Henry Ford docs say iPhone 12 can disable pacemakers, defibrillators

Magnets and other components inside iPhone 12 devices could disable pacemakers or implanted cardiac defibrillators, tech giant Apple warned, potentially putting millions of people at risk for dangerous heart complications. 

The problem was identified by cardiologists at the Henry Ford Heart and Vascular Institute, who discovered that the batteries inside iPhone 12 devices and MagSafe chargers emit electromagnetic fields that can disable or interfere with implanted defibrillators and pacemakers, the health system announced late Wednesday.

Gurjit Singh was among the doctors who wrote about the problem in a letter to the editor published in the medical journal HeartRhythm, calling it “an important public health issue concerning the newer-generation iPhone 12, which potentially can inhibit lifesaving therapy in a patient, particularly when the phone is carried in an upper chest pocket.”