What’s the deal with electromagnetic fields?
“Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood.” -Marie Curie (1867-1934)
By Mike Dostrow
They are everywhere, in almost everything and vary in intensity from undetectable to deadly. Electromagnetic fields (EMF) are as ubiquitous as the air we breathe. We are bombarded by EMF in every aspect of our lives. From our electric toothbrush to our televisions, computers and, of course, the thing next to our head for a large chunk of any given day: the indispensable cell phone.
Despite the widespread exposure to EMF, a paucity of evidence regarding their effects on our health exists. The reason for this is multifaceted, but it essentially comes down to two main issues.
First, as EMF exposure is a relatively new concern, long-term studies linking exposure to adverse health effects cannot be conclusive because of the lack of time, which we need to make accurate conclusions.
The Framingham study linking heart disease to smoking, cholesterol and other cardiovascular risk factors took 40 years to reach statistically significant conclusions. Now there is no doubt about the link between cardiovascular risk factors and heart disease. Therefore, more time is needed to establish any long-term health effects from exposure to EMFs.
Second, and all conspiracy theories aside, I believe that the multi-trillion dollar cell phone industry would prefer that we not be privy to the possible health effects of their extremely profitable technologies.
Defining EMF
Keep in mind that physics was never my forte. Borrowing from the immortal Dr. McCoy of “Star Trek” fame, “Damn it, Jim, I’m a doctor not a physicist.” An electromagnetic field arises from the interaction of electric and magnetic fields. An electric field is produced by voltage. As voltage increases the electric field gets stronger … and more dangerous. A magnetic field is the result of the flow of current through wires and all electric and electronic devices. The more voltage and current, the stronger the electromagnetic field; so, a cell phone or computer has a weaker electromagnetic field than a microwave or, even worse, cell towers, power lines and transformers.
Although EMFs are present in many modern conveniences, the two components of EMF act on the body differently. Electric fields are easily shielded and generally speaking, barriers such as walls or the plastic covering of a power cord protect us from them. Magnetic fields, however, easily penetrate barriers and the body. Thus they pose a greater threat to us and are studied more extensively in relation to health and disease.
The effect of magnetism on the body is utilized frequently in modern medicine. When we use MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) to see inside the body, it creates a shift or motion of every electron in every atom in every cell of the tissue that’s being imaged. So we cannot deny that magnetism has a profound effect on the body. Usually, the benefit of an MRI outweighs any negligible risk. But what about the devices we constantly depend upon, which emit lower amounts of EMF? Is the length of exposure to low frequency EMF proportional to the amount of risk?
As mentioned previously, the lack of sound scientific research on this subject or its lack of availability makes it difficult to make an informed choice. Yet just because the evidence doesn’t exist or is unavailable doesn’t mean you should ignore that cell phone heating up your head.
To cite a historic example, in the middle part of the last century, many Americans smoked cigarettes and, despite the lack or cover-up of scientific evidence, still knew it wasn’t good for their health. Presently, the danger of smoking is common knowledge. Perhaps, like smoking, the danger of EMF will eventually be proven. For now, however, it might be sensible to limit our exposure to EMF as much as possible. Plastic bubble, anyone?
The vast majority of scientific data on EMF and health concentrates on exposure to high voltage EMF, typically emanating from power lines and transformers, and childhood cancers, primarily leukemia, lymphoma and malignancies of the brain. Children who lived in close proximity to power lines and transformers appear to have a higher incidence of these cancers. A handful of studies demonstrated a strong association. Others did not.
In 2002, the World Health Organization (WHO) concluded that, “There are no substantive health issues related to EMF electric fields at levels generally encountered by members of the public.” Another “authority,” the International Agency for Research on Cancer” (IARC), stated that EMFs are “possibly carcinogenic to humans.”
Still other studies demonstrate a weak or negligible association between EMF and maladies such as depression, suicide, immune disorders or neurological problems, just to name a few.
I believe more sound scientific research needs to be done and that the results may cause more concern about EMFs and their effects on health in the future. In the meantime, turn off that cell phone, step away from the computer and TV, and just get outside. After all we do live in paradise, so go seize the day and from EMF stay away.
For more info on EMF visit www.cancer.gov or NIH.org, and catch my article “The Era of Digital Disconnections” in an upcoming issue of The Sheet.
I thought I might be able to shed a little light on the subject of EMF. In an effort to keep this simple, some of the physics I present will be oversimplified, but it will be generally correct.
What are EMF’s?
