It's not as bad as the brochures makes you think

Working at a nuclear power plant, I go through a security check that makes airport security look like a handy wipe pat down. I have passed through metal detectors and explosive detectors and wand searches and not felt a thing. I have also been around the big generators at the power plant and electrical equipment rooms and not had a problem. If you have a modern device, do not be afraid of the airport metal detector. Just go through like a normal person. I did just that on a trip out West last summer and had no effect.

My device nurse told me a story about a guy who dropped his PM-equipped wife when he lit off his ham radio. That may just be a story. Haven't tested that one yet.

I used an electric chainsaw last week and didn't die, so that disproves one brochure I read. Need to check out a gas saw one day. Been around plenty of lawnmowers and no effect.

Use common sense and you will be safe.

5 Comments

HAM radio a myth

by Theknotguy - 2014-01-21 11:01:11

Like everything else, the ham radio story is a myth. Unless you stand in front of a RADAR dish, radio won't bother the PM.

Theknotguy

Peter, you can live like that...

by donr - 2014-01-22 07:01:31

..but you are going to miss a lot of routine pleasures in life & spend your time fearing everything.

Those manuals are written by lawyers in Minnesota, USA. Their purpose is to protect the wallets of Medtronic, so they are written very skewed toward the safety of the manufacturer.

All that electronic stuff inside the PM/ICD is so well shielded it isn't funny - it is encased in Titanium, which will protect it from anything a person normally runs into electromagnetically. Those "Aerials" mentioned are coaxial cables, meaning that the outside is a woven electrical sheath that protects the inner conductor from all the same stray energy that the case protects the electronic guts from. Therefore, the hazard to the entire system is extremely low.

The original poster in this thread tests his system to very high limits every day w/o ill effect.

MOF, WE, the members of the PMC, have extensively tested the limits of PM safety for you. Read around in here & see what we do - you would be amazed (& the lawyers at Medtronic would cringe) at the extent. Then go try it!

Don

No myth

by Alma Annie - 2014-01-22 08:01:13

I have had a reaction standing in front of p.a speakers, the wand in a court, and a generator when I got up close. Felt most queer for about 15 minutes then went back to normal. So far nothing else, but I am a bit wary now of things that might affect pm, so I sometimes just creep nearer and nearer things that I am told could affect me, until I am sure they don't, then I can tick that off the list. I am 100% paced. I really don't want to have the 'queer' feeling again. I think maybe some people feel more than others.
Alma Annie

Great discussion.

by PJinSC - 2014-01-24 07:01:53

Great postings, guys. Conversations like this can help those who are uncertain. I ran across a posting about PMs in hybrid cars and someone was afraid they would be affected. We have a Prius, and I drive it frequently when my wife lets me (her car). Never had an issue. In fact I have only had one incident where I felt something had happened. I was driving and felt it skip heavily but started right back up. I was in my truck, which I drive all the time. I go through this spot many times and never had it happen before, and it has not happened since. I had my routine device check the next week and the nurse said if there is interference it will leave an "artifact" in the recorder, and there was nothing, no record of the blip I felt. Go figure.

Nuclear power plant

by Peter341 - 2016-01-07 06:01:12

Hi, I work in a nuclear power plant and had an ICD implanted in 2008. There are serious electromagnetic hot-spots in the plant, such as generators, transformers and high voltage power-lines which produce an electromagnetic field far beyond the recommendations of the ICD manufacturer.
To be able to work and walk "normally" around the plant, I bought a detector, the "Cardioman". This device gives a warning when your stepping into a zone where the EM field strength exceeds the limits for PM's and ICD's.
Must say it's very comforting. You don't have to be on guard all the time for strong EMF's, while the device warns you in time.
In the 8 years I have the ICD now, it never reacted on my work and never gave any indications of alarms when checked in the hospital. For me a confirmation, the Cardioman works. Must say, I never got the urge to test the ICD by getting closer to a generator, beyond the alarm indicators.

Furthermore. Working in the nuclear part of the plant, never gave any reaction or indication of a malfunction. Must say that the radiation levels in a NPP are much lower than in a hospital.

You know you're wired when...

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