http://arstechnica.com/jo...do-not-mix

This just in: iPods can cause interference in pacemakers. 17-year-old Jay Thaker conducted a study on 100 pacemaker-using patients whose mean age was 77 years old to see whether the popular digital music player affected the heart device. "Electrical interference was detected half of the time when the iPod was held just 2 inches from the patient's chest for 5 to 10 seconds," according to the Reuters report.

"iPods can cause cardiac implantable pacemakers to malfunction by interfering with the electromagnetic equipment monitoring the heart," reads the report. In other news, so can just about every other electronic device on earth.

Thaker, who conducted the study as part of a high school project, co-authored the findings with a friend of his father, Dr. Krit Jongnarangsin—a professor in the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine at the University of Michigan. They presented the findings to a collection of heart specialists today at the Heart Rhythm Society in Denver, Colorado.

The question came about when Thacker asked his parents whether iPods could affect the pacemakers. "We looked online but didn't see anything. Then, one of his patients asked him if there would be a problem," he told the AP. "So (my father) put me in touch with Dr. Krit (Jongnarangsin)." Thacker did not test any other types of digital music players, although it stands to reason that this conclusion will likely apply to nearly all of them.

Luckily, pacemaker users may not need to worry too much about the findings. "Most pacemaker patients are not iPod users," Jongnarangsin told the AP.

Not yet, anyway. We're all getting older.

As some one who is 83 yrs. young,
I don't use an iPod.
But that's only cuz my pacemaker doubles as a transister radio.

Illustrator said:

HAHAHA! You have commercials!