Hi Dan, So the issue here is that pacemakers are designed to be stopped with the use of a permanent magnet. When the cardiologist is checking the operation of the pacemaker in the office, they will stop it by placing a permanent magnet on the chest of the patient. They can then see how the heart is behaving in the absence of the pacing signal, and decide what, if any, changes need to be made. The pacemaker should be functionally immune to most AC magnetic fields that a person would experience in normal life.
As to what EN 50663, EN 62479 and IEC 62233 have to say about patient safety WRT magnetic fields, I can’t say as I don’t know these documents. I’d say that a problem is unlikely, since a widespread problem would be in the news, but I can’t venture more than that. -- Doug Nix d...@mac.com +1 (519) 729-5704 "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." Arthur C. Clarke > On Nov 3, 2022, at 12:32, Dan Roman > <00000d75e04ed751-dmarc-requ...@listserv.ieee.org> wrote: > > Hello list! > > I have a relative with an implanted pacemaker/defibrillator who recently got > a fitness tracker that has a magnet for attachment/alignment of the charging > cord. There are warnings in the user manual advising against people with > pacemakers using this product because of the magnets, which I assume are > fairly strong rare earth types. I looked up the DoC for the tracker and the > EM field human exposure standards EN 50663 and EN 62479 are listed on the > DoC. My question is do these standards and the similar IEC 62233 give a > reasonable assurance that a pacemaker would not be interfered with or are > these standards purely concerned with biological effects on the human body > only? I would expect the pacemaker to be immune to a certain extent if it is > FDA listed and complies with IEC 60601-1-2. I don’t know the model number of > their device but I would expect them all to be similar. Do they need to send > back their fitness tracker? Or is the warning just thrown in because the > lawyers wanted it? > > Although products I work on need to meet these types of standards, I don’t > have much familiarity with these exposure standards because my products have > never failed > > Regards, > > Dan > > ______________________________________________________ > Dan Roman, N.C.E. > Senior Member > IEEE Product Safety Engineering Society > mailto:dan.ro...@ieee.org > > > > > > - > ---------------------------------------------------------------- > This message is from the IEEE Product Safety Engineering Society emc-pstc > discussion list. To post a message to the list, send your e-mail to > <emc-p...@ieee.org <mailto:emc-p...@ieee.org>> > > All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: > http://www.ieee-pses.org/emc-pstc.html > > Website: http://www.ieee-pses.org/ > Instructions: http://www.ieee-pses.org/list.html (including how to > unsubscribe) <http://www.ieee-pses.org/list.html> > List rules: http://www.ieee-pses.org/listrules.html > > For help, send mail to the list administrators: > Mike Cantwell <mcantw...@ieee.org <mailto:mcantw...@ieee.org>> > > For policy questions, send mail to: > Jim Bacher <j.bac...@ieee.org <mailto:j.bac...@ieee.org>> > David Heald <dhe...@gmail.com <mailto:dhe...@gmail.com>> > > To unsubscribe from the EMC-PSTC list, click the following link: > https://listserv.ieee.org/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=EMC-PSTC&A=1 > - ---------------------------------------------------------------- This message is from the IEEE Product Safety Engineering Society emc-pstc discussion list. To post a message to the list, send your e-mail to <emc-p...@ieee.org> All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: http://www.ieee-pses.org/emc-pstc.html Website: http://www.ieee-pses.org/ Instructions: http://www.ieee-pses.org/list.html (including how to unsubscribe) List rules: http://www.ieee-pses.org/listrules.html For help, send mail to the list administrators: Mike Cantwell <mcantw...@ieee.org> For policy questions, send mail to: Jim Bacher: <j.bac...@ieee.org> David Heald: <dhe...@gmail.com> _________________________________________________ To unsubscribe from the EMC-PSTC list, click the following link: https://listserv.ieee.org/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=EMC-PSTC&A=1
