Older pacemakers could be adversely impacted if people who had them were anywhere near an average microwave oven in operation - we had those signs up around the office kitchenette less than 15 years ago.
Ah, that makes a lot of sense.
As a kid we went to the University of Michigan hospital every six months for my brother.
One visit we go to the cafeteria for lunch as usual, and there were signs everywhere warning that microwave ovens were in use!
My mom asked one of the staffers what the signs were for and she told us that it turns out these new devices could affect pacemakers in a real bad way.
“We found out the hard way when a few patients went into cardiac arrest right here in the cafeteria! Took them awhile to connect the dots…”
“Oh my god,” my mom said! “Did you lose anyone?”
“Oh no honey…there ain’t no better place to have one of those than in a hospital!”
It would be years before we got one at home, and nobody we knew had a pacemaker.
Currently strong magnets can still mess with pacemakers. Fun fact, some modern phones have magnets in them that can do that - be careful about resting your phone on your chest if you have a pacemaker. I think the wireless charging unit is to blame.
That’s a feature btw, not a bug. If you go to the hospital with a pacemaker malfunction or we’re trying to do cardioversion in a way the pacemaker doesn’t do itself the only way we can turn it off is with a big magnet. That’s why most ED and cardiac units have one for an emergency.
I’ve heard about that. In a sense it’s sort of both since it can really mess someone up if they aren’t aware of the magnet. Someone told me awhile ago they can now do more than shut off the pacemaker and can even adjust the settings with specific magnets to reduce the need for invasive procedures. Not sure what the extent of that is but pretty neat if true!
In terms of electrical interferance, there’s a lot that can go on. NFC transmits power indutively, cellular, wifi, sometimes with power sharing some you transmit electricty inducitvely too.
Apple phone’s have “mag safe” which is basically a magnet. Phone also have speakers and microphones and rumble motors and compasses, all magnetic.
disclaimer: im’m tired and possibly wrong
Could also be a radio research site, but I doubt OP wouldn’t know that’s where they are. If the equipment is sensitive enough to be effected by a retail microwave, they’re already in a valley way outside of any town.
Green Bank?
I wasn’t thinking of any in particular, but that’s one of them. I remember an old story about how some lab couldn’t get any good signals around the same time every day. They were chasing bugs for months before realizing that someone brought in a microwave and was heating their food on break with it. Labs like that normally only allow toaster ovens and such.
I imagine the problem was just as much older microwaves as it was older pacemakers
Someone here may have already pointed out why these warning exsisted but the pace makers that were in use back in the 70’s and 80’s would sometime malfunction around microwave ovens. The signs were to reduce liability.
It was an important plot point in an early episode of The Simpsons.
Always has been
what does this mean?
This building was a fire station, and bunker gear is the protective clothing that firefighters wear. I guess they didn’t want you bringing dirty/smoky clothes into the break room
They had to prove themselves worthy by fighting the oven with nothing but their bare hands, man to microwave.
You don’t want the contaminants that used gear contains to get into clean spaces. No sense increasing cancer risk anymore than necessary.
I’d feel better about it if they’d let me wear bunker gear.
I’m more curious about this bunker gear, and what is depicted on that sign?
Bunker gear is the typical ‘fire-proof’ gear you see firefighters in when they might go into a burning building. Big, bulky, heavy, and often made of asbestos.
Bunker gear isn’t using asbestos anymore. It would be nomex and kevlar now.
True, but I was thinking the sign might be from as far back as the microwave one.
Bunker gear:
This joke has been brought to you by the 1970s.
The 1970s: Come for the unrest, stay for the disco.
Everybody knows microwaves and bunker gear don’t mix. Either you nuke, or you bunk.
i know that even then the shielding would prevent that wavelength… but another part of me would be terrified of a refrigerator sized microwave built in the 60s
I was gonna say, I highly doubt there was a microwave oven in the entire city in the 60s.
And you weren’t kidding!
1946: The RadaRange, the first commercial microwave, was sold to restaurants, ship galleys and canteens. This six feet tall, 750 pound microwave sold for around $5,000. ($80,846 today.)
1955: Tappan made the first residential microwave, which was rarely seen in homes due to its staggering size and $1,300 price tag. ($15,294 in 2024 bucks.)
Macrowave
“okay, hold on folk the peak will hit us any second and then we can get back to business for the next five minutes.”
styropyro in the chat!
I know you guys probably already know this, but just to make it clear- just because the building was built in the 60s doesn’t mean they couldn’t have gotten a microwave and added a sign later :p
A walk-in microwave?
If you want to learn more about microwaves and how incredibly dangerous their components can be you should check out Styropyro’s youtube channel.
Really hope he got his testosterone situation figured out.
What on earth is bunker gear?
Fire fighters gear.
I second this question.
In fairness if it had a microwave oven in the 60s, I’d probably want a warning if I was just near that building.
It was not a time when things were tested for long-term safety…
Jen told me the stupid science oven kills the nutrients in our food. Jen read stuff. But then Jen burned the house down after being told to not put metal in the science oven.
Sign went up day after some bastard put fish in it. Now there is a warning at least.
It’s to let the women know so that they don’t accidentally nuke their eggs duh
Yeah, pretty normal
