Arc welding and pacemakers

I love to arc weld. I have a few machines and they all have their uses. I have my dad with me and he has had heart bypass with a pacemaker. There are warnings about arc welding and pacemakers so I decided to look into the warnings so my dad would feel at ease.

As it turns out, you can weld around someone with a pacemaker. But if you have a pacemaker, then arc welding may be something to reconsider. The danger zone to a pacemaker to an arc weld is 18 to 24 inches. About where a person needs to be to weld. A person can be in the room when arc welding but keep them at lest 2 feet away from any arc.

Here is a link to a study done about arc welding and pacemakers.....http://www.sta-tn.com/IJ_STA/Papers/.../IJSTA_211.pdf

And here is a link to the AWS (American Welding Society) about pacemakers and welding.http://www.aws.org/wj/amwelder/9-00/safety.html

Great info good to check better safe then sorry

I have purchased quite a few pices of equipment from Alex
as of 6/14/13 I can not use due to a pacemaker
I build street rod parts and weld

I have a pacemaker and have no problems with mig tig and stick. My normal testing and data transmission from my implant shows no problems. My Cardiologist main concern was not welding but magnets or anything that generates a magnetic field. His first question was about firearms he wanted to know if i shut right handed or left as the impact from a shotgun could break my wires or damage my implant. Some of the older pacemaker defibrillator's run at frequency's that can have an interference problem.

I have had no problems as i weld a lot and my pacemaker runs approximately 3.5 hours per a 24 hour period.

The main concern has been TIG with High Frequency from what I've been told. I've also been told they make shielded pace makers just for these type applications, but are more expensive??

A pace maker is not a pace maker is not a pacemaker. By that I mean that are several types. There are pace makers that completely control the heart. There are demand pacemakers that only kick in if the heart rate drops below a certain rate. And there are defibrillators, they are for shocking a heart out of a dangerous rhythm. The only one that really has the most potential for problems is the first one because it is working 100% of the time.

Not sure I would want the defib model zapping me while welding either though. I have seen out MIGs as well interfere with the TV signal. So I would probably talk to the heart guy first. Safety first.