Wireless Radiation from Google Glass: Is There a Risk? - See more at: http://www.pongresearch.com/blog/wireless-radiation-google-glass-risk#sthash.hCPP5zrs.dpuf

Google Glass ushers in a new trend in wireless devices. A wearable computer with head mounted display, Google Glass captures a lot of attention with its design, functions and life-style implication. Though it is not yet on sale, some people have raised concerns that Google Glass introduces new types of radiation exposure risks due to the way in which it is worn. This article explores the implications of on-body wireless devices on radiation exposure.

Like all wireless devices, Google Glass emits electromagnetic radiation, called non-ionizing radiation, in the radio-frequency (RF) range in operation. The prototype Google Glass has Wi-Fi and Bluetooth antennas but no cellular antenna. Although there is still no consensus on whether this type of radiation is harmful to human body, growing scientific evidence shows correlation between wireless radiation and adverse health effects, including but not limited to brain tumors, impaired brain function, sperm damage and behavioral problems in children. In May 2011, the World Health Organization (WHO) classified radio-frequency electromagnetic radiation as “possibly carcinogenic to humans” based on increased risk of brain tumors.

Two Unique Risk Concerns

Google Glass represents a fundamentally new type of wireless device. Unlike, cell phones which are used next to the head only when making phone calls, Google Glass is designed to be worn on the user’s head in the same position all day long. The novel way in which Google Glass is used brings two unique risk concerns with regard to its radiation exposure.

Firstly, scientific evidence indicates that cumulative exposure time plays a very important role in evaluating the health risks of wireless radiation. For example, the Interphone study one of the largest international study on cell phone use and brain tumors coordinated by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), shows no risk for general users (average 2 to 2.5 hours cell phone use a month) but a 40% increase in brain tumor glioma for “heavy” cell phone users – defined in the study as 1,640 hours or more cumulative cell phone use, or 30-minute daily use over a 10-year period of time (Interphone Report, 2010). A 2011 pooled analysis by Swedish researchers indicates a dose response that the risk of brain tumors (both glioma and astrocytoma) increased significantly for every 100 hr of cumulative exposure (Hardell et al, 2011). Other reported cumulative biological effects from exposure include effects on the Central Nervous System (CNS) and DNA damage (Lai, 1998). Google Glass is designed to be worn on the user’s head all day long. The potential cumulative exposure time from Glass is expected to be much longer than from cell phones and therefore the potential health risk for Glass could be much higher than cell phones.

Secondly, scientific evidence indicates that the laterality of cell phone use – whether it is used primarily on one side of the head (ipsilateral use) or on both sides (contralateral use), also plays an important role in evaluating the risk of brain tumors. For example, the Interphone study shows that among heavy users (≥ 1,640 hr), ipsilateral users had a nearly doubled risk of glioma (compared to 40% increase for all) and tumors were more likely to occur on the side of the head most used for calling. The higher risk for ipsilateral exposure was also confirmed in other high-quality epidemiological studies (Hardell et al., 2006, 2009; Khurana et al., 2009). Since wireless energy absorption in brain tissue is non-uniform, “hotspots” are formed in certain area of the brain close to the transmitting antenna. It is the “hotspots” that are most problematic when it comes to the health risk of wireless radiation. Google Glass is designed to be worn in the same position all the time and the same part of the brain in close vicinity to Glass’s transmitting antenna will be subject to the highest localized exposure all the time. As a result, the long-term ipsilateral exposure could give Google Glass users a much higher risk of brain tumors and/or CNS impairment than mobile phone users.

Understanding SAR

The amount of RF radiation absorbed by a user’s head and body is evaluated by its Specific Absorption Rate (SAR). SAR is defined as the power absorbed per mass of body tissue when exposed to wireless radiation. In the United States, the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) sets the SAR limit for public exposure to be 1.6 W/kg averaged over 1 gram of tissue. All wireless devices must be evaluated for their SAR values before going to market.

According to the SAR Evaluation Report for Google Glass by UL CCS, the highest 1-g SAR in head for Glass is measured to be 1.110 W/kg, which comes from its Wi-Fi antenna. Since Google Glass has a SAR level below the safety limit of 1.6 W/kg, it is considered “safe” according to the FCC safety guideline.

