Paper Shredders Interfere with WMTS
Paper shredders can be a problem in an office
environment. The most common problem is noise.
With small home paper shredders, the sound levels are often
not an issue because the units are so small, that they are
not as loud, and the intermittent use of shredders in small
office environments can be easily tolerated. In larger
office environments and in settings where people are likely
to have to work near the shredding equipment, noise can
undoubtedly be a real issue.
Another problem with paper shredders that is uncommon,
but should be taken into consideration in areas with large
amounts of high tech electrical equipment is electromagnetic
interference. This is the kind of problem, that in a
home may cause you to have phone interference when operating
your microwave or a blender. The problem can become
critical, though in areas like hospitals, where
electromagnetic interference can wreak havoc on fine tuned
systems. In one such case in 2004 detailed in a
presentation by Health IT Trends & Marketing, a WMTS
telemetry system was completely disrupted due to the
excessive noise emitted from the paper shredders. WMTS
telemetry systems are often used to relay ECG and
respiratory information to a centralized location.
Upon weeks of searching, when it was found that a paper
shredder had been the cause of all the disruptions, paper
shredders were banned from the entire facility.
This case is of course an extreme case of the effects of
paper shredder noise in a work environment, but it
highlights the considerations that must be taken into
account when installing a loud piece of equipment near
personnel or other sensitive equipment. Paper
shredders are available that are able to abate the dBA
enough to allow operation in the center of a work
environment, but quiet models often increase the cost of
manufacture, and thus the cost of the shredder to the
consumer or business. Consider you environment before
you settle on the right paper shredder for your business.