Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Cell phones may cause heart failure

From: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 13 Jun 2003 03:18:14 -0400

A new study in the Institute of Physics journal Physics in Medicine and Biology,
has reported that the new generation of digital mobile phones can interfere with
many types of heart pacemaker. The pacemakers can confuse the signals generated by
mobile phones for the heart's own electrical signals, causing the pacemaker to
malfunction.  The authors of the paper, based in the US and Italy, say that newer
pacemakers fitted with a ceramic filter are immune and recommend that all
manufacturers use these filters.

Electromagnetic interference between mobile phones and cardiac pacemakers has
caused concern among physicians since 1994, when it was reported that mobile
phones could cause the life-saving implants to malfunction.  Early studies found
various pacemakers susceptible to interference and the researchers suggested
wearers should keep a safe distance from mobile phones. The studies did not look
at the cause of the interference, however, so it was not known which pacemaker
wearers were most at risk.

Biomedical engineer Giovanni Calcagnini of the Italian Institute of Health in Rome
explains that some electrical components of the pacemakers act like an aerial.
They can pick up undesirable radio frequency signals and transmit them to the
pacemaker's sensitive electronic circuits. He and his colleagues at the Center for
Devices and Radiological Health of the Food and Drug Administration, in Rockville,
Maryland, USA, have investigated exactly how radio frequency signals of the kind
used by modern mobile phones are transmitted to the pacemaker's internal
components.

The researchers tested three versions of the same pacemaker model. The first was
equipped with a conventional filter, used to block high-frequency radio signals.
The second used the newer ceramic filters connected directly to the internal
circuits. The third pacemaker was fitted with both devices.
For each pacemaker, the researchers monitored the pacemaker's output signal, which
usually helps control the patient's heart beat, while exposing the device to the
radio signals from mobile phones, including the GSM phones used throughout Europe.

They report in Physics in Medicine and Biology that the radio frequency signals
from GSM phones passed straight through the standard filter device. "This
phenomenon could pose a critical problem for people wearing pacemakers because
digital mobile phones use extremely low-frequency signals, which can be mistaken
for normal heartbeat," explains Calcagnini. "If a pacemaker detects a normal
heartbeat it will not function properly and could be very dangerous for the
wearer." The pacemaker equipped with the ceramic filter, however, was immune to
mobile phone radio frequency signals.

"Most manufacturers have started to equip their new models with ceramic filters,"
explains Giovanni Calcagnini. "We recommend all new models be equipped with these
filters, since it is difficult to change cellphone technology to avoid them
producing low-frequency radio frequency signals."

http://www.cellular-news.com/story/9050.shtml

------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-->
Get A Free Psychic Reading! Your Online Answer To Life's Important Questions.
http://us.click.yahoo.com/Lj3uPC/Me7FAA/ySSFAA/61FxlB/TM
---------------------------------------------------------------------~->

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/