Xref: utzoo comp.sys.mac.misc:8758 sci.energy:4040 sci.electronics:17956 sci.environment:9681 Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!usc!apple!well!antenna From: antenna@well.sf.ca.us (Robert Horvitz) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc,sci.energy,sci.electronics,sci.environment Subject: VDT Electric Fields - Long reply, with resource pointers Message-ID: <23272@well.sf.ca.us> Date: 22 Feb 91 04:22:56 GMT References: <39193@cup.portal.com> <2343@njitgw.njit.edu> Organization: Whole Earth Review Lines: 408 In article <2343@njitgw.njit.edu> jfa0522@hertz.njit.edu (john f andrews ece) writes: >While on the topic of EM fields and vdt's, can anyone point me to a source for >information on health effects of em fields? I have a few callers interested, >and would like to repost whatever I can find for wider dissemination. > >Thanks for any comments. > > >----------------------------------------------------------------------------- >john f andrews SYSOP The Biomedical Engineering BBS The following article and resource pointers appeared in the Fall 1990 issue of Whole Earth Review, which retains the copyright: INHABITING THE ELECTROMAGNETIC ENVIRONMENT - by Robert Horvitz It's a puzzle. On the one hand you have folks sticking their heads in electronic "tuning" fields, as some sort of brain-boost or nonchemical psychedelic, and on the other you have folks afraid of leakage from video monitors, microwave ovens and powerlines. Are electromagnetic fields (EMFs) a neat high or a lethal hazard? Maybe both, maybe neither. Maybe we just don't know. There's been an upsurge recently in public concern about the invisible fog of electromagnetism we live in. It must concern us because that fog has thickened so much this century, and it permeates our bodies. Every electric motor, appliance and current-carrying wire radiates energy as a byproduct of normal operation. We also use radio to communicate, as in broadcasting, cordless and cellular phones, beepers and CBs. Microwave ovens are popular. So are electric blankets and stoves. Radar is used by police departments, meteorologists, aviators and navies around the world. Metal detectors, remote controlled toys...the list goes on and on. We can't see these emissions. That used to mean we ignored them. But now that a wide range of biochemical effects has been attributed even to weak EMFs, invisibility feeds fear: we don't know when or how much we're being exposed. Exposure is likely anywhere that electricity flows, and our dependence on things electric grows daily. There's some consolation in knowing that this wave energy penetrates our bodies precisely because we absorb so little of it: we are nearly transparent to radio. And compared to sunlight, which can sear flesh in a few hours, low frequency EMFs are "soft." The sun's ultraviolet rays are a much more immediate health threat. Which partly explains why research on the biological impact of EMFs got off to a slow, faltering start. Another reason is that bioelectricity seems to attract charlatans and quacks like no other subject. That has made funding agencies and serious scientists leery. Plus, some people in high places oppose research whose findings could impede "progress," raise business costs, establish liability, or encourage regulation. Shutting down the Environmental Protection Agency's research program on EMFs in 1986 was one of the Reagan Administration's many low-points. Despite the prevailing skepticism and lack of funding, interest in EMF bioeffects increased during the 1980s, after some curious results were found in lab experiments, and statistical studies started showing associations between EMFs and serious illness. Federal inaction in the face of growing public fear led some local governments to impose tight restrictions on EMF sources. As the patchwork of local standards spreads, it's starting to look like the cost of *not* doing the research needed to establish consistent and reasonable safety standards may be higher than doing it right. A few hints of consensus have started to emerge from the work done so far. With caveats galore (I'm no doctor, we still don't understand the mechanisms, not everyone agrees), this fool rushes in where a lot of other fools have already been mucking around: * Many bio-effects seem to occur at specific combinations of frequency and power, suggesting that molecular resonance is involved. If that's the case, setting exposure limits across the broad spectrum will be difficult. (To use a plumbing analogy, your pipes may "sing" when water flows through them at