A STUDY of nearly 1000 people has confirmed preliminary reports that
mobile phones can disrupt heart pacemakers.
A team led by David Hayes of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, held
mobile phones against the chests of patients at hospitals throughout the US.
In last week鈥檚 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine (vol
336, p 1473) they report that 6.6 per cent of the pacemakers showed 鈥渃linically
significant鈥� interference. In some cases, the phones inhibited contraction of
the ventricles, which could be dangerous.
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The Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association, based in Washington DC,
says that provided mobile phones are used normally they should pose no
problem.