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Can a Faulty Microwave Deprogram Hearing Aids?

Laurel Christensen, PhD

March 12, 2007

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Question

Can a faulty microwave deprogram my aids? Both of my hearing aids seemed to have lost their programming at the same time. I had them both reprogrammed a couple weeks ago. Then, a few days ago, BOTH went nearly dead. I have been near a microwave, which is slow, in school kitchen two days ago. I wear ReSound Canta model hearing aids.

Answer

Thank you for the question. I consulted with Jim Anderson, one of the engineers here at GN Resound, and we do not think a microwave could cause any damage to a hearing aid, unless of course it was placed inside the microwave while the oven was running.

Here is the reasoning behind this statement. The federal requirements for microwaves are as follows (taken from www.fda.gov/cdrh/consumer/microwave.html)

"A Federal standard limits the amount of microwaves that can leak from an oven throughout its lifetime to 5 milliwatts (mW) of microwave radiation per square centimeter at approximately 2 inches from the oven surface. This limit is far below the level known to harm people. Microwave energy also decreases dramatically as you move away from the source of radiation. A measurement made 20 inches from an oven would be approximately one one-hundredth of value measured at 2 inches."

We do know a lot about how mobile phone radiation can interact with hearing aids as people use mobile phones while wearing hearing aids on a regular basis. Additionally, mobile phone radiation is in the same frequency range as microwave radiation. So, it would be a fair comparison to use mobile phone radiation to help answer the question.

Mobile phones are used close to the hearing aid and have output powers of a few watts maximum. Let's assume 1 watt for sake of argument. If we assume the power from the mobile phone radiates evenly through a sphere, (not so since the antenna is very close to the head and not a point source, but still OK to assume for sake of approximate comparison), we can find the radius of that sphere where the power density is the same as that microwave oven example above (5 milliwatts (mW) of microwave radiation per square centimeter).

The surface area (As) in cm2 would be 1 Watt/ 5mW/ cm2 = 200 cm2.
The radius of a sphere is: r = {(As)/(4*pi)}1/2 .
Therefore r = {(200/(4*pi)}1/2 = 4cm. or approximately 1.6 inches.

Therefore, if you hold the phone at 1.6 inches from your head, you get about the same exposure as the oven at 2 inches.

This means that if there were a problem, the mobile phone would cause at least as much a problem as the microwave oven. We have not experienced any such deprogramming due to mobile phone use and so would not expect any issues around microwaves.

If your hearing aids have lost their programming, you should take them into your hearing professional so that the problem can be further diagnosed and resolved.

Laurel Christensen, Ph.D., is Vice President, Research Audiology for GN Resound Group (www.gnresound.com)


laurel christensen

Laurel Christensen, PhD

Chief Audiology Officer for GN ReSound Group

Laurel A. Christensen, Ph.D. is the Chief Audiology Officer for GN ReSound Group. In this role she leads a global team of 26 audiologists that are responsible for all aspects of audiology for the company including new product trials, audiology input to marketing, and global audiology relations which encompasses training and product support to subsidiaries world-wide. Prior to joining GN ReSound, she was a researcher and Director of Sales and Marketing at Etymotic Research in Elk Grove Village, IL. While at Etymotic, she was part of the development team for the D-MIC, the Digi-K, and the ERO-SCAN (otoacoustic emissions test system). Prior to this position, she was a tenured Associate Professor on the faculty at Louisiana State University Medical Center and part of the Kresge Hearing Research Laboratory in New Orleans, LA. During this time at LSUMC, she had multiple grants and contracts to do research including hearing aid regulatory research. In addition to her position at GN ReSound, she holds adjunct faculty appointments at Northwestern and Rush Universities. She served as an Associate Editor for both Trends in Amplification and the Journal of Speech and Hearing Research. Currently, she is on the board of the American Auditory Society and is a member of the advisory board for the Au.D. program at Rush University. Christensen received her Master’s degree in clinical audiology in 1989 and her Ph.D. in audiology in 1992, both from Indiana University.


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