a specific rate. Decreasing the flow will stop the singing; but so will INCREASING it. And when the water is at a different temperature, the singing starts and stops at different flow-rates. This kind of nonlinear relationship between "dose" and effect means that at certain frequencies, a weak EMF might have more impact on a specific chemical reaction than than a stronger one does.) Until we sort everything out, minimizing exposure in general is the safest strategy. * The orientation of the field, the coherence and shape of the waves, the way they're modulated (AM, FM or pulse), the peak versus average power density - any or all of these may be important variables. They complicate setting exposure limits, too. * Magnetic fields may be more of a health problem than electrical fields, though they are often found together. TVs and video terminals, small motors (hairdriers, fans and plug-in clocks), flourescent lights and electric blankets, are typical sources of magnetic fields in the home. Magnetic shielding (as opposed to electrical shielding) is generally impractical. However, the magnetic fields from most appliances fade to below the background level a few feet or yards away. * The magnetic fields of powerlines have a farther reach. They are more intense where there's an unbalanced load and the voltage is stepped down by a transformer. You can easily check for "hot-spots" in your neighborhood by walking around with a portable radio tuned to a vacant channel at the low end of the AM band. As you near a radiating section, you'll hear a loudening buzz. * If you have a microwave oven, have a professional repairman check the seal around the door at least once a year. * Electric blankets have been singled out as something to avoid because they create strong fields and are meant to be used close to the body for long periods of time. Consider a down comforter instead. It's important to keep in mind that not all of the recently discovered effects are necessarily harmful. Some may have no health impact at all, and some may ultimately prove beneficial. The real pay-off in EMF bioeffects research may not be just in minimizing risks, but in the development of positive applications. It is already clear that there are therapeutic uses - in bone-healing and pain relief - as well as new imaging techniques which eliminate the need for exploratory surgery. If EMFs can in fact promote or inhibit certain chemical reactions, we may able to harness that ability for desirable ends. As we learn more about these invisible energies, we may well come to regard our current fears as just part of the shock of seeing with "new eyes." As I. M. Sechenov once wrote: "...it is highly instructive to hear people born blind describe their impressions of the world around them in the first few days following an operation restoring their sight at an adult age. Although such people had already had clear spatial notions concerning all the objects around them...the whole field of vision appeared to them to be filled in some solid manner, which seemed in some way to touch their eyes, and they were even afraid to move lest they should stumble upon this or that image." NATURAL EMFS To keep our emissions in perspective, note that the Earth has a very active electromagnetic field. Its churning iron core generates a halo that reaches far beyond the atmosphere. "Ground currents" seep through rock and soil, sometimes causing geomagnetic storms that disrupt powerline transmissions. Lightning releases some of the enormous static charges that build up in the atmosphere. Meanwhile, solar flares and sunlight ionize the upper air, producing swirls of charged particles that swaddle the Earth. We rarely notice it, but our environment is permanently electrified by the interaction of geomagnetic and solar weather. Natural EMFs buffet us intangibly. Whatever effect they may have, we've had eons to adapt. Human-generated EMFs have only been around for a few generations, and are quite different from natural fields in terms of frequency, waveform, coherence, distribution, etc. We don't yet know what difference these differences make. "THE EARTH'S ELECTRICAL ENVIRONMENT" is a collection of papers surveying what is known, and not known, about lightning, aurorae, ground currents and the ionosphere, how they interact with each other and with human systems. There's only a few oblique references to bioeffects, but this is the only book I know of that tries to pull together the various aspects of the Electric Earth. The Earth's Electrical Environment E. Philip Krider, Raymond