protection of pacemaker

HI
Have just joined this site an would like to ask I have not long ago had a Guidant dual chamber pacmaker fitted ,
My job means i must climb radio broadcast towers and pass by mobile phone antennas, does any one now where to get garments that will protect the pacemaker from elecro magnetic waves so ther will be no interference to the pacemakerwill climbing the towers,
kind regards
robert mills
england

3 Comments

protection of pacemakers

by philip.thecyclist - 2013-07-02 05:07:44

I echo Don's comment that you should contact the manufacturers. Guidant are now part of Boston Scientific, and when I had a query on one of their devices I was put in touch with their European support service at mailto:IntlTechService@bsci.com .They replied within a day or two.

Philip, London

Thanks for jogging...

by donr - 2013-07-02 06:07:40

...memory, Philip. I had forgotten about a post that expired off the bottom of the list today that had the official guidance from Boston Scientific on safety.

I thought it might have some guidance for you threading your way among the rods & feeds of the antennae. Nah! But here's the link to the site, anyway - again.

http://www.indoorairsite.com/Generic_Interferences_Boston_Scientific_CRM.pdf...my

Don



Climbing the Channel 5 TV Tower...

by donr - 2013-07-02 08:07:35

I have made light of that for several yrs, now, telling people that one thing you cannot do is climb the Channel 5 TV tower & hug the antenna aperature. (But you can climb the tower for Channel 1)

That joke is a bit USA specific - we have no channel 1 - it disappeared very shortly after spectrum was allocated back in the 1930's (?). I suspect that the allocations is a world-wide situation, however.

So what to my wondering eyes should appear, but some guy who climbs microwave towers for a living!

My first response would be that you need a total Faraday cage to do that, & such a creature does NOT exist.

THis question is inte5resting & I'm curious to hear what you finally learn. Have you contacted the maker of your PM & asked then this question. PM's are pretty well shielded against EMI. My guess is that the main part of your Pm that would be susceptible to problems is the clock in the digital computer part of the PM. It runs at a pretty fast rate, as do all computer clocks. Otherwise, the frequencies that you wallow around in are well beyond any of the frequencies involved in the actual pacing.

Don

But passing that by, let me ask a serious question - exactly how strong are the EM fields up those towers? Do you EVER get exposed to the aperature of the antennae? Are these antennae made up of rods or are they horns? Do you spend much time in the fields? I'd guess that for broadcast antennae that the fields, especially the near fields that you work in, are pretty powerful & I'm surprised that people are allowed by environmental health folks to get exposed to them even if w/o PM's.

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