Sterilisers

Do modern cell phones interfere with hospital equipment?

When cell phones first became popular, I heard that they could conceivably interfere with sensitive equipment. Therefore, the common ban against cell phones in hospitals. Now, most hospitals allow cell phone use in waiting areas but they are restricted in other areas. Is this due to potential dangerous interaction with equipment or because of the interruptions and irritations they cause?

Public Comments

1. yes!
2. i dont think so, when i was in the hospitale after giving birth to my son (6-11-08) i used my cell phone all the time, matter of a fact i dident even use the phone in the room at all, and the doctors and nurses all seen me using it and never said anything, so im sure if it could have interfered with anything they would have said something.
3. no they don't. It is ok to have a regular cell phone in a regular hospital. they could cause irritation with some equipment in the hospital rooms, but thats why your suppose to turn them off as you enter. hope I helped!
4. it all depends if you are in the room and there are some machine that when you use ur cell phone it can trigger it to mess up. if you go in to a room ask the nurse or doctor first to see if its ok to use it in there.
5. It is possible for cell phones to interrupt with anything that is ran from a satellite such as pacemakers. The thing is that when we use our cell phones we are running off of satellites, and all though these days with all the technology it is a very slim chance that it will effect anything in the hospital it is always a possibility. There are so many things that run off of satellite signals they just don't like to take the chance that you could interrupt the signals to a heart/lung bypass machine or something. So like i said with all the different satellite signals in the world today it is unlikely but still very possible.
6. Cell phone use is still restricted because of potential interference with sensitive equipment. Cell phones don't really have that much power associated with their signal, so it is generally accepted that as long as the phones are not within very close proximity (under 5 or 6 ft) to susceptible machines the interference will be so negligible as to have no affect. There have been recent experiments however (http://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/news/20070905/turn-off-cell-phones-in-hospital-rooms) that show cell phones can cause interference when very close to the machines. Therefore, it's probably a good idea to ban cell phones in the hospital if just to prevent the fairly rare case that might occur. (I'm guessing the waiting rooms are more than 6ft away from any potentially harmed machines.)
7. A cell 'phone is a transmitter-receiver. The r.f. energy they radiate can interfere with equipment used in a hospital (and with equipment carried on board an aircraft). That is why you are told to switch them off in certain places.