Music Headphones Pose a Risk To Pacemakers
People with pacemakers could be at risk listening to music with headphones. If the headphones for music players are placed within an inch of pacemakers and implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICD), they may interfere with the medical devices, according to researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center's Medical Device Safety Institute.
"For patients with pacemakers, exposure to the headphones can force the device to deliver signals to the heart, causing it to beat without regard to the patients' underlying heart rhythm," said Dr. William Maisel, senior author of the study and director of the Medical Device Safety Institute. "Exposure of a defibrillator to the headphones can temporarily deactivate the defibrillator."
Millions of people with abnormal heart rhythms have pacemakers and implantable cardioverter defibrillators. A pacemaker produces electrical impulses that start a heartbeat, according to the American Heart Association. The impulses then flow through tiny wires to a person's heart and are timed to flow at regular intervals.
An ICD is a device that has wires implanted into the heart tissue and can deliver electrical shocks, detect the rhythm of the heart, and pace the heart's rhythms as needed.
Listen with Caution
A report by the Food and Drug Administration released in February found that interactions between MP3 players, such as Apple's iPod, and implanted cardiac devices are unlikely. The report, however, did not include the headphones used with the MP3 players.
"We became interested in knowing whether the headphones, which contain magnets -- not the MP3 players themselves -- would interact with implanted cardiac devices," Maisel said.
Although the MP3 players themselves do not pose a risk, the magnets in the headphones do.
Neodymium, a magnetic substance found in the headphones, is what caused the pacemakers and ICDs to react to 14 different MP3 headphone models.
Although patients can use the headphones on their ears without...
Recent scientific studies have shown that entertainment devices, such as headphones for MP3 players, interfere with medical devices, when the two are in close proximity to each other. The leaders of the current study say that a 3-cm distance should be enough to guarantee no interference between the two classes of equipment. 
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