The current SAR standard of 1.6 W/kg was based on short-term or acute exposure (30 to 60 minutes of exposure) studies of animal behavioral disruption in the 1970s. There is scientific evidence showing that a longer exposure time at a lower level of RF radiation can also result in animal behavioral disruption and other biological effects (BioInitiative Working Group, 2007, 2012). However, long-term or chronic exposure to RF radiation has never been assessed in the current SAR standards. Therefore, one can reasonably argue that the current safety standards may not provide sufficient protection for Google Glass users.

How to Reduce Exposure?

Due to the unique way in which Google Glass is used, when it comes to reducing radiation exposure, most expert-recommended precautionary approaches for cell phone radiation won’t work for Glass. For example, the widely recommended “distance is your best friend” approach is not applicable for Glass – Glass users cannot hold Glass away from their heads, use a speakerphone or wear a headset; neither can they switch sides frequently or text.

The good news is that Pong has a patented technology that is independently proven to reduce exposure to both cellular and Wi-Fi radiation from wireless devices while optimizing the devices’ performance. For example, when pairing with iPad Mini, Pong’s technology can reduce Wi-Fi radiation exposure by 73%. Pong’s technology could be readily adapted for Google Glass to provide a precautionary solution for Glass users.

- See more at: http://www.pongresearch.com/blog/wireless-radiation-google-glass-risk#sthash.hCPP5zrs.dpuf

The effects of EMF radiation on the growth of tadpoles

In 2010, the noted environmental scientist ALFONSO BALMORI, studied the effects of electromagnetic radiation on the development and growth of tadpoles in the small town of Valladolid in Spain, exposing the eggs and tadpoles of the common frog (Rana temporaria) to several mobile phone antennae.

The tadpoles were placed in two tanks with oxygen and food every day, which were set out on a fifth floor terrace at a distance of 140 meters from four base station located opposite.  The base stations were on a roof of an eight story high building.

In both experimental and control groups (n+70 in each) the experiment lasted two months, from eggs phase until an advanced phase of tadpole prior to metamorphosis.  The control group was in a Faraday cage (metallic shielding component: EMC-reinforment fabrics 97442 Marburg Technic)

The studies were conducted in the field and the results were startling.

Several studies on effects of electromagnetic fields on amphibians have been conducted in laboratories.  When amphibian eggs and embyos and Ambytoma maculatum and Rana sylvatica were exposed to high magnetic fields (6.3 x 10³ G), a brief treatment of early embryos produced several types of abnormalities, including mocrocephaly, retarded (abnormal) growth, edema, and scoliosis (Levengood, 1969).

Adult newts (Notophalmus viridescens) exposed to a pulsed electromagnetic field (1 T and 0.15V/m, approx) for the first 30 days post forlimbs were amputated and produced more abnormalities in their skeletal patterns than the native limbs or the normal regenerates.  12% exhibited unique abnormalities not observed in either the native of regenerate limb population.  These forelimbs demonstrated one or more of the following gross defects: acheira (lack of carpus and digits), aphalangia, or oligodactylia _loss of digits) and well as carpel bone and long bone (radius and ulna) abnormalities (Landesman and Douglas, 1990).

Exposed frog tadpoles (Rana temporaria) developed under electromagnetic field (50Hz, 260 A/m) show an increase in mortality.  Exposed tadpoles developed more slowly and less synchronously than control tadpoles and remained at the early stages for longer.  Tadpoles developed allergies and EMF caused changes in their blood counts (Grefner et al., 1998).  These results are consistent with the observations of this work.

Deformities and disappearance of amphibians and other organisms is part of the global biodiversity crisis (Blaustein and Johnson, 2003).  Some authors consider that the  electromagnetic pollution is destroying nature (Warnke, 2007; Firstenberg, 1997), Balmori (2006) proposed that electromagnetic pollution (in the microwave and radiofrequency range) along with other environmental factors is a possible cause for the decline and deformations of some wild amphibian populations exposed.  The results of this experiment conducted in a real situation in the city of Valladolid (Spain) indicate that the tadpoles that live near such facilities, exposed to relatively low levels of environmental electromagnetic fields (1.8 – 3.5 V/m) may suffer adverse effects (low coordination of movements, asynchronous growth, and high mortality), and this may be a cause (together with other environmental factors) of decline of amphibian populations.

