Pacemakers and Inductive Cooking

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AMAC

7 posts

Wannabe Geek

#319280 9-Apr-2025 11:42

Having worked in Medical Electronics (in the late seventys) the pacemakers of that time were interrogated by holding a magnet over the pacemaker. Also in the case of interferance the device would revert to a fixed rate.

I am interested because some retirement villages are averse to install inductive cooking appliances. There are considerable advantages for the elderly using these appliances some of the advantages are safety.

Our new cook top advises that a pacemaker should be 100mm or more from an inductive device, which for most people would not be difficuilt. What do you all think ?

mkissin

388 posts

Ultimate Geek

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#3362280 9-Apr-2025 12:32

There are standards that cover exposure of implantable medical devices to magnetic fields, and it's very complicated. You'd be wanting ANSI/AAMI/ISO 14117.

Generally speaking, as long as you keep a respectable distance you're probably OK and the worst that should happen is (as you've said) the device will fail over into a safe mode and recover once the field is removed.

Still, given the number of variables involved, if I had a pacemaker I'd keep that distance as large as possible and stay very clear of very cheap inductive elements. Newer pacemakers should probably have better immunity too as inductive cooktops get more common.

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eracode

Smpl Mnmlst
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#3362282 9-Apr-2025 12:35

If you’re looking for an excuse, it might be a good reason to ask someone else to cook. 😀

Sometimes I just sit and think. Other times I just sit.

SomeoneSomewhere

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#3362289 9-Apr-2025 13:39

Interference and recovery is one thing, but there's always the question of whether enough energy is present to just cook the device, cellphone-in-a-microwave style. I wouldn't expect so... but expect is a lovely word.

eracode

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#3362481 9-Apr-2025 20:50

Also beware of microwave ovens.

Sometimes I just sit and think. Other times I just sit.

SomeoneSomewhere

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#3362488 9-Apr-2025 21:28

Microwave ovens are (normally) well shielded and use a much higher frequency that doesn't pass through the body too well, so I would expect them to be less of an issue.