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Published online 1 May 2008 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2008.790
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Incubators seen to change babies' heartbeats
Could the electromagnetic fields of incubator motors affect babies' health?
The incubators used to nurture premature babies give off electromagnetic fields that change the babies’ heart rhythms, researchers in Italy have found.
Carlo Bellieni at the General Hospital of the University of Study in Siena and colleagues monitored the heart rates of 43 newborn babies being cared for in incubators.
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Is that ture? I don't think the electromagnetic from Incubators is correlated with health problems
"Incubators are necessary to these babies, and no actual correlation with health problems has been shown.†They aren't claiming any correlation, just that the babies have lower HRVs when exposed to the electromagnetic fields that these incubator motors produce. They seem to be implying that a correlation between the EM fields and SIDS might be possible, but without any clinical work, who knows? Interesting article, though.
To test such a theory, it should be easy enough to create an equivalent magnetic field using a coil. Also, as Dr Bellieni already has a magnetic shield available to reduce the EMF emissions of the motor, couldn't he compare HRV with and without the shield?
Incubators are not necessary to babies. Do a web search for "kangaroo care" or see this wikipedia article for more information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kangaroo_care.