March 23, 2006
Can Cellphones Really Harm People In Hopitals?
According to Roy Soto an anesthesiologist at Stony Brook University Hospital on Long Island, N.Y, this is the stuff of 'urban myth' with no basis in science. Can a cell phone conversation kill a person on a ventilator or send a patient with a pacemaker into cardiac arrest?
Many hospitals around the world ban use of wireless devices, fearing disruption of vital medical equipment. Dr Soto searched the scientific literature to find why anti-mobile phone warnings are so pervasive. He found no basis for prohibition.
Like any legend, those involving cell phone use in hospitals are based on a kernel of truth. Hospital administrators have prohibited mobile phones because of concerns about electromagnetic interference. But Soto found the only genuine problem involved using a phone behind a ventilator. If answered near the breathing machine's on-off switch, the ventilator shuts off.
Pagers remain the communication device of choice in hospitals. Soto said, because "pagers are passive receptive devices,. they don't put out any power, whereas your cell phone, when you hit the send button or answer button, emits energy, and that's electromagnetic energy. According to Dr Soto,"it's crazy when you think about this urban myth of cell phones harming people with pacemakers. Guess what? There are a lot of people with pacemakers walking around talking on cell phones."
He is in the process of conducting a study to develop a sense of how doctors themselves communicate in hospitals, and whether older communication systems are more likely to result in errors.
Posted by rsk at March 23, 2006 07:18 PM