Deadly Mobile Phones: Just Another Urban Legend
It is time to chuck another urban legend and let it slide down the mosh pit. This time around, the urban legend is about our beloved mobile phones being the causes of death in hospitals because they interfere with medical equipment.
So… it looks like researchers from the US decided to take a look at this matter. And what they did was to do some tests and studies. In fact, they say that they did over 300 tests in Minnesota’s Mayo Clinic. These tests were done on around 192 units of medical devices and the whole lot of equipment.
What happened? Did some patients die?
I don’t think they would allowed such a thing to happen but the tests done did show that there is no noticeable interference on medical equipment that come from these mobile phones.
What these researchers noticed was that an abnormal ECG reading did come out though when a portable CD player was near the machine. Yes, a portable CD player and not a mobile phone.
[Via Laptop Logic]
[Image from Application Of Signage Systems]
March 21st, 2007 at 7:57 pm
There was a very similar study done recently here in the UK too and the same results were found. Although it’s better not to have mobile phones and stuff, the chances of them affecting mediacl equipment are very slim.