Health Risks from Electromagnetic Pollution
Danny | 18.05.2007 10:50 | Health | Technology
The Stakeholder Advisory Group (SAGE) on ELF-EMFs was set up in 2004 by the Department of Health to investigate the implications power frequency electric and magnetic fields. Its report last month said the Government should consider banning new building within 65 yards of overhead cables. [1] "As many as 100,000 homes sit within this 'danger zone' which previous studies have shown can trigger fatal diseases in adults and children alike" ranging from childhood leukaemia, breast and brain cancer, miscarriage and Alzheimer's disease.
We are electrobiological creatures. For millenia we evolved in a gentle hiss of background radiation. For the past hundred years we have started generating and transmitting man-made radiation at an increasing rate, and we now live in an electromagnetic smog of thousands of different fields, few of which benefit us, most of which are damaging and some of which are perfectly avoidable. Now, about a third of people suffer mild health problems from this, and about 5% of us suffer seriously - people die.
ANECTDOTAL TESTIMONY
About 20 to 30 years ago I saw a TV documentary that covered the dangers of ELF EMF. It might have been World In Action's 'Secret of the Circles' about leukemia clusters, I can't remember. I can remember some of the programme. At one point a map of Liverpool was shown, then overlaid with little red dots showing the homes of suicides, then little yellow dots for the homes of childhood leukemia sufferers, then green dots for the homes of women who'd miscarried, migraine victims, brain cancers, and so on until the map was just a bunch of seemingly random dots. Then they overlaid the main powerlines running through the city and hey presto, all the dots were joined together. One of the facts that stuck with me since then is in blocks of flats the power normally runs up one side of the flats and then fans out on each floor, and people on the side the electricity runs up are 3 times more likely to kill themselves.
It interested me and made me look out for the health effects of electricty lines in my own life, and to try and follow the debate about ELF EMF. It smacks of the 'Are cigarettes cancerous ?' debate, where powerful corporations were ranged against a handful of doctors. The corporations, their scientists, the politicians they lobbied and the governments that they paid tax to and the states they helped employ people in, all these people knew cigarettes were cancerous for decades before they admitted it, it just wasn't in their interests to admit it. They profitted from it and were never charged. That is the thing about 'conspiracy-theories', you don't need to have an actual mass meeting of the conspiracists, you just need to have a conflation of interests. So I am not trying to expose a conspiracy here, nor am interested in arguing with pseduo-scientists with an axe to grind. This is my opinion having followed the argument, and my best advice to those of you who take the issue seriously. Exposing the health risks of ELF-EMF is going to be harder than fighting the cigarettes companies simply because the vested interests are richer and more numerous, and the benefits of the technologies that produce the fields are obviously greater than cigarette-manufacturers ever could claim to be.
One of my cousins is one of the most senior figures in the UK electricity companies, he started off as a technician and worked his way up. Since his early working life he has had migraines, suffered from depression, mood-swings. He didn't before he started working in that industry. One of my sisters suffers from migraines and a host of other neurological and physiological complaints. She didn't before she moved to a major city. I once studied electrical and electronic engineering. I would suffer from migraines, poor memory, sleep-loss and slight depression - but only for two days out of the week, the days I spent studying in a lab full of high-power transformers.
ELECTRO-HYPERSENSITIVITY
I feel all these symptoms are consistent with ElectroHypersensitivity, or ES for short. I have met and heard of people who are so pained by ES that they can tell when an electrical appliance has been turned on or off in another part of the house, to the point where they can no longer live in a normal house. Indeed I have read of scientific 'blind' tests that confirm this. If you are new to the term then you begin by realising that our bodies are biological electromagnetic devices. It isn't just that our nerves communicate with our brains via electric signals, these signals generate electromagnetic fields that can be read by instruments remotely. More than that though, each cell in our body communicates with neighbouring cells using even tinier electomagnetic signals. We evolved in a sea of white noise, mostly a ever-permanent 'hiss' left-over from the big-bang. Our bodies evolved able to cope with that, think of it as the gentle hiss on an untuned radio ( for that is what that is) . Lately though, we exist in a far noiser environment, for the past 100 years we have steadily flooded our environment with strong electromagnetic signals, starting with radio waves to the EM noise your washing machine gives off and cumulating in the WIFI and mobile phone signals that permeate us daily. Don't live in magnetic fields above 0.2 microtesla, or near high electric fields. The radiation and health effects drop with distance so put as much distance between yourself, appliances, cabling and external sources as possible.
