Mobiles dangerous in hospitals
p2pnet news | Mobiles:- The UK government recently decided a ban on mobile phones in hospitals can be relaxed, but a new study says that could dangerous in some critical areas.
Published in the journal Critical Care, the study examined 61 different medical devices and found most of them could be affected by a mobile phone, says Anaesthesia UK, going on that seven out of nine intensive care ventilators were found to be “influenced” by mobile phones, most of which involved a direct physical influence on the patient.
“In addition, seven out of 13 critical care monitors were found to be disrupted by mobile signals, and three out of seven syringe pumps were affected. Other devices affected were dialysis machines, external pacemaker machines, feeding pumps and even air humidifiers,” says the story.
3G mobiles were less problematical than second generation mobiles, and although on average, the phone had to be only a few centimetres away to interfere with the device, one “hazardous” incident occurred at a distance of three metres, says the report, stating:
The policy to keep mobile phones 1 metre from the critical care bedside seems warranted.
Many UK trusts, “completely banned the use of mobile phones in hospitals, although patient groups and many doctors have recently been campaigning for a reversal of this policy, and earlier this year, junior Health Minister Andy Burnham said that hospitals could relax these rules,” says Anaesthesia UK, adding:
“Many trusts have now done so, although some have kept the ban, fearing a breach in patient privacy by the use of camera phones.”
The British medical Association says there’s no significant evidence associating mobile phones with interference with medical devices, and that it would be beneficial for patients if doctors were able to communicate better with colleagues while on the wards.
Also See:
Anaesthesia UK – More evidence for mobile phone ban in hospitals, September 6, 2007
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September 7th, 2007 at 10:32 pm
This, along with mobile phone use on planes, the scare that mobile phones would set gas stands ablaze, etc, is one of the most absurd Myths (beside the whole Global warming is a result of the “green house” farce) that has been promoted by paranoid researchers!
Sure, I believe in “it best to be safe than sorry”, but to say that “some” mobile phones “might” affect hospital equipment, and only at a very close distance, as reason for some hospitals to ban their use, is just dumb.
Here in Japan, that scare has duped large number of people in believing this farce, and thus having rules that you must turn your phone off in certain areas of the train. Many people will even complain if you are just using the PDA feature of your smart-phone.
Isn’t it strainge how “scare” results seem to make bigger press, while reports to the contrary, seem to just fade into nowhere, and is ignored?
“Millions of people are stealing our work, and it’s affecting the artist’s livelyhood!”
“Phones may cause Gas (Petrol) stands to explode!”
“Global warming is a result of the Green house effect”
etc… Is big news, while…
“P2P has little or no affect on sales, and meanwhile the movie industry is experiencing greater sales”
“Mobile phones can not and will not start fires at gas stands, by them selves”
“If the world was experiencing tha Green house effect, the temperature on a high mountain should be higher than that on the ground”(and it’s not)
In any of these cases, there have been political entities (interestingly enough, most groups are made up of a small group of special interset groups) who have promosted these farces.
makes you wonder…
Just my two cents