Pacemakers and metal detectors don't mix

[DAB]

Lawsuit: Guard's metal detector caused pacemaker to fail | Fox News (http://www.foxnews.com/health/2016/06/08/lawsuit-guards-metal-detector-caused-pacemaker-to-fail.html?intcmp=hphz02)


PITTSBURGH – A man says in a lawsuit that a security guard's metal detector caused his pacemaker to fail as he entered Pittsburgh Municipal Court.

Vince Kelly filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the city and Allegheny County, who jointly control the courts building, which is connected to the county jail.

Kelly says when he entered the building in January 2014, he warned the security guard that the walk-through magnetometer could cause his pacemaker to fail.

The lawsuit says the guard let Kelly avoid the device but then waved a hand-held wand too close to his chest. He says his pacemaker failed, and he fell and lost consciousness briefly.

The city and county aren't commenting.

Victory Security employs the guard and couldn't immediately be reached for comment Wednesday.


i had jury duty a few years ago, i go to the security point, tell the Barney that i can't go thru the metal detector, so he waves me thru an 'inactive' one...that beeps as i go thru it. :slap: you dumbass, you might have killed me. no metal detectors above the waist Barney! :slap:

[Fastguy]

Lawsuit: Guard's metal detector caused pacemaker to fail | Fox News (http://www.foxnews.com/health/2016/06/08/lawsuit-guards-metal-detector-caused-pacemaker-to-fail.html?intcmp=hphz02)



i had jury duty a few years ago, i go to the security point, tell the Barney that i can't go thru the metal detector, so he waves me thru an 'inactive' one...that beeps as i go thru it. :slap: you dumbass, you might have killed me. no metal detectors above the waist Barney! :slap:

I got flagged for bringing a knife into the Courthouse. They made a big deal like I had a samurai sword on me or something. I had to fill out some stupid form and it got added to a big whiteboard "76 weapons stopped at this checkpoint".

[mrvette]

back in the early 80's I worked at a field rep and tech support for a walk through metal detector company, our gear ran on the pulse field theory, looking for moving metal in a certain field delay time......

302 ms was the gate on the integrator, and it went into a VERY LO pass filter, then into a chopper amp and into the threshold the guard would set.....

WE never had any issues with pace makers.....not enough of a transmit field to upset the electronics in them.....

sorry to snowball anyone that don't understand the operation, but it IS what it IS, and I don't have time to type the entire manual/physics/theory of operation.....

short form, the machine boots up, and so it's quiet, and some person walks through with as much as a gun barrel our test standard was a 4" long piece of 1/2 inch steel rod..... pick it up every time, my Tejas size belt buckles in normal position would set the machine off, so I just flip them up vertically and no pickup....

The machine is looking for the imbalance between two counter wound coils in series with each other, there was a faraday shield of copper tape wrapped over top of the coils which extended some 7' tall..... so one coil was energized by the metal and as walked through, the imbalance went to the other coil...so it was additive-subtractive and triggered the alarm....

the decay of the magnetic field in the moving metal varies with type of metal....iron lasting the longest, so we never saw any jewelry, typical belt buckles, hearing aids, radio crap, even cleats on shoes....a large knife maybe but not the typical aluminum crap U knives....which turned out to be a shame....damnit...:issues: BUT our high sense units could ring a person down to the fillings in their teeth....used in prisons......

:shots:

[DAB]

all i know is that my doc said to avoid the things.