EMF's Natural Versus Man-made in the Non-ionizing Spectral Region

In less than a century very few people realize how much and how quickly we have changed the non-ionizing electromagnetic environment we live in. Most of the changes have happened in the last 30 years. Now, all living things are subject to million of times more radiation than 50 years ago. For billions of years, the electromagnetic environment was virtually "silent" in the spectral region below visible light which was the most abundant source of electromagnetic energy. We will never be able to experience this peaceful world again Nature's sources of oscillating low frequency EMFs are few and extremely weak; the only sources are the sun, distant radio stars and other cosmic RF sources, and the terrestrial sources originating from lightning primarily in the tropics. Even the sun can not be considered a strong source of energy in the non-ionizing spectral region, making natural ambient levels so low that the possibilities of biological or even health effects are negligible [ref.1]. We will never experience that "quiet" world again. The greatest changes have all come after World War II with a trend towards the use of higher energy radio waves for long-distance communication and electronic devices of all types. Since then nearly every human action has involved an electrical appliance, and today we are all awash in a sea of artificial electromagnetic energies living species have never experienced before. The human species has changed its electromagnetic exposures more than any other aspect of the environment. For example, with the explosion in radio and TV broadcasting stations, radio telephone networks, cordless phones and cell phones, the density of radio waves and microwaves around us is now many millions of times higher than the natural levels in the same spectral region. Fig. 10: Exponential growth in background non-ionizing radiation. Grave concern was expressed by the European Parliament after a series of hearings on the matter of RF/MW frequency EMF health effects (Resolution B3-0280/92): "Thus in the frequency range 100 kHz to 300 GHz, 50 years ago it was scarcely possible to measure 10 pW/cm2 (10-12 W/cm2) on the ground in our countries. Today, depending on the location, values one million to one thousand million times higher are recorded because of the explosion of telecommunications". The same applies to ELF fields produced by the dozens of electrical appliances owned by each household in the industrialized world and the power lines feeding those devices. Industrialized countries in North America , Western Europe and China emit so much ELF energy that it can be sensed by satellites in space. Perhaps even more important than the increase in EMF densities, most man made EMFs differ in one important aspect from natural EMFs: man made sources radiate constant, regular oscillations or pulses of electromagnetic energy with distinct properties, whereas natural sources of EMFs are oscillating at random with mixed, irregular frequencies and amplitudes. For example, AC powered devices emit highly regular, sinusoidal ELF fields at a constant amplitude and frequency of 50 Hz (Europe) or 60 Hz (North America), and digital cell phones expose the heads of users to pulses of microwave, with carrier wave frequencies of around 900 or 1800 megahertz and modulation frequencies of 11, 22, 50 or 217 Hz. To watch a video on the dangers of EMF's go to http://www.emfnews.org/chipcategory.html .

Can Radiation from Cell Phones Damage DNA in Our Brains?

The March issue of the University of Washington alumni magazine, Columns, features a well-deserved tribute to Henry Lai and his colleague, N.P. Singh, who have demonstrated that low-level microwave radiation can lead to an increase in DNA breaks in the brain cells of rats (available online). The headline of the piece tells the story: “Wake-Up Call: Can Radiation from Cell Phones Damage DNA in Our Brains? When a UW Researcher Found Disturbing Data, Funding Became Tight and One Industry Leader Threatened Legal Action.” The article later identifies that “industry leader” as George Carlo who ran Wireless Technology Research (WTR) on behalf of the CTIA, the trade association of the cell phone industry. Of course, most people, except those on the industry payroll, now concede that WTR was misnamed. Something like “Whatever Happens Do As Little Research As Possible and Take As Long As Possible Not To Do It” would have been far more appropriate (even though it’s hard to make an elegant acronym out of all that). One important fact is left out of the story —for reasons that will become apparent in a moment. The piece begins with Lai recollecting how, back in 1994, someone had tried to stop his DNA-microwave work by calling the National Institutes of Health and alleging that Lai was misusing his research grant by carrying out unauthorized experiments. After Lai explained what he was up to, the NIH was satisfied that nothing was amiss. Lai was allowed to go back to work, though he lacked the funds to do as much he would have liked. The snitch is not named in the article but should be revealed. It was Bill Guy, who had received three degrees from the University of Washington, including his doctorate, and then spent much of his professional life at its Department of Bioengineering. No wonder the alumni magazine was squeamish about identifying him. For more than ten years, Guy and Lai had worked together at the university’s Bioelectromagnetics Research Lab. They were coauthors on close to 20 research papers. But that did not stop Guy from trying to sabotage Lai’s research. At the time he made the call to Mike Galvin of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Guy was one of two key advisors to George Carlo, and was helping him map out the strategy for CTIA’s $25 million cell phone-health research project. Separately, he was also a consultant to the CTIA. Guy would stay on the WTR payroll for another three years. Guy is a former president of the Bioelectromagnetics Society and the recipient of the d'Arsonval Award, its highest honor. Despite a lifetime in RF research, despite the fact that he chaired the committee that wrote the 1982 ANSI RF exposure standard, despite the fact that he chaired the committee of the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements that wrote the council's 1986 (and its most recent) report on RF biological effects, Guy’s first impulse on hearing about some important new experimental finding that questioned the safety of a product that would soon be responsible for exposing more than a billion people to a constant stream of RF radiation was to blow the whistle and try to impugn Lai. Does anyone still believe that the mobile phone industry ever made an honest attempt to get to the bottom of the cell phone safety question?

