this post was submitted on 31 Oct 2024
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Mildly Interesting
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Older pacemakers could be adversely impacted if people who had them were anywhere near an average microwave oven in operation - we had those signs up around the office kitchenette less than 15 years ago.
Ah, that makes a lot of sense.
As a kid we went to the University of Michigan hospital every six months for my brother.
One visit we go to the cafeteria for lunch as usual, and there were signs everywhere warning that microwave ovens were in use!
My mom asked one of the staffers what the signs were for and she told us that it turns out these new devices could affect pacemakers in a real bad way.
“We found out the hard way when a few patients went into cardiac arrest right here in the cafeteria! Took them awhile to connect the dots…”
“Oh my god,” my mom said! “Did you lose anyone?”
“Oh no honey…there ain’t no better place to have one of those than in a hospital!”
It would be years before we got one at home, and nobody we knew had a pacemaker.
Currently strong magnets can still mess with pacemakers. Fun fact, some modern phones have magnets in them that can do that - be careful about resting your phone on your chest if you have a pacemaker. I think the wireless charging unit is to blame.
That's a feature btw, not a bug. If you go to the hospital with a pacemaker malfunction or we're trying to do cardioversion in a way the pacemaker doesn't do itself the only way we can turn it off is with a big magnet. That's why most ED and cardiac units have one for an emergency.
I’ve heard about that. In a sense it’s sort of both since it can really mess someone up if they aren’t aware of the magnet. Someone told me awhile ago they can now do more than shut off the pacemaker and can even adjust the settings with specific magnets to reduce the need for invasive procedures. Not sure what the extent of that is but pretty neat if true!
In terms of electrical interferance, there's a lot that can go on. NFC transmits power indutively, cellular, wifi, sometimes with power sharing some you transmit electricty inducitvely too.
Apple phone's have "mag safe" which is basically a magnet. Phone also have speakers and microphones and rumble motors and compasses, all magnetic.
disclaimer: im'm tired and possibly wrong
Could also be a radio research site, but I doubt OP wouldn't know that's where they are. If the equipment is sensitive enough to be effected by a retail microwave, they're already in a valley way outside of any town.
Green Bank?
I wasn't thinking of any in particular, but that's one of them. I remember an old story about how some lab couldn't get any good signals around the same time every day. They were chasing bugs for months before realizing that someone brought in a microwave and was heating their food on break with it. Labs like that normally only allow toaster ovens and such.
I imagine the problem was just as much older microwaves as it was older pacemakers