We are surrounded by electrical and magnetic fields (EMFs) and have been so since the dawn of time. The spinning of the earth generates EMF, and the Sun generates EMF. Even the atoms in our cells generate EMF. The EMF in our atoms is what allows doctors to use MRI/NMR.
Magnetic fields
The Earth’s magnetic field, the one that swings a compass needle, is measured in gauss and is about 50 milligauss. This field changes over time but the change takes place very slowly and is recorded in rock where the earth’s crust is splitting apart. The magnetic field in an MRI machine is about 400,000 times bigger. Both of these examples change relatively slowly and there is very little electro-magnetic interaction.
Electric fields
Electrical potential is measured in volts, and voltage is what can create electrical current. When comparing electricity with water, water pressure is like voltage and water flow is like current. You may have sufficient pressure for a good shower, as long as no one flushes the toilet. If they do, the water pressure will drop and the flow will drop along with it. On dry days we notice voltage potentials of thousands of volts being dissipated when we touch door knobs, car doors, the dryer, and each other. The high voltages we feel dissipate in a very short period of time, and cannot produce much current. The small shock you get is like taking a shower under a water balloon. The pressure in the balloon may be high as long as there is no flow. As soon as the flow starts the pressure in the balloon drops, and the flow only lasts a short time.
Electro-magnetic fields
As long as electric or magnetic fields are unchanging, they do not interact, and their influence degrades with distance in the same way sound degrades. Doubling your distance from the sound source will reduce what you hear by four times. However, when electrical current changes, magnetic fields are produced, and whenever a magnetic field changes, electrical fields are produced. When these changes take place they produce EMF. We have very common names for these fields based on how quickly the changes in the fields take place. Here are some examples, arranged from low frequency to high frequency:
Frequency: Common name:
10^-9 Earths magnetic field
10 Brain waves, electrical power in your house
10^3 If you could hear EMF, these would be sound
10^6 Radio waves, AM, FM, TV
10^9 Microwaves from your oven
10^14 Infrared light from the sun
This is where our personal EMF sensors work (eyeballs)
10^15 UV light from the sun
10^17 X-rays
Most of us have heard of photons. Although we tend to think of photons as particles of light, the term can apply to any EMF. As we look for smaller and smaller bits of EMF, at some point the electro-magnetic energy seems to arrive in small packages and we call these photons. One of the interesting things about photons is that the energy that comes in each photon is proportional to the frequency. A higher frequency means a higher energy. When we look at the chart above, we notice that known harmful EMFs have very high frequencies. UV light causes sunburns, and x-rays can damage DNA. This is because the energy in each high frequency photon is enough to destroy molecular structures. Photons that exist at lower frequencies do not destroy molecules, no matter how many of them there are.
Let’s imagine that the photons are baseball sized, and that molecules in your body are like buildings. Photons all travel at the same speed (the speed of light) and they are all the same “size”, but they still have different energies. If our baseball sized particles are all thrown at the same speed, the only way for us to give them different energies would be to give them different masses. Imagine that the low frequency photons are baseballs made with Styrofoam and the high frequency photons are baseballs made with lead. You can now visualize how photons can (or cannot) cause molecular damage. No matter how many foam baseballs (photons) are thrown at the buildings (molecules), they will not cause damage. You will have to resort to throwing lead baseballs to actually cause damage.
The energy of the photons that are used in radio communications (cell phones, FM radio, CB, etc.) have about 0.001 kJ/Mole (a measure of their energy). The photon energies used by plants to make our food are about 250,000 times greater. To produce this kind of energy difference in our baseball analogy would require us to make one baseball out of air, and to pack the mass of two full sized pickup trucks into the other baseball.
It is very difficult to prove that EMFs do not cause cancer, in much the same way that it is difficult to prove that eating bananas for breakfast causes people to drop coins on the sidewalk. The correlation between these events is very random, and even when correlations exist there are often many other explanations. Objective analysis is made even more difficult if there are a bunch of ‘studies’ being done by organ-grinder monkeys who profit by discussing the merits of coins verses bananas.
One thing we can do with our limited knowledge is to compare the merits of more EMF’s. In order to eliminate manmade EMF from our lives we would need to banish all uses of electricity; cars, communication systems, refrigerators, MRI machines, etc. I don’t know about you, but I think the benefits of these technologies far outweigh the practically undetectable increased risk of cancer. Even if we did eliminate manmade EMF, we could not survive without that big EMF generator in the sky, our sun.
I think it is noteworthy to mention that our bodies have adapted to use the EMF spectrum where the most EMF energy is, in the visible light band. Perhaps in another several million years we will be able to see in the GigaHertz band. Then we won’t need Iphones.