Magnets on name tags

Be careful

by CallumLennon - 2019-12-05 08:00:39

You should be more than fine to wear the magnetic name badge on the otherside but they do say keep it at least 6 inches away from your pacemaker including phones etc (which is why I use my phone on the right-hand side of my face now just in case)

But there is a woman that is suing a clothing brand due to her pacemaker not working from a magnetised button on her coat. However, the button sat almost directly on top of the pacemaker. 

Just be careful, if you can get away with not using the magnetic name badge, I would. Otherwise, keep it on the otherside of your chest and as far away as you can.

6"

by Tracey_E - 2019-12-05 10:03:45

The rule of thumb for anything questionable is 6" from the device. It's unlikely the name tag is actually strong enough to do anything but to be on the safe side wear it on the right side, or get one with a pin. You can take it to a pacer check if you want to be sure, they can test to see if it can get the pacer in test mode. 

Magnets won't hurt us. The puck that they use to interrogate at the doctor's office is a magnet. Worst case, it'll put the pacer in test mode pacing at a flat rate until it's removed, then the pacer will go back to full function with no harm done. Any time this happens, it shows up on the pacing report. In 25 years of being paced, I've never once had this happen! I use my cell phone on the left side, wear a magnetic name tag at church, used to run with my ipod clipped over my pacer or now I run with my phone which I've been known to tuck in my bra if my pants don't have a pocket. My ipad has a magnetic cover and I read in bed with it on my chest. Any time I do something questionable, I ask at my next check and they always say it didn't do anything. YMMV, but I no longer worry about it. 

Magnet

by AgentX86 - 2019-12-05 10:58:44

The name tag magnet sticks to a piece of metal (iron) on the back side of the clothing, right? That piece of metal acts a a "keeper". Very little of the magnet's field is outside that pair. There is only some leakage around the  outside where the material separates the magnet and its keeper. In other words, once it's attached, there can't be a problem. If the magnetic tag didn't have a keeper on the back side, it wouldn't be a problem either because it would be on the floor.

The "puck" they use during an interrogation is not a magnet. It's a near-field antenna used to communicate with the pacemaker. It doesn't set the PM into its default mode (it couldn't and still do the tests). The reason for the magnetic sensor is for things like MRIs, to put it temporarily into a "safe" mode. Though, in my recent MRI they had a PM tech download my settings then reprogram my PM to the "safe" mode. After the MRI, he came back and reloaded the settings that he'd downloaded before. No magnet needed.

battery mode

by dwelch - 2019-12-05 17:05:30

the relay is for battery mode or was.  you put the magnet on your bpm becomes a voltmeter to tell the doctor what your battery level is.  used on the take home phone boxes.

cant see a reason to avoid putting it on the right side.

Battery mode

by AgentX86 - 2019-12-05 17:17:56

No, reading out the battery level is just another setting read out (via the near-field) communications of the "puck". There is no magnet in the puck.

Reading out using bpm wouldn't work, except for those who are chronotopically incompetent and even there would be crude, at best, and dangerous at its worst.

You're right about placing it on the right side. There is a minuscule chance of a problem on the left but that just guessing. Once the backing plate is on it, there is only a trivial magnetic field outside the magnet and backer strip.

Pin it

by CMH22567 - 2019-12-08 04:01:38

I had a similar badge so I glued a pin to the back of it. Problem solved.