Now for some reason certain people are sensitive to this, and that causes ES symptoms. However, other people suffer more without understanding why. ELF-EMF has been linked to ME, leukemia, cancers, Multiple Sclerosis, diabetes, Attention Deficit Disorder, depression and suicide, miscarriage, sleep-disorders, actually to too many ailments for me to list here. Not by people like me, but over the decades by independent Doctors and Professors. So if you don't belive a word of this, please stop reading, I'm not writing this to argue the case, I'm no scientist, I'm writing so that the people who do believe this don't throw up their hands in dispair and think there is nothing that they can do about it - there is a lot you can do to minimise the effects.
THE MAIN DANGERS
I've read that the three main sources of avoidable bodily-absorbed EMF in most peoples lives split equally between the following three. If you suspect any of them consider getting a professional EMF survey on your property, or rent the equipment and do it yourself.
1) Externally Generated Fields
This is what most people focus on - mobile phone masts, electricity pylons, underground cables, substations, TETRA masts, WI-FI hotspots. They are serious health risks and as activists we should oppose them by whatever means necessary - but firstly by investigating them and their effects. It is not necessary as activists to debate with corporate scientists what the biological mechanism is that is causing health problems, that should be their job, it is enough to point to epidemiolgical clusters of ill-health around these stations and masts. "One of the studies, in Warwickshire, showed a cluster of 31 cancers around a single street. A quarter of the 30 staff at a special school within sight of the 90ft high mast have developed tumours since 2000, while another quarter have suffered significant health problems". [2] A previous study in Nalia in Germany found people who lived within 400m of a GSM base station were 3 times more likely to develop cancer, and at a younger age. [3] There are 47,000 phone masts in the UK already. Many of these are placed in schools or near schools, and since children are more vunerable to radiation than adults this is effectively killing kids for corporate profit. Now apart from physically destroying these masts, other actions you can take is to relocate your child to another school, take legal action against the company or challenge the liability insurance of the property owner. There is also a reading of a parliamentary bill challenging the mast planning laws, the Telecommunication Masts (Planning Control) Bill on the 29th of June 2007 that you could support through lobbying your MPs support. [4]
2) Domestic Appliances
Fewer people think of this but any mains powered mechanical device will give off a large EMF. There is no point in protecting your child from a new pylon next to their bedroom if you still let them use a hairdryer, sit next to the washing machine and tumble drier, have them sleep next to a mains socket or cabling or on an electirc blanket, have their mobile phone charging up next to where they sit, and then sit under fluorescent lights at school. Buy them a TFT screen to replace their VDU -and don't make them vacuum-clean ! Keep beds away from electrical appliances, don't use mobile phones indoors or where the signal is weak. If you do suffer from ES then you can effectively shield a room using conductive foil, you can also purchase nets, bedding and even hats that help shield you more ( not the so called 'tin-foil hats', these are more like bee-keeper hats with conductive netting).
Don't use WiFi or wireless devices like cordless phones if you have children in the house, and oppose the use of WiFi in schools and public places. It is extremely damaging for very little benefit over standard network cables and cabled phones.
Avoid unearthed "double insulated" equipment, or earth equipment such as laptops manually.
3) Poor House Wiring, Net Currents and Dirty Electricity
Nobody thinks of this. About a third of the EMF you will be absorbing is caused by poorly wired houses and dirty electricity. First, dirty electricity refers to the high frequency surges that occur as transient spikes when an appliance is turned on or off, automatically or manually. These create damaging EMF fields and they can be filtered out using capacitors. Where they have been filtered out in studies, masive health benefits ensue in conditions as diverse as MS and diabetes.
An incorrecly wired house can have a floating 'ground' radiate EMF through piping or even the earth you stand upon. Replace ring circuits with radial circuits, except in the kitchen where this is less practicable due to the high-power appliances there. Consider using shielded cabling or housing the cabling in a grounded metal container like they use in modern offices and schools. Fit decoupler ( or demand ) circuits to each radial spur so that the electricity can't flow when there isn't a load. Shielding will decrease electric fields but won't decrease magnetic fields given off by cabling as few metals have a high magnetic permeability, a notable exception being 'mu-metal' - although steel is better than aluminium in this regard.
