Has anyone out there is forumland received any sound medical advice regarding how far a person with a cardiac pacemaker should stay from model train transformers?
Original Post
Replies sorted oldest to newest
Toy train transformers are not a problem. You should have gotten a pamphlet about what to avoid. If not contact your MD.
Pete
The pamphlets do mention getting close to electric equipment. There would be an electromagnetic field around a transformer
The magnetic fields they are referring to are ones that would be strong enough to rip a wrench out of your hand if you got too close to it or something like a power distribution substation with transformers larger than you are.
I used to design and build these things many years but am long out of touch with current technology. This isn't the place to get medical advice, even from people who have received a device like this.
Pete
Norton, I agree this isn't the place to get medical advice, which is why I phrased my question the way I did---looking to see if anyone had seen anything specific. As I read the literature, it appears one should stay at least 6" away from anything like a model train transformer. When I see to keep a distance of 6" for headphones and 12" for a battery charger, I wonder since the field around a train transformer would be greater than either of those.
Simply put...ASK YOUR DOCTOR.....
Like I tell everyone at the museum if you see me flopping around on the floor I'm not practiceing some new break dancing moves it is my defibrillator kicking in. 
For the benefit of anyone interested, I will pass on a quote from Boston Scientific's "Electromagnetic (EMI) Compatibility Table
for Pacemakers, Transvenous ICDs, S-ICDs and Heart Failure Devices" under Electric Toy Train. FYI, this is a 47-page compendium of devices; there are cautions about soldering guns also.
"Use precautions: Maintain at least a 6 inch (15 cm) separation between the transformer and the implanted device. Do not touch power rail, especially with wet hands."
Most of the precautions on that site say 6" for most things so unless you're laying on the transformer I don't see it being a problem.
Jerry
But if one of my family who has a pacemaker should lean over my control panel to fix a switch or re-rail a train--------
I had my Pacemaker / Defib put in in 2014 the only thing Dr. told me to stay away from ,was welding equipment.