G. Roble, Co-chairmen Geophysics Study Committee, National Research Council 1986; 263 pp. $28.95 postpaid from: National Academy Press 2101 Constitution Ave., NW Washington, DC 20418 202/334-3313 If you have a shortwave radio, you can tune in current solar and geomagnetic weather reports on stations WWV and WWVH. Audible throughout North America and beyond, they're broadcast at 18 minutes past the hour on 5, 10, 15 and 20 MHz. For more detailed current information, if you have a computer and modem, you can call the NOAA Space Environment Services Center's Forecast and Advisory BBS in Boulder, Colorado (303-497-5000 at 1200/300 baud, 8-N-1; or 303-497-5042 at 2400 baud, 8-N-1). MONITORING EQUIPMENT One of the neatest widgets I've ever seen is the "AMBIENT POWER MODULE," invented by Joe Tate, the Harbormaster of Sausalito. It's essentially an untuned, broadband radio receiver, simple enough to build yourself. Attach a long piece of wire as an antenna (100+ feet, preferably) and a connection to ground, and the Module will draw a small trickle of current right out of the air. (Cross a "cat-whisker" crystal radio with a solar cell, and you have the basic idea.) Output varies with the quality of the antenna, ground, and the energy in your air-space. Typically it's a couple of milliwatts - just enough to run a digital watch or calculator. Not many people will want to put up a 100-foot antenna to drive a calculator. However, you can also use it as a crude measuring device for EMFs, by hooking it up to a meter, a strip-chart recorder or a computer (with appropriate interfaces). It won't tell you anything about the frequencies, modulation or where the signals come from, just the cumulative field-strength. Pre-built units aren't available; instead you can order an illustrated booklet containing easy-to-follow instructions on how to built it yourself. All the parts are cheap and widely available. THE AMBIENT POWER MODULE by Joseph Tate 16 pp., 1987 $5 postpaid from: Ambient Research P.O. Box 153 Sausalito, CA 94966 "MICROWAVE NEWS" (reviewed below) recently surveyed equipment marketed for the measurement of EMFs in ways relevant to the health issue. The 15 listed units range from sophisticated lab equipment, to simple consumer products; in price from $75 (Model 116, from Electric Field Measurements, Box 326, West Stockbridge, MA 01266, 413-637-1929), to $9500 (Model 3D-MFDM, Sydkraft AB, Carl Gustafs Vag 4, S-217 01 Malmo, Sweden). The majority of these devices have been on the market for less than a year; no one has yet done rigorous comparative testing. Since they measure different bands in different ways, they aren't exactly comparable anyway. And since there's so little agreement about what bands and features are important to measure, we won't venture a recommendation...though we do have a sentimental favorite: Model 42B ($350 from Monitor Industries, 6112 Fourmile Canyon, Boulder, CO 80302, 303-442-3773). This is produced by Ed Leeper, who built the magnetic field gauge used by Nancy Wertheimer in her trailblazing study of powerlines and leukemia in Denver (described at the opening of Paul Brodeur's "CURRENTS OF DEATH". We all owe Ed a great deal for his contribution not just to that project, but to the revolution in attitudes it sparked. ARTIFICIAL EMFS Research is moving so fast in this field that newsletters are the only way to keep up. "MICROWAVE NEWS" and "VDT NEWS," both edited by Louis Slesin, are widely acclaimed by all sides as the best sources of reliable and current information. Slesin believes that emissions from computer monitors, and EMFs generally, are a serious health issue. But he's established a reputation as an "honest broker." When a well-done study is published showing no evidence of harm, or refuting a study that found something scary, Slesin reports it just as carefully, and with just as prominent a headline, as reports favoring the other side. As a result, he's been much more effective in changing the attitudes of researchers than more partisan reporters. Almost every study cited in "CURRENTS OF DEATH" was first reported in either "Microwave" or "VDT News." As you might have guessed, "VDT News" covers emissions from computer monitors, and worker-health issues related to office equipment in general. "Microwave News" is less accurately titled. It covers the entire radio spectrum, not just microwaves, increasingly focusing on the low end of the spectrum (macrowaves?). "MN" is the more expensive of the two, but it has a lot more news per issue. Microwave News VDT News $250/year (6 issues) $87/year (6 