The original paper can be found here: http://www.ct.gov/csc/lib/csc/pendingproceeds/docket_409/inlandwetland/409-iw_exh69-79.pdf#page=2

TSA Finally Investigating Cancer Risk of X-Ray Body Scanners

Lingering questions on the safety of backscatters have forced the TSA to commission an independent study.

Following months of congressional pressure, the Transportation Security Administration has agreed to contract with the National Academy of Sciences to study the health effects of the agency's X-ray body scanners. But it is unclear if the academy will conduct its own tests of the scanners or merely review previous studies.

The machines, known as backscatters, were installed in airports nationwide after the failed underwear bombing on Christmas Day 2009 to screen passengers for explosives and other nonmetallic weapons. But they have been criticized by some prominent scientists because they expose the public to a small amount of ionizing radiation, a form of energy that can cause cancer.

The scanners were the subject of a 2011 ProPublica series, which found that the TSA hadglossed over the small cancer risk posed by even low doses of radiation. The stories also showed that the United States was almost alone in the world in X-raying passengers and that the Food and Drug Administration had gone against its own advisory panel, which recommended the agency set a federal safety standard for security X-rays.

The TSA maintains that the backscatters are safe and that they emit a low dose of X-rays equivalent to the radiation a passenger would receive in two minutes of flying at typical cruising altitude.

Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, the top Republican on the Senate homeland security committee, introduced a bill mandating such a test earlier this year.

"I am pleased that at long last the Transportation Security Administration has heeded my call to commission an independent examination into the possible health risks travelers and TSA employees may face during airport screenings," she said in a statement Monday night.

According to a brief contract notice posted on a government procurement website, the National Academy of Sciences will convene a committee to review previous studies to determine if the dose from the scanners complies with existing health and safety standards and to evaluate the TSA's methods for testing and maintaining the machines.

Collins' office said the language in the contract notice wasn't final and that the study would be consistent with the senator's calls for an independent investigation. TSA spokesman David Castelveter added, "Administrator [John] Pistole has made a commitment to conduct the study and TSA is following through on that commitment."

Still, it's unclear how much the study that the TSA is proposing will add to what's known about the machines, mainly because it's not known if the National Academy of Sciences will conduct new tests or confine itself to examining previous studies. In the past, TSA has contracted with the Food and Drug Administration, the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, and the Army Public Health Command to test the scanners. All three studies found the radiation was in line with a voluntary standard set by an industry panel that included FDA scientists.

A 2012 study by the Department of Homeland Security's independent watchdog supported the findings but based its report on previous tests performed by the TSA and the other groups.

This fall, the TSA began replacing the X-ray body scanners with millimeter-wave machines—a technology radiation experts consider safer—at most of its biggest airports. The TSA said the move was done to speed up lines and that the X-ray scanners would eventually be redeployed at smaller airports.

Here's a side-by-side comparison of the two types of scanners.

Europe has prohibited the X-ray scanners while Israel, which is influential in the security world, has recently begun testing them.

The TSA study will not address privacy, cultural, or legal concerns that have been raised by the scans, the contract notice said.

This story first appeared on the ProPublicawebsite.

Source: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/12/tsa-investigation-cancer-risk-x-ray-body-scanners

Eleanor R. Adair, Microwave Proponent, Dies at 86

Edward A. Ornelas

Eleanor R. Adair, a scientist who studied microwave radiation, at a test chamber at an Air Force base in San Antonio in 2000.

Eleanor R. Adair, a scientist who spent decades exposing monkeys and eventually people (including herself) to microwave radiation to determine whether it posed serious health risks — she concluded, emphatically and somewhat controversially, that it did not — died on April 20 in Hamden, Conn. She was 86.

The cause was complications of a stroke, her daughter, Margaret Adair Quinn, said.

In the early 1970s, Dr. Adair, who had done her doctoral work in sensory psychology, was pursuing an interesting but not necessarily provocative topic: how people and animals react physiologically to external heat sources. Yet over the next three decades — after her research led her to study heat generated through microwave radiation, which is used in microwave ovens and emitted at low levels by things like cellphones and electrical transmission lines — Dr. Adair became an increasingly prominent and firm voice of assurance that microwave radiation posed no health risk.

“All the emphasis that we need more research on power line fields, cellphones, police radar — this involves billions of dollars that could be much better spent on other health problems,” Dr. Adair said in an interview with The New York Times in 2001. “Because there is really nothing there.”