Cell Phone Text Message Leads Mother to Kidnapped Daughter

LUGOFF, S.C. - A text message sent by a kidnapped 14-year-old to her mother led to her rescue Saturday, when police found her in a hand-dug, booby-trapped bunker. ADVERTISEMENT Elizabeth Shoaf's message also led investigators to name a suspect in her Sept. 6 abduction — police were searching a wooded area where the girl was found for 37-year-old Vinson Filyaw, said Kershaw County Sheriff Steve McCaskill. Shoaf was found by deputies about a mile from her home in a 15-foot deep hole in the side of a hill that was covered with plywood. The bunker had a hand-dug privy with toilet paper, a camp stove and shelves made with cut branches and canvas. McCaskill said the girl appeared to be unharmed but was taken to Kershaw County Medical Center for evaluation. Police have not interviewed her, saying they would leave her alone until she's ready to talk. "We're just glad that she's alive and she's safe and that she will be home with us," her aunt, Geraldine Williams, told WLTX-TV in Columbia. "She's a good girl. ... We never believed that she ran away." Investigators say Filyaw may have posed as a police officer when he met Shoaf. The unemployed construction worker also is wanted on an unrelated sexual assault charge. "He dug this pit and this child was in this pit," McCaskill said. "He is linked to her disappearance and he's got to answer for that." The sheriff said the girl was walked around in the woods by her captor until she became disoriented. In the bunker, she was threatened with handmade grenades and a flare gun. The sheriff said the text message the girl sent to her mother came from Filyaw's cell phone and deputies began looking for him Friday night. Investigators used cell towers to determine a general location of the phone used to send the message. "That was the first break," McCaskill said. McCaskill said the girl cried out as searchers approached the bunker where she was found. "She was standing at the mouth of the bunker with the door open," sheriff's Capt. David Thomley told WLTX-TV in Columbia. He said Shoaf was not tied up and was very coherent. The bunker was protected by a booby-trap, the sheriff said. Police tracking hounds were brought in to aid in the search for Filyaw, and helicopters with spotlights circled overhead as night fell. A $5,000 reward was offered for information leading to his capture. Filyaw was considered armed and dangerous. Deputies have been searching for Filyaw for months on an unrelated charge of criminal sexual conduct against a 12-year-old girl, McCaskill said. Officers tried to arrest Filyaw at his home earlier this week, but he had an elaborate escape plan, involving a tunnel dug from his bedroom to a shed, the sheriff said. "When deputies came to serve the warrant, he was able to escape, going under the mattress, going under the trailer and hiding and eluding the arrest," McCaskill said. This is the second case this year in South Carolina involving an abducted teenage girl taken to an underground hideout. Kenneth Hinson of Hartsville is charged with kidnapping two 17-year-old girls March 14 and taking them to a closet-sized dungeon behind his home. Authorities said the girls freed themselves and walked to safety, and Hinson was captured after a four-day manhunt.