Another note on headphone safety

If you have a pacemaker or implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs), watch where you put your headphones, warns a new study presented to the American Heart Association. That's because magnetic substances in headphones can interfere with a pacemaker, potentially causing the heart to beat out of rhythm. When the headphones interfere with ICDs, the ICDs could temporarily stop looking for abnormal heart rhythms. Headphones should be kept at least 1.2 inches away from implanted medical devices, the study says, regardless of what kind of MP3 headphones they are. So if you have a pacemaker or an ICD, don’t keep your ear buds in your shirt pocket or drape them over your chest.

—Kevin McCarthy, associate editor

For more information, read our blog on MP3 players and how you can reduce your risk of hearing loss.