Net currents are caused by a fault or faults having developed in the supply cables between two substations, creating high EMFs over a wide area. Power companies don't normally see this as problem and will only repair it if you can prove these fields exist.
These are the numbered items are cited in my text but most of the best information comes from these websites and articles:
http://www.powerwatch.org.uk (especially the FAQ and the radio interview with Magda Havas)
http://www.electrosensitivity.org.uk
http://www.mastsanity.org
http://www.mastaction.co.uk
http://www.mercola.com/article/emf/emf_dangers.htm
http://www.deltatech.com/enviro/emfx.html
[1] 'Don't build schools or homes near pylons', warn experts
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23394215-details/'Don't+build+schools+or+homes+near+pylons',+warn+experts/article.do
[2] Cancer clusters at phone masts
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article1687491.ece
[3] The Naila-Study
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/398279/
[4] Battling for Mobile Phone Mast Controls
http://www.libdems.org.uk/campaigns/mobile-phone-mast-controls.16633.html
[5] The radial circuit
http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Book/6.3.3.htm
Finally, a webpage that let's you hear the normally inaudible 'noise' that different devices transmit - you are bound to have heard your mobile phone through car speakers before :
http://www.detect-protect.com/k/buzz/listen.htm
ANECTDOTAL TESTIMONY
About 20 to 30 years ago I saw a TV documentary that covered the dangers of ELF EMF. It might have been World In Action's 'Secret of the Circles' about leukemia clusters, I can't remember. I can remember some of the programme. At one point a map of Liverpool was shown, then overlaid with little red dots showing the homes of suicides, then little yellow dots for the homes of childhood leukemia sufferers, then green dots for the homes of women who'd miscarried, migraine victims, brain cancers, and so on until the map was just a bunch of seemingly random dots. Then they overlaid the main powerlines running through the city and hey presto, all the dots were joined together. One of the facts that stuck with me since then is in blocks of flats the power normally runs up one side of the flats and then fans out on each floor, and people on the side the electricity runs up are 3 times more likely to kill themselves.
It interested me and made me look out for the health effects of electricty lines in my own life, and to try and follow the debate about ELF EMF. It smacks of the 'Are cigarettes cancerous ?' debate, where powerful corporations were ranged against a handful of doctors. The corporations, their scientists, the politicians they lobbied and the governments that they paid tax to and the states they helped employ people in, all these people knew cigarettes were cancerous for decades before they admitted it, it just wasn't in their interests to admit it. They profitted from it and were never charged. That is the thing about 'conspiracy-theories', you don't need to have an actual mass meeting of the conspiracists, you just need to have a conflation of interests. So I am not trying to expose a conspiracy here, nor am interested in arguing with pseduo-scientists with an axe to grind. This is my opinion having followed the argument, and my best advice to those of you who take the issue seriously. Exposing the health risks of ELF-EMF is going to be harder than fighting the cigarettes companies simply because the vested interests are richer and more numerous, and the benefits of the technologies that produce the fields are obviously greater than cigarette-manufacturers ever could claim to be.
One of my cousins is one of the most senior figures in the UK electricity companies, he started off as a technician and worked his way up. Since his early working life he has had migraines, suffered from depression, mood-swings. He didn't before he started working in that industry. One of my sisters suffers from migraines and a host of other neurological and physiological complaints. She didn't before she moved to a major city. I once studied electrical and electronic engineering. I would suffer from migraines, poor memory, sleep-loss and slight depression - but only for two days out of the week, the days I spent studying in a lab full of high-power transformers.
