Hospitals?

Why is it you're not allowed to use your cellphone in a hospital? I know there are signs up, but I don't know the reasoning behind it. Is it just because reception might not be good inside the building or is there some other reason?

Could it be that it might mess with sensitive medical equipment?...or maybe its a noise thing...like at the movies?...or maybe they realize that they do cause tumors and...okay, just kidding.

Do they seriously mess with medical equipment? I wouldn't think a tiny little cellphone would be powerful enough to mess with anything.

I'm doubting it has anything to do with tumors. LOL

Hey I am a Design Engineer...who are you to mess with my wisdom? ...No I seriously don't know... I will do a little research on it though...I got plenty of high up Hospital contacts...place your bets now before I get the answer.

Okay, my bet is because there would be too many people all talking at once and nobody would be able to hear anything. So they say no cellphones just to cut down on the noise. Any chance I'm right?

I think they say they are supposed to mess with sensitive equipment, same way you can't use it while you are on a plane. Did you ever notice though on tv that doctor's are always using cell phones in the hospital?

I've heard on the web that it's only done as a precaution, and mobile phones are on a completely different frequency to all the medical related equipment

yea i think its with the electronics and stuff inside like how u use a phone near a monitor it will go buzzy or a radio, the radio will lose signal. something like that for hospitals to communicate with other places.

i heard you couldnt use phones when at a gas pump too. o_O

Hey now, I love it when a topic starts to spin out of control, so I am going to play.

I heard that you can't use them aboard the International Space Station. But it’s okay because the reception is plain bad there.

I remember reading something about not using them near a gas pump too. Isn't there a danger of a spark from the battery or something? But then, who actually needs to talk on the phone while they're pumping gas?

As for the hospital question. It got me curious enough to google it, and here's the answer I found:
So, it looks like there really is a legitimate reason for it.