EMI in some way? It's hard to say and, though it's possible there are several other electronic devices which could interfere in the same way, we won't know until more studies are done on this kind of thing. Electronic devices are all around us, maybe it was the medical equipment coupled with the iPod that was causing the interference! Who knows, maybe pacemaker users everywhere are in danger simply by existing in this increasingly electronic world we live in! Radio waves, magnetic waves, electronic waves, alphagammasuperneucleiprotasmic waves, microwave-waving waves, brainwaves, lightwaves, surf waves, fad waves, fan waves, super waves, tusnamis...err. What was I talking about? Anyways.
BELIEVE ME I KNOW ALOT OF STUFF
This wasn't a flawed study, it was simply a narrow one. The idea was to determine if iPods can cause problems with pacemakers. The answer is yes. In some cases iPods can cause problems in some pacemakers. Now I agree that a better or more useful (and less controversal) study would be 'Do portable digital music players cause problems with pacemakers?' Another good study would be to determine the specific type of interference most likely to affect pacemakers and what common devices exhibit it.
I'd like to make a comment to all those that are stating this report is incomplete, this is how many scientific reports are done. Like many people have noted, everybody knows all electronic devices emit electromagnetic interference. Now the question is, which ones are dangerous to which people. So now we have a kid (working with a team of doctors) doing some testing on iPods and pacemakers. This is a very legitimate report which will hopefully lead to more questions and more reports. Nobody said this report was conclusive about anything other than helping prove the fact that iPods can interfere with pacemakers.
As was also noted before, iPods are different from most other electronic devices for several reasons including their hard drives (which I think produce way more EM radiation than any static state MP3 playe), metal casing, large batteries, touch sensitive scroll wheels, etc.
And yes, all you iPod fanbois should calm down. Nobody is dissing the iPod.
Managed to stop the escalator half-way up- The two blondes are still waiting to be rescued.!!!
The amount of enviro damage from theses devices made in china by slave labor is unreal. Maybe GREEN Al Gore should step down from Apples Board with this kind of track record. But then again he hasn't left the board of occidental petrol where is he is a major shareholder, maybe thats why he won't take a green pledge.
It's fun to see all the Apple and Ipod zombies come out to profess their loyalty. Come on people, the experiment is done and the results are out. Anyone can now go out and repeat it to refute or support it. Of course, Ipods are not the only devices capable of producing the results shown in the article, but they are of public interest. As a result, this experiment should be of greater public interest than say an alarm clock, microwave, or some other appliance. It's just a way to add Ipods to the list of things to watch out for if you fall under a certain catagory.
Now with that said, all you sheep can go to your Ipods like always....
It's a mistake to assume people with pacemakers don't have ipods. We may be listening to Classic Rock, but the AARP crowd has definitely discovered the ipod. When my husband was considering a defibrillator, the doctor warned us about all kinds of situations he needed to avoid. No going through metal detectors at the airport. No MRIs. We never thought about my ipod being a danger.
Not sure about pacemakers specifically, but ICD patients are usually warned about carrying electronics specifically cellphones near their heart (ie shirt breast pocket) I'm not so sure this is a new phenomenon.
Response to 'Rembrandt',
You better stick to painting, bro! FYI: a Pacemaker does keep your heart beating. The thing you're talking about, for the 'irregular Rhythm', the thing that gives a little 'zap', is called an Implantable Defibrillator. Now, here in these modern times, a pacemaker and a defibrillator can get together in the same device. So, maybe after your little zap, your heart doesn't beat for 30 seconds, then, voila' your pacemaker kicks in and keeps your heart beating. Cool, huh?
I see Steve Jobs finding a way to combine all three.
Well if a high school student tested it, then it must be so. Last year in the science fair he determined that white rats prefer Fudgesicles whereas white rats eat more peanut butter, kidding, but this shouldn't be national news unless someone qualified performs the experiments (like maybe any college graduate). Guess I don't know the kid...maybe he's a regular Doogie Howser!
Pimples sux, Beyonce rox da house, etc...
I'm 42 and have had the ICD implanted for 18months. As a bonus the Pacemaker was enabled. The ICD has fired off once, but for an unknown cause after reviewing the data captured in it. My main cause of concern is generators and magnets, expecially strong ones near my chest. I was told you can't do this...you can't do that. It was given all doom and gloom. I queried the ability to use welders, and was given a swag of literature on it to monitor. If I feel strange at any time, I simply stop and rest for a while. I don't listen to iPods, but I don't carry a mobile around with me either.
Humm... wonder if Apple already knew this? Seeing as how much flash memory they have been buying up recently, I wonder if they already knew this to be a problem.
BTW, This is totally true. A good example of how much electromagnetic energy the iPod is putting out, try placing one near a compus and watch the needle move toward the direction of the device. I have seen this first hand!!!
Humm... wonder if Apple already knew this? Seeing as how much flash memory they have been buying up recently, I wonder if they already knew this to be a problem.
BTW, This is totally true. A good example of how much electromagnetic energy the iPod is putting out, try placing one near a compus and watch the needle move toward the direction of the device. I have seen this first hand!!!
Some people don't have a clue like Rembrant I have a pacemaker and I am 100% dependant on it, without it i wouldn't be replying to this because it is the only thing that keeps my heart beating since i don't have a underlying rythm when it is tested
Rembrandt, pacemakers DO keep your heart running. And you'll never guess the reason I know this. Without mine to keep my ticker running, it wouldn't. A difibrelator gives you that little 'zap' to get the heart out of an irrythmic state.
I've been on a lithium-ion battery since 2001 thanks to Medtronics pacemaker discoveries and improvements in the field of miniature electronics.
This whole article should not have been published. NOTHING in it say anything direct or conclusive about anything except a pacemaker stopped working. At the time they CLAIM to have an ipod in the room with the pacemaker which was not installed. So one could deduce using their same iron clad logic that air causes pacemakers to stop. Or table cause pacemakers to stop. Or a number of things. There is NO PROOF and note that the article also never really comes out to claim that an actual test was organized. I agree it ought to be looked into but remember cell phones? They were supposed to be the cause of brain cancer and cars blowing up. The ladder may be true but if so how come there aren't warnings is all gas stations by now????? Folks please keep this simple formula in mind when reading anything on the web:
INFORMATION DOES NOT EQUAL KNOWLEDGE.
wth... shouldn't they have at least made better pace makers, more resistant to electromagnetic interference? i guess people who built these things didn't plan for a future full of portable, wireless devices.
I find it unfortunate that something like this is being published - not because I dismiss the potential for problems, but because the study lacked a control group or comparison group. With a potential threat this big, I am wholly amazed that no one took the time to test other electrical devices. The lack of cross-testing in this case seems to put people's lives at risk to single out a specific brand or company. If there are plans to test other products, it was then irresponsible for this study to be published before it was more thoroughly conducted.
Pace makers live in an radio/electric world and need to be prepared to deal with that real world. If IPod's signal/radio is within regulated standards (I'll bet my farm and yours that it is) then the problem is with pacemakers sheilding not with ipods signal. Thus this article is another example of stupid media propaganda. Oh my they say, IPods are to used and loved, lets make up a problem, check that a life and death problem, and stop the 'IPOD'.
The artical is crap.
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