Pacemaker and Work
- by Indyglo
- 2023-02-10 18:54:10
- Interferences
- 468 views
- 3 comments
75 and work full time around electrostatic products and electrical equipment.
I need a heart valve replacement (TAVR) but they say I have to have a pacemaker first and it's scheduled for Feb. 17th, 2023.
Concerned that my employer may have an issue with my working around sensitive product we coat. We us ionizors and wear antistatic jackets and foot straps. Is there any type of a vest I could wear to protect myself and the product we make and still work? MUST CONTINUE TO WORK!!
3 Comments
no issues whatsoever
by dwelch - 2023-02-15 15:17:23
Spent many years in my anti stat jacket, wrist strapped to the bench, etc. Pacer has nothing to do with it.
The only issue I had with that job was we had a shake table and for at least a few days after being there for years, someone said, hey what if a customer comes in with a pacemaker or some other medical device. And our lab manager said, what do you mean we have an employee with a pacemaker. So the lab manager and I did our research, and I would have to hug the transformer while the shaker was running to have an effect (we rented a good gauss meter and i would have to be within a few inches, as we all report in this site a hundred times a year, but I actualy did a measurement against a high emf device).
You were likely already traind on this the anti-stat jacket, wrist or ankles straps, grounded chairs, grounded floor, mats on the bench, etc. They are there to actually control the speed of the ground, it is not a straight short to ground like when you touch a metal door frame or the little screw holding the plate on a light switch. it is a high impedance path to control the rate of the static electricity you generate by moving.
winding up some static and touching the screw on a light switch plate is worse for you than that strap. and the static zap you get from things like that are not going to affect your pacer in any way.
I cant see any way they would discrimiate against you for this.
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by AgentX86 - 2023-02-10 21:48:12
No, you won't have any trouble. You already wear an anti-static jacket (which is unnecessary) so another isn't going to do anything more.
Electrostatic electricity will stay on the surface. It won't penetrate the body to affect you pacemaker. It might affect remote interrogations (pacemakers use Bluetooth to communicate with the pacemaker) but being out of communication for a shift isn't going to matter.
If your employer has a problem and pig-headed, there may not be much that you can do. You can look up the dos and don'ts for your pacemaker. Even the instructions on the manufacturers' web sites are are overly conservative but you won't find anything about static electricity. It might help your employer if you show him the list and note that nothing you're doing is on the list. Of course, only show the list if there is nothing on there. 😁