Ipad 2 magnets

Question

Are the magnets in the Ipad Air as strong as the ones in the Ipad 2?  My daughter has a brain shunt and research has shown if she gets close enough to an Ipad 2, the magnets could reprogram her shunt.  As her school district is getting 1:1 ipads for teachers and students, this is rather important to me.

Answer 1

First....ignore carl wolf and Simon Slavin 1) I told our neurosurgeon about the potential risk before he was aware of it. 2) The magnetic value of the ipad IS relevant. What good is it to only know at what number the valve setting changes? You need to know both.
So....from the parent of a child with a VP shunt .....YES you need to worry about ANY ipad that is not the first generation. That is the only one that does not contain magnets. The VP shunt that your child has (I suspect it is a Strata II) has a magnetic valve that is devised to have the setting change at 90 gauss or higher. Medtronic (maker of this shunt valve) conducted a study through the University of Michigan after receiving numerous reports of shunt settings changing. Ipad2's seemed to be the culprit. Tests showed that yes in fact the Ipad2 with Smart cover will change the setting. The ipad2 has 10 magnets, the SmartCover has 11 magnets. Together they put out 2060 gauss.
The reason you can't find any information on the new ipad air is because Apple does not give out the gauss information even for medical reasons. Medtronic has not conducted any new studies since the ipad2. Here is the link to the study with a table including the top commonplace items and their gauss ratings. http://www.medtronic.com/wcm/groups/mdtcom_sg/@mdt/@nt/documents/documents/ns-st ratamagnetic_rev-e.pdf. Keep an eye on noise cancelling headphones as well. Also hand wand metal detectos used for security screening should be avoided. If flying contact TSA and see what documentation would be required to prevent the hand wand from being used in the head area.
I'm here to tell you the ipad2 ALONE will change the setting. We do not have the Smart Cover. It has happened to my daughter 3 times. I knew about the danger but thought that we had a first generation ipad (it was a gift). Once we took the ipad away for good.....no more setting changes. She was hospitalized 3 times with collapsed ventricles because it changes to the setting that drains the most fluid leaving next to nothing in the ventricles.On the 3rd ER trip her neurosurgeon came in the room and immediately said "She's being exposed to magnets" This is when we discovered our ipad was actually an ipad2 (checking for camera function is the fastest way to determine what generation it is as it is not clearly stated anywhere on the tablet itself)
Note: the shunt setting can be determined from a CT scan We were able to go back and track each time her shunt setting was off. So that's a way to know if the neurosurgeon is viewing scans from the shunt series remotely and is not physically there to check the setting.
My situation is probably different from yours because in addition to hydrocephalus my daughter also has Autism. Which means she does not understand the danger of putting her head near the ipad. She 'stims' visually and by auditory measure so it is very common for her to put her face or ear right up to a tv, tablet or anything that makes any kind of noise. Ipads are everywhere and in her school. Being in a special needs classroom the ipads are constantly used. The value they have to children on the spectrum is undeniable and the loss of this tool for us has been devastating. I talked to support at Apple and all ipads from the 2nd generation moving forward WILL and DO contain magnets. Oh and iphones have magnets too so Apple is forcing us to be an Android family whether we want to be or not. I really wish they would stop with the magents. Especially with how they are infiltrating school systems and catering to the special needs population. There is a small part of the population being completely compromised. In my discussions with Apple Support there is no plan to stop using magnets any time soon and removing them is not the solution as this damages the software rendering the device inoperable.
The 'danger zone' is two inches from the valve. For a child that can be aware of the proximity issue and can keep the ipad away from their head I wouldn't worry too much. Keep in mind though if your child is walking next to a teacher or student and they have an ipad in hand or in a backpack/shoulder case it could potentially be level with the shunt valve depending on the height of your child and the other individual. This is the case with my daughter who is only 6. When she walks next to her therapist that has a soft shoulder bag case for her ipad it ends up level with my daughters head. So everyone needs to walk on her left side (vp shunt is on the right obviously). We have a special legal safety plan written for my daugher to protect her from exposure to ipads at school.
For your child specifically you will need to determine their ability to keep a safe distance from the ipad. I certainly wouldn't allow it in bed where they could lay down next to it unintentionally or even fall asleep. If my daughter wasn't 6, if she didn't have Autism....I would feel much more comfortable allowing her to have one or be around them. But for us it is far too dangerous as 3 hospitalizations have proven. Ultimately do what feels right.