Report: iPods Don't Hinder Pacemakers

Jan. 31, 2008 -- 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.