I had written some time ago an article concerning Senator Krueger’s opinion that what he called “the iPod oblivion” can prove fatal.

The article it was intended to be a little sarcastic and ironic at the address of the American Senator, whose intention of banning iPods on the streets of New York was at least hilarious if not ridiculous. At that time.

Now, it seems that my irony was quite close to an almost tragic truth, as revealed by a new study of a 17-years old student presented in front of prominent heart-disease specialists.

According to the conclusions of the research, iPods can interfere with implantable pacemakers and disrupt their normal functioning. The electromagnetic waves emitted by the tiny gadgets were found to have interfered with the apparatus that monitors heart’s regular beating on almost half the cases investigated. In the study were included 100 patients whose mean age was 77, all outfitted with pacemakers.

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. A pacemaker for one of the 100 patients involved study stopped functioning all together.

The study only included iPods and no other MP3 players were involved.

Jay Thaker, 17, a student at Okemos High School in Okemos, Mich., presented his findings at the Heart Rhythm Society's annual meeting in Denver on Thursday. He also concluded that the iPod interference could mislead physicians into diagnosing an actual heart disease.

According to Reuters, the study was held at the Thoracic and Cardiovascular Institute at Michigan State University.