Mmmm, Dirty Electricity: Are You Allergic to Electric Currents, and How Do You Know You're Not?

Posted by Jark
Filed in Health & Fitness
September 8, 2007

Electricity is everywhere, even when you rub something against something else do you create friction energy and your hair rises like nothing. Now think of something on a far far greater scale -- that's what this article is about. I read a couple of WHO (World Health Organization) articles on the effects electricity has on people. Both articles seemed strange and cool enough to share with y'all since, well, we're all a a relatively well-informed bunch and, in my opinion, will happily eat up what I have to share. ;)

The two articles I speak of are: "Dirty Electricity and "WHO Calls For Measures To Deal With Electromagnetic Waves".

Apparently, high- and low-frequency electromagnetic waves (EMFs) from powerlines and low-frequency tech-toys like radios, stereos, cell-phones, hair-dryers, electric shavers, vacuum cleaners, kitchen microwaves, electric lawnmowers, motorbikes, etc. could have effects on people with weak immune systems. How is this possible? Well, most of these devices, especially TVs and microwaves, emit *minimimal microtesla" (a measure of a type of magnetic field surrounding electric charges such as those in electric currents). Now we have an unlimited electromagnetic spectrum that includes radio waves, microwaves, infrared, visible light, ultraviolet, x-rays, and gamma rays and, suffice it to say, these have tremendous effects on the body. And I bet you'd want to find out what these little suckers can do to you? So click on...

Health Concerns: For instance, there were so many reports by the WHO that "areas near high-voltage power lines have seen many cases of childhood leukemia," "incidence of cancer in children and other adverse health effects"**. The WHO is getting on this EMF wagon and is doing some probing. The WHO is working on a report on the result of many low-frequency EMFs on the human body and is slated to publish it early next year. We'll keep you posted. For now, here's a site with other intriguing articles on this little shinanigan.

More Locally: In Canada there are no specific laws*** which dictate how much radiation is permissible in the household because, with so much technical innovation among so many tech- and wifi-devices, not to mention our techno-centricity, there would be no way to curb our consumption of such gadgets and toys, let alone the things we desperately "need". The reason for a seeming disparity of laws against EMFs is that no direct causal relation between EMFs and health damage has been recognized. However, a link has also not been denied. Many areas of industry, transport, power transmission, research and medicine use a TON of electricity. Possible health effects from static fields have never been properly assessed, historically, legally, and the like. Given the rapid expansion of medical devices and imminent introduction, potentially on a large scale, of magnetic levitation transport systems that use strong static magnetic fields, any health impacts need to be properly assessed.

NOTES:
* "A kitchen microwave emits 4-8 microtesla in a 30-centimeter distance while a television emits 0.01-0.15 microtesla when people are within a 1-meter distance."
** http://www.who.int/peh-emf/project/EMF_Project/en/index.html
*** These laws include the Utilities Laws, Telecommunications Laws, Transportation Laws, or Health Acts of Canada.

PHOTO CREDIT: Kasei.co.uk's Photostream

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did you know that there are some plants that will help clear the air of random electricity? spider plants particularly help.cleans the air of stuff you don't want...

Posted by: colleen at September 8, 2007 2:43 AM | Quote Comment

I would say the reasons for that is because electricity in the form of EMFs have a light frequency and, hence, are actually food for our green friends... Light and other forms of electromagnetic radiation are considered to have both a wave nature and a particle nature. Particles or packets of light (its particle nature) are known as photons - the smallest divisible units of light. So, I'm sure, spider plants aren't the only ones to grab on to this energy...

But hey, what I like about spider plants, is that they reproduce all the time, if you see a big enough one, you'll notice that it's having babies beside it.

Posted by: Gord at September 8, 2007 2:53 AM | Quote Comment

We certainly don't know everything about this yet. One doesn't need to actually *use* electric appliance to be exposed. We're surrounded with an electrical field at home, in the workplace, and on urban streets practically 24-7 simply by virtue of the wiring and non-stop currents in the physical infrastructure around us. I'm not sure how much science has been devoted to exploring possible links between this constant low-level bombardment and, say, the unprecedented and unnatural incidence of cancer (of all types) since the 'electrification' of the human environment over the past century. But the conjecture has been there for a while, and the hypothesis is certainly plausible.

Posted by: Lee at September 8, 2007 8:16 AM | Quote Comment

I came across articles that said the same thing -- that we don't even have to be using the devices to be surrounded by the wires, obviously. Most of the time we don't live with the tools one-hundred-feet away, they are right there... in the next room.

I also came across reports that many city-folk can actually hear alot of these frequencies, in beeping ears when we sleep, during the day and, most noticeably, when we leave town for a while, and sense the absence of such frequency when we're in an electricity-free cabin or campsite. Very interesting.

Posted by: Jark at September 8, 2007 8:38 AM | Quote Comment

Aside from the whole spectrum of light (or frequencies) that are evident to the human eye, the MAJORITY of light (or frequencies) are notally not perceptible to the human eye (or ear). This link is pretty cool.

http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/earth/climate/cli_spectrum.html

Posted by: Jark at September 8, 2007 8:53 AM | Quote Comment

This is a great article Jark, I have been running like a head-less chicken (now that's an image you don't want to see!) and I've been super busy so I don't have the time to have a meaningful comment, other than the fact that I am glad and excited that you are looking at environmental issues in your blog.

Posted by: Raul at September 8, 2007 11:47 AM | Quote Comment

Wow, so when you go to the hospital if you're already sick, the medical instruments used to monitor your systems could actually be making you sicker? That's pretty sad.

Posted by: Shallom at September 8, 2007 4:17 PM | Quote Comment

You're damned if you do or if you don't -- same with this neighbor one of my friends told me about: he lives in a condo, but still insists on turning off all his toys before he sleeps, as though upstairs and downstairs currents don't affect him. Just cuz you don't use your plugs doesn't mean electricity isn't there... Jark.

Posted by: Jark at September 8, 2007 7:48 PM | Quote Comment