issues) $285/year foreign $97/year foreign P.O. Box 1799 P.O. Box 1799 Grand Central Station Grand Central Station New York, NY 10163 New York, NY 10163 212/517-2800 212/517-2802 For a one-off summary, a background paper published by the US Congress' Office of Technology Assessment is a reasonable place to start. "Biological Effects of Power Frequency Electric and Magnetic Fields" addresses powerline issues, summarizing the research in a relatively accessible, non-alarmist way. Also discusses policy issues, recent regulatory actions, and ongoing research programs. It might be out-of-stock already, but should be browsable at most Government Document Depositories. "Biological Effects of Power Frequency Electric and Magnetic Fields" Office of Technology Assessment 103 pp., 1989 Stock No. #052-003-01152-2 $4.75 from: Superintendent of Documents Government Printing Office Washington, DC 20402 202-783-3238. Among recent books on these subjects, "CURRENTS OF DEATH" has certainly attracted the most attention. Brodeur gives a pretty good overview of material originally published in Slesin's newsletters. But he differs sharply from Slesin in taking any skepticism about even the flakiest claims of injury from EMFs as proof that the doubter must be part of a massive conspiracy hatched by the US military, the electric utilities and the computer manufacturers, who want to wreak a Holocaust on the public and cover up their evil plan. For Brodeur, there's no such thing as a different interpretation of ambiguous data. There are no errors in the research of the pro-harm camp, fatal errors in every study from the no-harm camp. Reasonable people don't disagree: you're either pro-Life or pro-Death. This is nonsense. It does a real disservice to the complexity of the scientific issues, and to the honest researchers in both camps trying to figure them out. The breakthroughs in understanding which are likely to emerge from this controvery are probably still cloaked in unresolved questions that Brodeur would dismiss as lame excuses for reactionary caution. If you read this book, make sure you read the OTA paper for some sort of balance. CURRENTS OF DEATH Power Lines, Computer Terminals, and the Attempt to Cover Up Their Threat to your Health by Paul Brodeur 333 pp., 1989 $19.95 from: Simon & Schuster 1230 Ave. of the Americas New York, NY 10020 212/698-7541 Robert Becker is one of the pioneers of modern bioelectrical research. Now retired, he was an orthopedic surgeon who devoted most of his life to the study of bone-healing and "currents of injury" - weak electrical flows in the body that seem to stimulate tissue repair. "THE BODY ELECTRIC" (with co-author Gary Selden) presents a radical new theory of bioelectricity, based on Albert Szent-Gyorgyi's hunch that parts of the body are capable of acting as semiconductors. When tissues with different electronic properties meet in the salty fluid of the body, a sort of diode is formed. By analogy with solid-state semiconductors, where tiny changes in chemical composition drastically alter the electrical response, one must ask: could tiny changes in body chemistry radically alter the body's electrical fields? Could changes in the electrical fields impinging on the body cause subtle changes in body chemistry? For a long time, Becker's primary interest was regeneration. There are some mind-blowing passages in the book describing what so-called lower animals can do (regrow hearts, cure induced cancer). Becker sees bioelectricity as a possible key to unlock the regenerative powers he believes still reside in our genes. The ideas in this book are powerful. The vistas it opened will keep medical researchers busy for decades. Becker's "CROSS-CURRENTS" is newer and written at a less technical level. As the subtitle suggests, it explores the "perils of electropollution" and the "promise of electromedicine." Covering some of the same material as "THE BODY ELECTRIC" and "CURRENTS OF DEATH," but in a friendlier tone, there are numerous comments on alternative medicine, holistic thinking, natural healing. His explanation of how acupuncture actually works is the best I've read. At the end, Becker gives some helpful low-cost suggestions on ways to minimize risk and exposure to EMFs. THE BODY ELECTRIC CROSS-CURRENTS Electromagnetism and the The Perils of Electropollution Foundation of Life The Promise of Electromedicine by Robert O. Becker, MD, and by Robert O. Becker, MD Gary Selden 336 pp., 1990 [o.p in hardback, in print $19.95 from: in paper] Jeremy P. 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