ELECTRO-HYPERSENSITIVITY
I feel all these symptoms are consistent with ElectroHypersensitivity, or ES for short. I have met and heard of people who are so pained by ES that they can tell when an electrical appliance has been turned on or off in another part of the house, to the point where they can no longer live in a normal house. Indeed I have read of scientific 'blind' tests that confirm this. If you are new to the term then you begin by realising that our bodies are biological electromagnetic devices. It isn't just that our nerves communicate with our brains via electric signals, these signals generate electromagnetic fields that can be read by instruments remotely. More than that though, each cell in our body communicates with neighbouring cells using even tinier electomagnetic signals. We evolved in a sea of white noise, mostly a ever-permanent 'hiss' left-over from the big-bang. Our bodies evolved able to cope with that, think of it as the gentle hiss on an untuned radio ( for that is what that is) . Lately though, we exist in a far noiser environment, for the past 100 years we have steadily flooded our environment with strong electromagnetic signals, starting with radio waves to the EM noise your washing machine gives off and cumulating in the WIFI and mobile phone signals that permeate us daily. Don't live in magnetic fields above 0.2 microtesla, or near high electric fields. The radiation and health effects drop with distance so put as much distance between yourself, appliances, cabling and external sources as possible.
Now for some reason certain people are sensitive to this, and that causes ES symptoms. However, other people suffer more without understanding why. ELF-EMF has been linked to ME, leukemia, cancers, Multiple Sclerosis, diabetes, Attention Deficit Disorder, depression and suicide, miscarriage, sleep-disorders, actually to too many ailments for me to list here. Not by people like me, but over the decades by independent Doctors and Professors. So if you don't belive a word of this, please stop reading, I'm not writing this to argue the case, I'm no scientist, I'm writing so that the people who do believe this don't throw up their hands in dispair and think there is nothing that they can do about it - there is a lot you can do to minimise the effects.
THE MAIN DANGERS
I've read that the three main sources of avoidable bodily-absorbed EMF in most peoples lives split equally between the following three. If you suspect any of them consider getting a professional EMF survey on your property, or rent the equipment and do it yourself.
1) Externally Generated Fields
This is what most people focus on - mobile phone masts, electricity pylons, underground cables, substations, TETRA masts, WI-FI hotspots. They are serious health risks and as activists we should oppose them by whatever means necessary - but firstly by investigating them and their effects. It is not necessary as activists to debate with corporate scientists what the biological mechanism is that is causing health problems, that should be their job, it is enough to point to epidemiolgical clusters of ill-health around these stations and masts. "One of the studies, in Warwickshire, showed a cluster of 31 cancers around a single street. A quarter of the 30 staff at a special school within sight of the 90ft high mast have developed tumours since 2000, while another quarter have suffered significant health problems". [2] A previous study in Nalia in Germany found people who lived within 400m of a GSM base station were 3 times more likely to develop cancer, and at a younger age. [3] There are 47,000 phone masts in the UK already. Many of these are placed in schools or near schools, and since children are more vunerable to radiation than adults this is effectively killing kids for corporate profit. Now apart from physically destroying these masts, other actions you can take is to relocate your child to another school, take legal action against the company or challenge the liability insurance of the property owner. There is also a reading of a parliamentary bill challenging the mast planning laws, the Telecommunication Masts (Planning Control) Bill on the 29th of June 2007 that you could support through lobbying your MPs support. [4]
2) Domestic Appliances
Fewer people think of this but any mains powered mechanical device will give off a large EMF. There is no point in protecting your child from a new pylon next to their bedroom if you still let them use a hairdryer, sit next to the washing machine and tumble drier, have them sleep next to a mains socket or cabling or on an electirc blanket, have their mobile phone charging up next to where they sit, and then sit under fluorescent lights at school. Buy them a TFT screen to replace their VDU -and don't make them vacuum-clean ! Keep beds away from electrical appliances, don't use mobile phones indoors or where the signal is weak. If you do suffer from ES then you can effectively shield a room using conductive foil, you can also purchase nets, bedding and even hats that help shield you more ( not the so called 'tin-foil hats', these are more like bee-keeper hats with conductive netting).
Don't use WiFi or wireless devices like cordless phones if you have children in the house, and oppose the use of WiFi in schools and public places. It is extremely damaging for very little benefit over standard network cables and cabled phones.
Avoid unearthed "double insulated" equipment, or earth equipment such as laptops manually.
3) Poor House Wiring, Net Currents and Dirty Electricity
Nobody thinks of this. About a third of the EMF you will be absorbing is caused by poorly wired houses and dirty electricity. First, dirty electricity refers to the high frequency surges that occur as transient spikes when an appliance is turned on or off, automatically or manually. These create damaging EMF fields and they can be filtered out using capacitors. Where they have been filtered out in studies, masive health benefits ensue in conditions as diverse as MS and diabetes.