For some people close to the issue, those were fighting words.

Even as numerous studies have found that microwave ovens are safe and many scientists say there is no evidence that cellphones cause cancer or other health problems, the rising use of cellphones, wireless Internet signals and some medical and military devices has continued to raise questions about their risk. Last year, a panel of the World Health Organization listed microwave radiation as “possibly carcinogenic.” In March, the Federal Communications Commission announced that it would review its standards for cellphone use for the first time since 1996.

Some scientists do not use the term microwave radiation because they are concerned it is misleading and scares people unnecessarily. Microwave radiation is far weaker than the radiation in X-rays or gamma rays.

Advocates for more research count Dr. Adair in to a camp that focuses too much on heat or thermal effects from microwaves and is too quick to dismiss other ways microwaves might affect health.

“There’s something going on, and the question is what that is and whether it’s dangerous,” said Louis Slesin, the editor of Microwave News, a Web site that is often skeptical of the role industry and the military play in influencing health standards related to the issue. “Don’t let anyone tell you they know the answer to that question.”

Although Dr. Adair said she did not receive money from cellphone makers or industries whose products released microwave radiation, she served for five years late in her career as a senior scientist at the Air Force Research Laboratory in San Antonio. The Air Force uses radar that emits microwaves.

Dr. Adair was indisputably an innovator in studying microwave radiation, work she began in the mid-1970s while a fellow at the John B. Pierce Laboratory in New Haven. First with squirrel monkeys and then with human volunteers, she placed subjects in a chamber into which she released relatively high levels of microwaves for about 45 minutes, followed by a cool-down period. She focused on what impact the heat generated by microwaves might have — and she said she never found much more than perspiration. She said the monkeys and the people mostly enjoyed the experience.

“Particularly if the environment is cool, they love it when the field comes on,” she told The Times. She said: “It is very easy to sense it and it feels good. If they are in a warm environment, and the field is strong they may start to sweat and they may feel quite uncomfortable. They always have an option of getting out of the chamber at any time, saying, ‘I’ve had enough.’ ”

Richard A. Tell, who consults for cellular companies and other industries and who served with Dr. Adair on a committee of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers that helps set standards for permissible microwave levels, said she “did the first and only studies that have ever been done so far in which humans were studied under controlled conditions.”

Eleanor Campbell Reed was born on Nov. 28, 1926, in Arlington, Mass. Her father owned a Dodge dealership near Boston and her mother worked as a fashion illustrator before she married. She graduated from Mount Holyoke College in 1948 and received her doctorate from the University of Wisconsin in 1955. In 1952 she married Robert K. Adair, who would later become a prominent physicist at Yale. Mr. Adair became involved in his wife’s work in her later years and sometimes appeared with her at conferences.

Besides her daughter, survivors include her husband; her son, Douglas; two grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

“She would always be the first human subject in all of her experiments,” including those involving exposure to microwaves, her daughter said. “She said it was absolutely the most comfortable heat that she ever experienced. She described it once as like having the sun come out — you just suddenly feel all warm and cozy. You’re warm on the inside, not overly hot on the outside.”

Sourfce: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/06/science/eleanor-r-adair-microwave-safety-researcher-dies-at-86.html?_r=0

Junior High Students Investigate Exposure to Wireless Radiation in School

Seventh and eighth grade students from the Dearcroft/West Wind Montessori School (Oakwille, Ontario, Canada), assisted by Citizens 4 Safe Technology (C4ST), are leading a project to learn about wireless radiation from everyday devices in order to develop a plan to reduce exposure to harmful wireless radiation in schools and in the community.

May this be the first of many schools educating and empowering a generation for change.

Students Investigating Exposure to Wireless Radiation in School 

Citizens 4 Safe Technology, 17 April 2013

Like most of us, students at Dearcroft/West Wind Montessori School are being exposed to wireless radiation, and they want to know how it is affecting them. Today, grade seven and eight students from the Oakville Montessori School are leading a project to learn about wireless radiation from everyday devices, such as smartphones and laptops. Students conducted an investigation of their school, measuring the amount of radiation that they are typically exposed to on a daily basis. Students and teachers are now working with members of a local community group, Citizens 4 Safe Technology (C4ST), to develop a plan to reduce their exposure to harmful wireless radiation.

