Electromagnetic Storms

I heard on the news recently about possible electromagnetic storms hitting the earth from solar eruptions on the sun that could knock out cell service and power grids etc. I haven't looked into this at all but I thought I'd throw it out there for discussion for those of you who know anything about this. Could something like that short out pacemakers and ICD's rendering them unusable?

8 Comments

Electromagnetic Storms

by BOB 1 - 2008-01-15 03:01:09

Kyle,

If those electromagnetic storms are strong enough to affect your pacemaker they will also make your ears look like fried pork rhines.

Those storms may affect your cell phone use, or dish tv reception, and some radio transmissions (which is actually what your cell phone is doing) but the probability of it bothering your PM is somewhere between slim and none.

At least that is my opinion. If I were worried about it I would be out making me an aluminum foil hat right now.

Ha

by kyle0816 - 2008-01-15 04:01:59

Nice. Well I was just wondering what the probability was. The news story made it out like power grids would fail and electronics could be zapped so what do I know! I was just asking a question geez ;-).

Electromagnetic Storms

by BOB 1 - 2008-01-15 08:01:49

Kyle,

Please accept my apology for my callous and insensitive answer to your question about the sun's electromagnetic fields causing a problem for your pacemaker. When I read your question, the first thought that went through my mind was you were having a little fun by asking the question. As a result of my error I gave a very poor answer.

To be serious for a second, I do not think you need worry about your pacemaker being affected by the electromagnetic field from the sun that will envelope earth a number of times over the next 11 years.

Again, I apologize and I'll be more careful in the future.

Bob

:-)

by kyle0816 - 2008-01-15 10:01:41

No need to apologize. It was a serious question but I wasn't offended by your answer, I was more joking than anything with you in my response.
I think I envisioned the electromagnetic pulses you see in the movie the Matrix that kills any electronic machines when they described it on the news haha.

Old Posting

by hooimom - 2008-01-15 11:01:55

There is a pretty funny posting in the "Joke" section from April 2006. It is called "My First Night Home With My Pacemaker" and was posted by AlanVK. I read it when I first got my PM and it was my first good laugh after my surgery. Kinda ties into the electromagnetic storm theme.

Michelle

electromagnetic storms

by wjhughes420384 - 2011-08-28 12:08:46

okay, the theory is that the electromagnetic storm that hits the earth will induce current into any electronic device and wire. On long haul high voltage lines you have enough wire to have a large voltage and current induced, and it would damage the transformers or electronics at the end of the lines. Wires moving through a magnetic field cause current to flow, this is how an electric motor works.

Our pacemakers are metal so they will react to a magnetic storm(the result of a solar flare hitting the earth) the question is how well are they shielded. that is will the current induced be completely contained in the case and not transferred to the internal electronics. In my opinion the wires we have in our chests are the biggest vulnerability, they act as antennas and in the case of a solar flare they are wires that will have curent induced in them. I do not know if there is protection between the wires and the pacemaker itself. I have gotten into some very high RF fields(military Jammers and a cell phone tower transmitter) and they had a big impact on my pacemaker, i assumed from that there isn't protection between the wires and the device.

okay so much for theory, lets talk about the reality. The sun is entering a period of solar flare activity. It will be shooting flares out in all directions. The only ones we need to worry about is one that is aimed directly at the earth. That's a very small probability right off. Then the strength of the solar flare is the next question. My opinion(based on 42 yrs of electronic warfare experience) is that it would have to be strong enough to knock out a lot of the satellites and a lot of the power grids before there would be enough current induced into our wires to be noticeable. The wires in our chest are pretty short, which reduces the amount of current that could be induced.

So, on a really big solar flare that is aimed at the earth we may notice it, but I doubt that it could be big enough to damage the device.

The bigger problem will be all the other impacts of solar flares, power being knocked out for weeks, computers, and tv's being destroyed, etc (they are all huge in comparison to our pms.

if you are reading this, you survived

by wjhughes420384 - 2011-09-07 11:09:39

on Sept 6 there was an X2 class solar flare( the highest).
the EMP from that would have hit us about 8 minutes later, there is a CME event coming, but if we survived the EMP we have a pretty good shot against the CME.

it missed us

by wjhughes420384 - 2011-09-08 09:09:30

okay, i was wrong, it turns out the solar flare missed the earth, they said we may get a glancing blow from the CME, but it will only result in some light show at the north pole.

We still don't know for sure, but odds are still very low that anything will happen to us

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