An incorrecly wired house can have a floating 'ground' radiate EMF through piping or even the earth you stand upon. Replace ring circuits with radial circuits, except in the kitchen where this is less practicable due to the high-power appliances there. Consider using shielded cabling or housing the cabling in a grounded metal container like they use in modern offices and schools. Fit decoupler ( or demand ) circuits to each radial spur so that the electricity can't flow when there isn't a load. Shielding will decrease electric fields but won't decrease magnetic fields given off by cabling as few metals have a high magnetic permeability, a notable exception being 'mu-metal' - although steel is better than aluminium in this regard.
Net currents are caused by a fault or faults having developed in the supply cables between two substations, creating high EMFs over a wide area. Power companies don't normally see this as problem and will only repair it if you can prove these fields exist.
These are the numbered items are cited in my text but most of the best information comes from these websites and articles:
http://www.powerwatch.org.uk (especially the FAQ and the radio interview with Magda Havas) http://www.electrosensitivity.org.uk http://www.mastsanity.org http://www.mastaction.co.uk http://www.mercola.com/article/emf/emf_dangers.htm http://www.deltatech.com/enviro/emfx.html [1] 'Don't build schools or homes near pylons', warn experts
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23394215-details/'Don't+build+schools+or+homes+near+pylons',+warn+experts/article.do [2] Cancer clusters at phone masts
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article1687491.ece [3] The Naila-Study
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/398279/ [4] Battling for Mobile Phone Mast Controls
http://www.libdems.org.uk/campaigns/mobile-phone-mast-controls.16633.html [5] The radial circuit
http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Book/6.3.3.htm Finally, a webpage that let's you hear the normally inaudible 'noise' that different devices transmit - you are bound to have heard your mobile phone through car speakers before :
http://www.detect-protect.com/k/buzz/listen.htm
Danny
Additions
School WiFi on Panorama tonight
21.05.2007 15:03
"Government advice recommends masts are not sited near schools without consultation as children are thought to be more vulnerable to radio frequency radiation emissions than adults, the series states.But when Panorama visited a comprehensive school in Norwich and measured the radiation signal strength from a classroom wifi laptop, they found its peak was three times greater then the peak signal strength from a mast. The Panorama report, to be shown tonight on BBC1, will say 70% of secondary schools in the UK already have wifi and nearly 50% of all primary schools do. The programme contacted nearly 50 of these schools and claimed only one had been alerted that there might be possible health risks, while some had been told there was no risk."
http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/news/display.var.1412239.0.0.php
Are the concerns about the health effects of using Wireless Local Area Network (wLAN) systems in school classrooms unfounded?
A number of schools have dismantled their wireless networks after lobbying by worried parents and teachers, and others are under pressure to follow suit. We ask whether this level of concern is warranted.
The technology
The technology used in wireless sytems, such as wLANs is novel in human evolutionary experience. This part of the electromagnetic frequency spectrum was virtually silent for most of humanity's evolution. Human biological responses have not had sufficient time to adapt to deal with the levels of radiofrequency we are beginning to surround ourselves with.
Wireless networks involve daily exposure of children, or of staff members, to microwaves in enclosed environments. WLAN systems emit radiofrequency (microwave) radiation into the rooms they are used in, and the emitted radiation levels could be made worse because of building characteristics using microwave-reflective structures such as reinforced concrete or metal joists, or classroom furniture made of steel, etc.
The biology
The UK guidelines that limit public exposure to microwave radiation have been set at a level which adequately protects us from the acute effects of thermal damage. What we know from some of the research that has been done is that body tissues respond to electromagnetic fields at very low levels indeed, small fractions of the allowed exposure levels.
We know that there are specific parts of the electromagnetic frequency that seem to elicit biological responses, whilst those parts above and below may not have the same effect (the window effect). It also seems that a biological response is not necessarily dependant on the amount of power that the person is exposed to. It is not a matter of more power producing a greater response.