To see the effects of devices in their own school, Dearcroft/West Wind Montessori students used hand-held radiation detection meters to investigate where radiation was strongest in their school. With an EMR technician on hand leading the exercise, students and staff alike were shocked to learn that their everyday devices like computers, cell phones, televisions, and even

Wi-Fi internet, expose them to wireless radiation emissions. Jay G., one of the students at the presentation, said he found it was “quite surprising about the radiation levels and how they can come from everyday devices.” Another student, Rory G., remarked that it was interesting how he was one of only four students in the class of seventeen who didn’t own cell phones.

In addition to helping with the investigation, C4ST was on hand to further educate Dearcroft/West Wind students about the risks of excess exposure to wireless radiation. Today’s presenter, Rob Metzinger, President of Safe Living Technologies, Inc., said: “Those of us who are adults went half our lives with little wireless exposure – children will have higher exposure in these modern times. Never before has a generation inherited a world where exposure to radiation is so prolific and pervasive.”

In the coming weeks, Dearcroft/West Wind students will also tour their neighborhood to measure radiation from cell towers. Students will then put together a plan to reduce their exposure to radiation in their school and their community. Gord Phippen, Director of Dearcroft/West Wind Montessori Schools said: “We are pleased to be learning along with the students about the inherent safety issues of cellular technology and environmental exposure to wireless radiation. We look forward to taking steps to reduce voluntary exposure in our daily lives.”

C4ST is a not-for-profit, volunteer-based organization that is concerned about the health and safety risks of wireless radiation. Its coalition, led by a team of citizens, parents and experts, seeks to educate and inform Canadians about the danger of exposure to unsafe levels of radiation from technology. C4ST’s objective is to work with all levels of government to create healthier communities for children and families from coast to coast.

Celebrating its 15th year, Dearcroft/West Wind Montessori School is a two-year model that prepares students for success in high school and the world beyond. Inspired by the life work of Maria Montessori, the program provides an integrated, experience-based curriculum intended to stimulate students’ minds. While drawing on diverse educational experiences, the program also meets or exceeds the key expectations of the Ontario Government Curriculum Outline for grade seven and eight, with emphasis on preparation for high school. Collaborative and motivated, students emerge from West Wind Junior High with a strong academic foundation and a genuine strength of character.

For More Information Contact:

Citizens 4 Safe Technology
info@c4st.org

http://www.c4st.org/images/documents/C4ST-WWJH-Press-Release2.pdf

Source: http://mieuxprevenir.blogspot.ch/2013/04/canada-junior-high-students-in-oakville.html

Bluetooth: Is Its Radiation Harmful?

It is a matter of concern for many people that the carrier waves used by Bluetooth´s transmitters use the same frequency range as microwave owens (Bluetooth uses 2.402 GHz to 2.480 GHz). What does it feel like to get in the path of such waves?

Actually, the transmitting power is far too weak to be noticeable for humans. Moreover, the radiation is not concentrated in a beam, but dispersed more or less in all directions. When using a wireless phone or a Bluetooth device, some of the emitted RF energy is absorbed by the body. The penetration depth is about 1.5 cm at 2450 MHz (about 2.5 cm at 900 MHz), which means that the absorption is very superficial. The main absorption mechanism is fieldinduced rotation of polar molecules (for example H2O), which generates heat through molecular "friction".

Heating by means of radio frequencies is possible over a broad frequency range. This is taken advantage of in microwave ovens at 2450 MHz using very high power levels (up to 1,000,000 times the power used by Bluetooth devices). However, 2450 MHz is not a resonance frequency of water. But does exposure to Bluetooth RF emission heat the human body? No it does not. The output power of a Bluetooth-enabled device is far too low to cause any detectable temperature increase. Again, in comparison, the maximum increase from handheld cellular phones is less than 0.1°C.

There is, however, another side to this; some people are demonstrably over-sensitive to electromagnetic radiations. Long exposure to strong fields make some individuals so sensitive, after a few years, that they can no longer be near such fields without considerable discomfort. Bluetooth fits into a general development pattern where antennas for GSM-transmission and other sources of electromagnetic radiations become more and more prevalent in our cities. The future will show whether this is a healthy development.

Source: http://www.swedetrack.com/images/bluet05.htm

How to protect yourself from Electromagnetic stress

I am a stressed man, and who can blame me? I have a kid on the way, trying to manage all my debts and at the same time I read and write about all the dangers radiation and EMF pose to us. In addition to this, I’m pretty sure all of the excess Electromagnetic energy being produced can’t be doing much good.

