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PACEMAKERS AND
MICROWAVE OVENS
Urban Legend #2 about microwave ovens is
that they can disrupt a pacemaker (a device implanted next to the heart
to regulate the heartbeat) if the person is standing next to the oven
while it is in use. Technically, the answer is that this can
happen, but it is very unlikely. First, remember that a microwave
oven is a Faraday cage, which contains electromagnetic waves inside
it. For microwaves to escape and reach the pacemaker, there would
need to be something wrong with the oven. In addition, the pacemaker
would also have to be faultly, as pacemakers are Faraday cages as
well. They act in reverse of the microwave oven: they keep
electromagnetic radiation out, instead of trapping it inside.
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Image from Wikimedia Commons.
www.wikimedia.org
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