Formal laboratory studies usually do not allow for a) the window and power variations referred to above, or b) the different susceptibilities within the population. Not everybody seems to be affected (like not everybody reacts badly to penicillin or peanuts).
It seems that the effect is cumulative rather than purely instantaneous, and that cascade effects, from gene expression to protein modification, to cellular ion transport are all affected.
Pulsing signals such as those used in WiFi systems appear to elicit a stronger response than those with just a steady carrier signal.
The symptoms
The symptoms that have been consistently reported include:-
* memory and concentration problems
* short attention span and learning difficulties
* hyperactivity and mood changes, especially an increase in aggression
Many of the reports come from real life community exposure to the sort of radiofrequency radiation that children are likely to be exposed to in school classrooms where wLAN systems are in use. Interactive whiteboards can also add to the electromagnetic field levels in the school.
These symptoms are certainly not the ones we would like to see our schoolchildren suffer unnecessarily. The educational system is not finding it easy to meet its attainment goals, and schoolroom aggression appears to be on the increase. These trends are likely to be due to a number of different interlinked causes. But if microwave radiation may make the situation worse, we believe it is a good idea to think about introducing radiating systems into the school environment.
International conclusions
It is usually the formal laboratory studies only which are referred to by many authorities, including the UK's Health Protection Agency, who conclude that there is no risk to anybody, although some international organisations are not quite so dismissive. ICNIRP, the European regulatory body, whose guideline limits have been adopted by the UK government, concluded after a literature review "Results of epidemiologic studies to date give no consistent or convincing evidence of a causal relation between exposure from radio frequency fields (RFs) and any adverse health effect. On the other hand, these studies have too many deficiencies to rule out an association. Despite the ubiquity of new technologies using radio frequency fields, little is known about population exposure from RF sources, and even less about the relative importance of different sources."
A recent report from the Organisation for Economic and Co-operative Development (OECD, an international organisation helping governments tackle the economic, social and governance challenges of a globalised economy), looked at the educational achievement in schools in 32 countries. The researchers found that the pupils' performance in maths and reading dipped among students who used computers every day either at home or school.
The Vienna Chamber of Doctors has warned that wLAN emits high levels of radiation. The Public health department of Salzburg has specifically warned that wLAN and DECT should not be put in schools and nurseries. The German Doctors appeal, the Bamburger appeal, also now includes a warning about wLAN. The German teachers' union has told its members to resist the rollout of wLAN into schools in Germany on safety grounds. Lakehead University in Canada has decided not to put in wireless computers as the technology they use has never been tested and so not proved to be safe.
Are parents' and teachers' concerns about wLANs in schools unfounded?
Powerwatch believes that the studies that have been done on microwave exposure, both occupational and epidemiological, together with the experience of residents of communities with mobile phone masts (who experience a similar sort of level of radiation as will be found in a school classroom with a wLAN system), are sufficiently consistent to raise the question as to whether living and studying in places with microwave radiation at low levels is without health effects for at least some members of the general population. It may be that only a certain percentage of the population is, or will ever be affected by this form of environmental pollutant. As there are no biological markers that have yet been discovered to identify those who are affected in this way as compared with those who are being affected by something else, the situation is likely to remain unclear for some time.
Meanwhile we think that a precautionary response is the appropriate one.
Computers can be linked with wires. This method has never been associated with health risks, so whilst further investigation takes place in real life situations and not just in the laboratory, we recommend this way of making the new computer technology and internet access available to our young people.
http://www.powerwatch.org.uk/faq.asp#wlans
http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/news/display.var.1412239.0.0.php Are the concerns about the health effects of using Wireless Local Area Network (wLAN) systems in school classrooms unfounded?
A number of schools have dismantled their wireless networks after lobbying by worried parents and teachers, and others are under pressure to follow suit. We ask whether this level of concern is warranted.
The technology
The technology used in wireless sytems, such as wLANs is novel in human evolutionary experience. This part of the electromagnetic frequency spectrum was virtually silent for most of humanity's evolution. Human biological responses have not had sufficient time to adapt to deal with the levels of radiofrequency we are beginning to surround ourselves with.
Wireless networks involve daily exposure of children, or of staff members, to microwaves in enclosed environments. WLAN systems emit radiofrequency (microwave) radiation into the rooms they are used in, and the emitted radiation levels could be made worse because of building characteristics using microwave-reflective structures such as reinforced concrete or metal joists, or classroom furniture made of steel, etc.
