Researchers Find That the iPhone 12 Can Deactivate a Pacemaker

[McBell]

Apple’s newest iPhones have a circular array of magnets built into their backs, which allows them to snap to a MagSafe charging puck or compatible accessory (such as a phone case). But pacemakers have a switch that can be deactivated with an external magnetic field, and when researchers from the Henry Ford Heart and Vascular Institute placed an iPhone 12 above the heart of a patient with an implanted Medtronic pacemaker, the pacemaker’s operations were suspended every time.
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Researchers Find That the iPhone 12 Can Deactivate a Pacemaker​

 

[Brickjectivity]

Apple’s newest iPhones have a circular array of magnets built into their backs, which allows them to snap to a MagSafe charging puck or compatible accessory (such as a phone case). But pacemakers have a switch that can be deactivated with an external magnetic field, and when researchers from the Henry Ford Heart and Vascular Institute placed an iPhone 12 above the heart of a patient with an implanted Medtronic pacemaker, the pacemaker’s operations were suspended every time.
​

Researchers Find That the iPhone 12 Can Deactivate a Pacemaker​

That is unfortunate, and there are different types of pacemakers. I know at least one person with a pacemaker, and I used to know someone else with one. They are around.

 

[stvdv]

Researchers Find That the iPhone 12 Can Deactivate a Pacemaker

But pacemakers have a switch that can be deactivated with an external magnetic field

I always knew Smartphones were not "Peacemakers" but here they took it one step too far

 

[exchemist]

Apple’s newest iPhones have a circular array of magnets built into their backs, which allows them to snap to a MagSafe charging puck or compatible accessory (such as a phone case). But pacemakers have a switch that can be deactivated with an external magnetic field, and when researchers from the Henry Ford Heart and Vascular Institute placed an iPhone 12 above the heart of a patient with an implanted Medtronic pacemaker, the pacemaker’s operations were suspended every time.
​

Researchers Find That the iPhone 12 Can Deactivate a Pacemaker​

It seems from the article that this is not entirely a new phenomenon and that pacemakers are known to be subject to interference from magnetic fields.

The article only says the operation of the pacemaker was "suspended", i.e. normal operation resumed as soon as the phone was moved away from the area above the heart. So worth avoiding keeping your phone in your breast pocket if you have a pacemaker, but it is unlikely to make you ill.