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Electrical Noise Causing Physiological Stress?
el johnno writes "The Globe and Mail is reporting on possible physiological problems caused by so-called 'dirty electricity.' Poor power quality caused by electrical feedback and harmonics from consumer electronics are cited as a possible cause of various 'physiological stress' problems. While previous research in this area looked for connections between EM fields and cancer, some research is now looking into possible connections to fatigue, headaches, depression, and other symptoms. From the article: 'If electricity were flowing in a constant way, most people's bodies would likely adapt, but with all the interference from modern devices, the resulting fields are too variable for people to get used to.'"
[blockquote]He began researching the topic when a neighbour expressed the belief that electricity was dangerous. In an act of desperation brought on by constant pain, he did something he initially thought was off-the-wall. He spent $1,000 on filters that, much like surge protectors on a computer, clean up fluctuations and surges in the electricity flowing in the wires around his home.[/blockquote] It never occured to him that it might be about $1,000 cheaper to turn off his electricity for a day or two and see how he felt?
Making you think you're crazy is a billion dollar industry.
"'If electricity were flowing in a constant way, most people's bodies would likely adapt, but with all the interference from modern devices, the resulting fields are too variable for people to get used to.'"
Call this science? what a load of bollocks. This is what you get when you need to print a newspaper every day.
I wonder how many got sick(er) from reading this article. Not from the typos or from sitting in front of a computer, but the thought that practicly anything that runs on power makes one sick.
The article brings forwards subjective opinions and stories about individuals, and barely touches organized blind testing. Rumours are started this way, but on the other hand, newspapers are organized rumours.
I don't believe the hype.(Which is a "leading" statement.)
In Soviet Norway, the møøse bites you.
It's psychosomatic. Our RF exposure is only marginally greater when close to devices such as WiFi hotspots because of the immense amount of background EMI from TV and Radio broadcasts, satellites, CB and business radios, power transformers and a million other things. A car produces vast amounts of EMI due to the 15,000v+ HT unit used for sparking. Electricity substations have similar effects. People with your 'condition' seem to be very selective in what seems to have an effect on them, generally only being made 'sick' by obvious and media-hyped sources of EM radiation. Going anywhere near an airport should be next to impossible for you thanks to the powerful radio systems used for communication and RADAR.
If electromagnetic fields at the sort of levels we have in our
enviroment really harmed people then as soon as a bolt of lightning
went off in a nearby storm all these "victims" should keel over and
die given the amount of EM power a single bolt puts out. But you
never hear someone saying "storms make me ill" (unless they got a direct
hit of course!). Far more trendy to make out they're some victim of
modern techno society so they can either kids themselves its someone
elses fault they're ill (and nothing to do with hypocondria or some
other mental condition) or so that they can jump on the compensation
bandwagon.
According to NewScientist, studies so far haven't found anyone claiming these symptoms who can correctly recognise when these things are turned on. In studies so far, people who claim they're sensitive to this end up showing symptoms when they're exposed to something that's just a LED in a box, and then don't show symptoms when they're in a room where the widget is hidden.
This gives two possibilities:
1) Your symptoms are psychosomatic. Which doesn't mean they don't exist, but there's no physical link between EM radiation and your symptoms, so there's no physical solution possible.
2) You are an exception and genuinely *are* sensitive to EM radiation. In which case you should be contacting the various researchers into this, bcos you may be able to provide the evidence that so far is lacking. You can't guarantee that government would do anything about it, but you might get your symptoms recognised as a genuine medical condition.
I suggest you get your friends to help with experiments. A good initial test would be to have one of your friends turn his wireless network on or off when you come round, and keep notes of the state in a diary. When you come to the door, if you're sensitive then you should be able to notice the wireless network signal, so write down in your diary what you think its state is. Then you compare notes after a month or so. That'll give you some feedback about how your symptoms relate to things. Obviously this might be prone to interference from PCs or TVs on at the same time, but it's a start.
I'm not going to prejudge your specific case. All I can offer is the existing evidence, which says that so far no-one's been found who can do this. As a natural sceptic, I'd personally go with the evidence until someone shows otherwise, but we've got to give people every opportunity to disprove the existing evidence, otherwise it becomes faith-based not evidence-based, and we all know where that bullshit lands you.
