Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Cell Phones May Cause ICU Machinery to Hang Up

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 31 Jan 2003 19:42:11 -0500

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=571&ncid=751&e=1&u=/nm/20030131/hl_nm/cell_icu_dc

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Health - Reuters

Cell Phones May Cause ICU Machinery to Hang Up

2 hours, 15 minutes ago

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By Martha Kerr

SAN ANTONIO (Reuters Health) -

When a hospital asks you to
shut off your cell phone, you better listen. The
electromagnetic energy emitted by cell phones may be strong
enough to interfere with mechanical ventilators found in
intensive care units, to the point where the machine even shuts
down, Harvard researchers reported here Thursday.

Biomedical engineer Cheryl Iden Shaw presented results of a
study of the effects of cell phones on 20 different medical
devices, including mechanical ventilators, which help patients
breathe, and defibrillators, which are used to shock the heart
back into a normal rhythm.

Cell phones caused interference with ventilator function in
8 of the 20 machines. Interference had the potential to be
life-threatening in 2 of the 8 cases. And in one case, the
ventilator shut down when a cell phone was brought within about
an inch of the machine.

In the less extreme cases of cell phone-induced
malfunctioning, the phones caused false alarms and
unintentional cycling of ventilators. Interference disappeared
at distances greater than 12 inches.

It may seem unlikely that a cell phone would come within an
inch of a medical device and turn it off, Shaw said.

However, "you have to remember that physicians or staff
often will wear their cell phones turned on in their pocket or
on their hip, they'll be next to a ventilator while taking care
of the patient...close enough to shut it down."

Shaw said that the manufacturers of the ventilator that
shut off in the study have already upgraded their machine so
that cell phone interference should not be a problem with that
device at this point. But, she added, the study shows that cell
phone use policies and standards "might be a little outdated.
And it's not just cell phones. It's any wireless technology."

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