Ipods can make pacemakers fail - report

IPODS can kill people who use cardiac implantable pacemakers by interfering with the electromagnetic equipment monitoring the heart, according to a report on Reuters.

A study presented by a 17-year-old high school student Jay Thaker to a meeting of heart specialists looked at the effect of Ipods on 100 patients, whose mean age was 77, outfitted with pacemakers.

An Ipod threw out enough electrical interference was detected half of the time when it was held two inches from the patient's chest for five to 10 seconds.

In some cases, the Ipods caused interference when held 18 inches from the chest and caused telemetry equipment caused the device to misread the heart's pacing and in one case caused the pacemaker to stop functioning altogether.

Fortunately the sort of people who have pacemakers rarely buy an Ipod, but it would make for an amusing wave of Apple ads.

Fat Microsoft loser: "I listen to music on my Zune, it is expensive and dull looking. It suits my image fine."
Smug Apple git: "Steve Jobs tells me to listen to music on my iPod, it is pretty, cool and shorts my pacemaker."
Fat Microsoft loser: "On my Zune I can play all those hits from the 1970s and 1980s which I really like."
Smug Apple Git: "On my Ipod, Coldplay sound truly miserable just like they do in real life and... ook [suffers heart attack].

More here. µ