It is well known in the medical device community that the immunity standards for implanted medical devices and the emissions standards for electrical devices are not compatible. Pacemakers have an operations mode that is used when excessive noise is detected. That mode goes by several names including fixed rate pacing, noise mode and reversion. The FDA is well aware of the issue and finds that the reversion mode is safe. Nevertheless, in some noise cases the PM may not properly detect the noise situation and operation may become affected including loss of a pacing pulse or an extra pulse may be generated. In the case of rate adaptive PMs, the pulse rate may increase. In some cases, the patient may become aware of the affected operation and find the effect to be undesirable. This is why the patient manual warns to avoid many types of field sources or specifies how the patient should not linger near other types of sources. Again, the FDA is well aware of the noise issue but has concluded that the PM design is acceptable when accompanied by the user warnings. No patient should be overly concerned, but should discuss the situation with their doctor in consultation with the medical device manufacturer. In all cases, they should follow the advice of their doctor.
Richard Woods Sensormatic Electronics Tyco International -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Friday, January 18, 2002 4:26 PM To: [email protected] Subject: pacemakers A few observations...... APS--An APS camera is one that uses Kodak's patented Advanced Photo System film cartridge. The only big difference from other 35mm film cartridges is that you just pop it in and close the lid. It self winds. No film trailer to fool with. Electronics--An APS camera's electronics is not that much different from any other electronic camera. All such devices must operate at very low power levels to avoid changing batteries every month. My wife's APS can go a year or more on a battery, and that's including use of the built in flash. Pacemakers--My father-in-law had one of these twenty years ago. The early models were (or were thought to be) susceptible to higher than ambient electromagnetic waves. Wearers were warned to avoid microwave ovens and the like. However, note that microwave ovens operate at 100s of watts, not microwatts, like consumer portable electronics. Opinion--It is my opinion that any electrical appliance that falls under FCC (and similar) guidelines will not produce adequate EMF to interfere with today's pacemakers. I think I'd be more cautious of non-regulated appliances which one might have near their chest cavity, e.g. electric blankets, electric razors, hairdryers, etc. George Alspaugh ------------------------------------------- This message is from the IEEE EMC Society Product Safety Technical Committee emc-pstc discussion list. Visit our web site at: http://www.ewh.ieee.org/soc/emcs/pstc/ To cancel your subscription, send mail to: [email protected] with the single line: unsubscribe emc-pstc For help, send mail to the list administrators: Michael Garretson: [email protected] Dave Heald [email protected] For policy questions, send mail to: Richard Nute: [email protected] Jim Bacher: [email protected] All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: No longer online until our new server is brought online and the old messages are imported into the new server. ------------------------------------------- This message is from the IEEE EMC Society Product Safety Technical Committee emc-pstc discussion list. Visit our web site at: http://www.ewh.ieee.org/soc/emcs/pstc/ To cancel your subscription, send mail to: [email protected] with the single line: unsubscribe emc-pstc For help, send mail to the list administrators: Michael Garretson: [email protected] Dave Heald [email protected] For policy questions, send mail to: Richard Nute: [email protected] Jim Bacher: [email protected] All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: No longer online until our new server is brought online and the old messages are imported into the new server.