Grab.
Double
Blind
Controlled
Trial
Sean Ellis
Follow OfQuack's antics on Twitter.
Put stories like this in the comedy section, where they belong.
"Physics is to math as sex is to masturbation." -R. Feynman
I am surprised by the amount of folk slamming this subject.
It is more than obvious now that we there is a serious problem with some people having a suceptability to certian frequencies and that those frequencies may not be the same for everyone affected. The fact that the power companies do not agree is to be expected.
Can you get cancer from living underneath pylons? yep, can transformer noise stress out a tinitus sufferer? yes, do dreams involve electricity? yes, does electricity produce magnetic fields? yes, does the brain work using minute amounts of electricity? yes, can certain light frequencies hurt some people but not others? yes, can sound waves make you sick? yes. The list is endless. What many ignorant people do not realise is some of the folk involved in researching the effects of possible EMF problems belong to various EPA authorities who are the same people who bring you clean water to drink and other little things your life depends upon, all so you can scorn the unknown on
Some Asperger syndrome sufferers, synesthesia sufferers and many others are still not fully recognised as having legitimate problems with some frequencies of the electromagnetic spectrum in some countries or by some health bodies at gorment level, so why is it so surprising the average person does not believe EMFs can interfear with the workings of the human senses.
The fact that experiments may not show true correlation for specific frequencies does not disprove the problems.
I think there is a tendancy for some people to imagine they have EMF problems but remember that EMFs is a massive subject covering many different things. Before you go thinking about what affects the electromagnetic spectrum can have on human flesh and human electrical activity in the brain at least find out about the existing established problems, anomilies, uses, unknowns and weapons that involve such technologies before slagging off people who say they suffer problems from them. A vast amount of money has been sunk into making some of these technologies safe to use and even more money has been spent researching weaponry that depend upon them.
If you are going to question the viability of experiments done using magnetic feilds on the brain remember to check if the minute variations in the natural magnetic fluctuations of the enviroment have been screened like when proper brain scan experiments are carried out since you might not have a sensitive enough experiment to draw a real conclusion from, and check to see if it is a health institute trying to prove a problem or a power company trying to disprove a problem.
Open your mind... oh, hang on a miniute, it's already open is it not?
Also, I advise all tinfoil wearers to purchase my new "acme stickon copper tinfoil mobile earth strip thingy" for ultimate peace of mind.
Seriously, Pylons can cause cancer and there is a mass of stuff we do not know about EMFs so don't be so quick to call people loonies, they may be trying to tell you something. Dreams are electric after all.
Don't even think of putting these 200ft pylons through Beauly or you guys will find out exactly what direct action is all about.
http://www.scottish-southern.co.uk/news/BeaulyDen
I don't normally bother replying to ACs, but I'll make an exception. The article lacks evidence, a hypothesis for causation, uses inaccurate analogies, uses pseudo-scientific terms ('clean' electricity?) and ignores the other massive sources of RF interference in the home such as cars driving past.
Oh, and don't forget the varying ages, conditions, and characteristics of the different distribution systems.
I am not suggesting you buy into the articles every claim, or even that any of it is "true" in the end, but to be so dismissive in the face of such complexity is almost antithetical to the basic tenants of science upon which many of you are basing your derision.
Towards the end of the article, they note that 50% of the people in a supposedly blind test noticed improvements when EM filters were in place. That means that 50% did not notice improvements. Or, put a bit more plainly, the results were indistinguishable from random coin flips. (Of course we'd need more information about the design of the test to understand the results that were reported, but I find the result less than believeable.)
Another indicator that this article has to be taken with a huge grain of salt: the only experts whom the article cites as opposed to the results of the research are the representatives of the utility companies. This implies, of course, that the only opponents to this viewpoint have an economic agenda.
I expect to hear more about this new malady. The first wave will be a proliferation of quack devices to "filter out harmful harmonic energies." The second wave would be pointless regulations imposed by local governments. The third wave may very well be lawsuits against utilty companies for harming the US populace...