For many years, many people (me included), believed that modern cell phones do not produce enough radiation to significantly affect modern medical equipment. Most of the studies were old, and modern medical equipment and modern cell phones are very different today.
Well, some folks over in Amsterdam managed to properly study this and found that cell phones actually do affect medical equipment. The article was announced a few days ago and published on the website at Critical Care.
Before everyone goes into a panic, it’s worth saying a few things. First, the interference occurred when the mobile device was within a median distance of 3 cm from the device. However, hazardous interference occurred as far as 3 meters away, so it would seem fair to say that cell phones should be kept out of critical care units and operating rooms. It is, however, probably still unreasonable to ban these phones from the entire building.
Thoughts and Thoughts 