The biology
The UK guidelines that limit public exposure to microwave radiation have been set at a level which adequately protects us from the acute effects of thermal damage. What we know from some of the research that has been done is that body tissues respond to electromagnetic fields at very low levels indeed, small fractions of the allowed exposure levels.
We know that there are specific parts of the electromagnetic frequency that seem to elicit biological responses, whilst those parts above and below may not have the same effect (the window effect). It also seems that a biological response is not necessarily dependant on the amount of power that the person is exposed to. It is not a matter of more power producing a greater response.
Formal laboratory studies usually do not allow for a) the window and power variations referred to above, or b) the different susceptibilities within the population. Not everybody seems to be affected (like not everybody reacts badly to penicillin or peanuts).
It seems that the effect is cumulative rather than purely instantaneous, and that cascade effects, from gene expression to protein modification, to cellular ion transport are all affected.
Pulsing signals such as those used in WiFi systems appear to elicit a stronger response than those with just a steady carrier signal.
The symptoms
The symptoms that have been consistently reported include:-
* memory and concentration problems
* short attention span and learning difficulties
* hyperactivity and mood changes, especially an increase in aggression
Many of the reports come from real life community exposure to the sort of radiofrequency radiation that children are likely to be exposed to in school classrooms where wLAN systems are in use. Interactive whiteboards can also add to the electromagnetic field levels in the school.
These symptoms are certainly not the ones we would like to see our schoolchildren suffer unnecessarily. The educational system is not finding it easy to meet its attainment goals, and schoolroom aggression appears to be on the increase. These trends are likely to be due to a number of different interlinked causes. But if microwave radiation may make the situation worse, we believe it is a good idea to think about introducing radiating systems into the school environment.
International conclusions
It is usually the formal laboratory studies only which are referred to by many authorities, including the UK's Health Protection Agency, who conclude that there is no risk to anybody, although some international organisations are not quite so dismissive. ICNIRP, the European regulatory body, whose guideline limits have been adopted by the UK government, concluded after a literature review "Results of epidemiologic studies to date give no consistent or convincing evidence of a causal relation between exposure from radio frequency fields (RFs) and any adverse health effect. On the other hand, these studies have too many deficiencies to rule out an association. Despite the ubiquity of new technologies using radio frequency fields, little is known about population exposure from RF sources, and even less about the relative importance of different sources."
A recent report from the Organisation for Economic and Co-operative Development (OECD, an international organisation helping governments tackle the economic, social and governance challenges of a globalised economy), looked at the educational achievement in schools in 32 countries. The researchers found that the pupils' performance in maths and reading dipped among students who used computers every day either at home or school.
The Vienna Chamber of Doctors has warned that wLAN emits high levels of radiation. The Public health department of Salzburg has specifically warned that wLAN and DECT should not be put in schools and nurseries. The German Doctors appeal, the Bamburger appeal, also now includes a warning about wLAN. The German teachers' union has told its members to resist the rollout of wLAN into schools in Germany on safety grounds. Lakehead University in Canada has decided not to put in wireless computers as the technology they use has never been tested and so not proved to be safe.
Are parents' and teachers' concerns about wLANs in schools unfounded?
Powerwatch believes that the studies that have been done on microwave exposure, both occupational and epidemiological, together with the experience of residents of communities with mobile phone masts (who experience a similar sort of level of radiation as will be found in a school classroom with a wLAN system), are sufficiently consistent to raise the question as to whether living and studying in places with microwave radiation at low levels is without health effects for at least some members of the general population. It may be that only a certain percentage of the population is, or will ever be affected by this form of environmental pollutant. As there are no biological markers that have yet been discovered to identify those who are affected in this way as compared with those who are being affected by something else, the situation is likely to remain unclear for some time.
Meanwhile we think that a precautionary response is the appropriate one.
Computers can be linked with wires. This method has never been associated with health risks, so whilst further investigation takes place in real life situations and not just in the laboratory, we recommend this way of making the new computer technology and internet access available to our young people.
http://www.powerwatch.org.uk/faq.asp#wlans
Danny
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