Cell Phones Could Be Dangerous To A Patients Health

A recent study has found that people using cell phones in hospitals can present a danger to patients health.

The study was published by the online journal Critical Care on Wednesday and looked into the impact that electromagnetic interference that mobile phones emit had on crucial medical devices like ventilators and pacemakers.

Signals that were equal in strength to those given off by second- and third-generation mobile phones significantly interfered with medical devices, and the study’s authors categorized 75% of those incidents as “hazardous,” meaning that the interference had a direct impact on patient health, or “significant,” indicating that it significantly distracted health care providers. Hazardous incidents included the sudden switching off or restarting of machines — which could mean disruption of a patient’s feeding tube, ventilator, pacemaker or dialysis machine — and most events occurred when mobile phones were within 3 cm of critical-care equipment.

The study was initiated by a team of doctors that wanted to monitor their intensive care patients remotely using their cell phones, but since they didn’t know what, if any, problems might occur with hospital equipment, they began the study to see what effects it would have.

They found that 26 out of 61 (or 26%) devices were disrupted by the EMI signal and that most of them were caused by the stronger GPRS signal that many of the newer cell phones use.

Their ultimate conclusion was that cell phones shouldn’t be used in hospitals, but if a phone call is necessary, the caller should be at least 3 feet away from medical equipment and preferably in a location that doesn’t have patients being treated nearby.

Most hospitals ban the use of mobile phones anyway, so this study seems to confirm what everyone thought in the first place.

Time