The London Guardian is reporting on a health study presented at the American Heart Association's meeting in New Orleans that found magnetic interference from MP3 player headphones could pose a danger to persons with surgically implanted pacemaker or defibrillator.

The Guardian says that Dr. William Maisel, director of the medical device safety institute at Beth Israel Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts and his team of researchers tested eight different models of headphones, including clip-on and ear-bud varieties. They placed the headphones on the skin above the implanted device of 60 defibrillator and pacemaker patients and detected an impact on the device's operation in 14 patients.

Maisel is quoted as saying that,"For family members or friends of patients with implantable defibrillators, they should avoid wearing headphones and resting their head right on top of someone's device."

Maisel is recommending that persons with implanted medical devices should keep headphones more than 3cm away from their pacemaker or defibrillator. They found no problems outside that distance.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) earlier this year said that interactions between MP3 players themselves and implanted cardiac devices were unlikely, the Guardian noted.

The Guardian also reported that another study at the conference "found that wireless devices such as Bluetooth are also unlikely to cause a problem."