Cellphones are dangerous/not dangerous, hospital edition
by Brian White 
posted Mar 13th 2007 at 10:02AM
If hospitals are constantly fearful that wireless handsets will disrupt all that sensitive electrical and radiological equipment used all over most current hospitals, some (or all) of that fear can be put to rest for now, even if that beloved handset is dirtier than a hospital toilet. A new study concluded that wireless phone calls do not affect hospital medical devices. On the flip side of the RF dial, though, the same study said that anti-theft alarm devices used in many retail stores could accidentally trigger misfires in implanted heart devices. So, if you enter a retailer and have a heart murmur as a result, at least you'll be able to call relatives from the ER waiting room without disrupting all that hospital equipment around you and everyone else.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
NarfPointZort @ Mar 13th 2007 11:18AM
I work in information systems at a hospital here in Knoxville and the doctors here have those warning signs all up over the place as well. We all know better, but there's no convincing them to take the signs down. The hospital has a page tower leased out to a local paging company on the roof for the staffs' pagers - although I believe that is running on the 400mhz band - and they've even been in talks with Verizon to put up one of their towers on the roof as well. It all seems quite humorous to me.
James Elliott @ Mar 13th 2007 10:33PM
There could be some validity to the interference argument. Ever hear a cell phone induce noise on a speaker? happens to me all the time, and from up to 5 feet away to boot.