Pacemaker/defibrulator question

I'm not a physician like Evan, but I teach resuscitation courses for emergency care providers, and I've never heard of that. Sounds like another urban legend someone needs to snuff out at its source. Where did you hear it?

 

I don't have the manual here in front of me, but I do recall a mention
about that issue vis a vis the Smart Key System.

It's probably just an overabundance of caution on Toyota's part, but...

 

Need some help snuffing it out at its source??

This prompted me to grab my manual and re-read the SKS section. I didn't see any precautionary note for folks with implanted pacemakers or defibrillators.

 

Just tried a few quick searches on Snopes, and found nothing about "pacemakers" and "hybrid cars".

 

I'm a Senior Cardiothorasic Nurse and we implant and/or explant quite a few PPM (Permanent Pace Makers) and IACD (Implantable Automatic Cardiac Defibrillators) on our ward, although our main stock and trade is the CABG (Coronary Artery Bypass Graft).

You hear a lot of nonsense about the sensitivity of these devices. You can use an iPod and the scanners in libraries and airports are fine. However you shouldn't use a grinder or other machinery that produces a large electromagnetic field.

The engine in the Prius would create a large electromagnetic field, but as long as you don't hold it in front of your chest you should be fine! These sorts of fields reduce in energy proportionally to the square of the distance (if I remember my year 12 physics correctly).

I'll run it by our 'Pacemaker Nurse' after the holiday break, but I'm quite confident there isn't a problem.



P.S. - for obvious reasons they won't let you get in a room with an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) machine.

 

I have heard that it's bad for them if you connect them directly across those bright orange high voltage leads.

Tom

 

No. It's an urban myth spread by people who have no knowledge about electromagnetic fields (EMF). High-power alternating-current (AC) EMF, like that from high-voltage power lines (the metal towers, not street poles), can cause fatal problems with pacemakers. The Prius emits very low direct-current (DC) EMF from its main battery cable. The Earth emits about 500mG (milli-Gauss) of DC EMF. You might be able to measure 100mG in the back seat of a Prius, or about 5x less than what you encounter by simply living on this planet. The Earth's DC EMF is 10x less than the accepted 5G threshold for pacemaker concerns, meaning the Prius is 50x lower (worst case).

 

Putting all the technical info aside for a moment; if there was any issue with pace makers, Toyota would have stickers and warnings everywhere just to avoid law suits.

 

While I would defer to a physician or anyone with some mad emag skills, it definitely looks like Toyo is covering all the bases.

I found 3 mentions of the same thing in my '07 manual.

Attached is one of them.

 

What's funny is that in FHOP, one of the humor threads regarding trolling, brings this non-issue into issue.