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Thu Sep 6, 1:59 PM ET
Using mobile phones near hospital beds or important equipment is dangerous and
could switch off ventilators or disrupt pacemakers, Dutch researchers said on
Thursday.
The University of Amsterdam researchers recorded nearly 50 incidents of
electromagnetic interference from cell phone use in hospitals and classified 75
percent of them as significant or hazardous.
Because of this mobile phones should come no closer than one meter to hospital
beds and equipment, said the researchers who published their study in BioMed
Central's online open access journal Critical Care.
"Critical care equipment is vulnerable to electromagnetic interference by
new-generation wireless telecommunication technologies with median distances of
about 3 centimeters," they wrote.
The study contradicts a study earlier this year from researchers at the Mayo
Clinic who found that 300 tests over a five-month period turned up no
noticeable interference with important hospital equipment due to regular mobile
phone use.
The Dutch team -- which tested 61 different medical devices -- found that most
of the incidents stemmed from the latest General Packet Radio Service (GPRS)
signal, a new-generation technology that allows things such as wireless
Internet access.
Other malfunctions they attributed to electromagnetic interference included
complete stops with no alarms in syringe pumps and incorrect pulsing by an
external pacemaker.