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iPods OK for Pacemaker Patients, Study Says
Contradicts two reports from last year
By Laila Weir
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Posted Feb 1, 08 11:14 AM CST
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(Newser)
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Heart patients who have both pacemakers and iPods can rest easy: The music devices don't affect the cardiac ones, reports Reuters. Two studies published last year suggested that iPods created electrical interference, but a new report by a team of FDA researchers concludes, “No interference effects can occur in pacemakers exposed to the iPods we tested."
The researchers used a bag of saline as a stand-in for the human body and reported detecting "highly localized fields" around the four models of iPods under scrutiny. A measuring device placed with a centimeter of the iPod created a magnetic field too small to interfere with a pacemaker.