Let’s think about it for a minute, ten years ago, there was hardly any wireless technology out, the occasional phone and television remote being the only things that immediately pop into mind, as well as the few overhead power cables.

Now, let’s compare that to these days, we have Mobile phones, Mp3 Players and Laptops all of which are producing electromagnetic fields. A tangle of wires hang over our heads, telephone cables, power lines and the such, all leaking their own EMF’s. Towering telephone masts and Cell phone towers loom over us, showering us with radiation. In short, compared to then, there is so much more technology projecting waves that damage us on a cellular level.

I’m not sure about anyone else, but ten years ago, I felt much healthier and a lot less stressed (this may have been because I was 10 but who knows…) now a possible cause of all this is the aforementioned EMF, which constantly bombard our bodies. These fields actively attack our cells, damaging them on a molecular level, causing us to become fatigued, our metabolism to slow and lower our resistances to disease. And because of all this we become more and more stressed, so they key to alleviating this stress falls into making our bodies more resistant to the damage these EMF’s are unavoidably doing.

The most obvious way to combat the damage is to minimize the amount of time we expose ourselves to these EMF’s. By spending less time using our phones and other wireless electronics, we can decrease strength of EMF’s we are exposed to.

As an example, I play a lot of video games, mainly on the Xbox, so I was regularly holding onto a wireless controller for several hours on end, when I started to read about EMF’s however I immediately went out and bought a wired control. It wasn't much, but I did feel a very slight improvement in my health, whereas I used to feel run down after a couple of hours of playing, I now felt fine, well worth the money.

Another obvious way of minimizing the strength of the EMF’s, is to make sure you live far away from Cell phone towers and other powerful EMF producers, it may seem a trivial matter but it will make all the difference. In addition, by wearing magnetic jewellery you can help to counteract some EMF fields, a simple magnetic bracelet can make a world of difference.

You know how metal conducts electricity correct? Well

many of us have metal filling, and the EMF’s react with them the way you would expect it to. When the EMF passes through your body, the metallic fillings conduct trace amounts of the electromagnetic pulse, and does so repeatedly, gathering its own EMF overtime, producing it in your own mouth and I need not describe how that is damaging. If you can have these replaced with tooth-colored composite fillings, you should as it will lead to less damage from EMF overtime.

By improving your immune system your cells will naturally be more resistant to the damage the EMF’s will do. There are dozens of ways to improve your natural immune system, drinking lots of water and eating raw vegetables are both simple ways to give yourself a little boost. Upping your vitamin intake will help in more ways than one, as will taking several Probiotics over the course of a week.

To continue on the theme of Probiotics, the bodily stress caused by the EMF’s will cause your body to power through the good bacteria in your body, causing you to become more and more susceptible to diseases and illnesses, so by using Probiotics you can replenish the good bacteria at rate that should hopefully match the rate that the EMF’s cause them to die off.

When your body is regularly hit by powerful EMF’s it causes the micro-organisms in your body to produce an excess of neurotoxins as a response to the mass of minor infections your body has to start to defend itself against and due to the prior damage already caused, your body cannot cope with the mass of neurotoxins now flooding your system. So be sure to regularly purge your body of toxins, or the build up will cause further cell determination which in turn causes your body to create more neurotoxins, a never ending cycle.

Remember when your parents used to say, “Don’t sit to close to the TV, or your eyes will go square” well, they weren't far off. Newer televisions produce a much stronger EMF’s than older televisions, so sitting further away will cause the EMF produced by the TV to deal less damage to your body. The same idea also goes for computer screens, even now as I write this I’m leaning back in my chair, a kind of unconscious way of minimizing the damage done, other than sitting across the room of course.

As I mentioned in my previous post “Is an Apple that healthy?” your room should be one of the cleanest areas in your home, both physically and on a molecular level. So here are a few tips to decrease the amount of Radiation and the strength of the EMF’s in your room:

• Remove any electrical wires than run under your bed.
• Avoid having wireless devices in your room.
• Substitute automatic electronic devices for manual non-electronic variants.
• Swap any cordless phones for corded versions.

So with only a few alterations in your room, you can massively alter the strength of the EMF’s where you sleep. Never underestimate the damage that can be done whilst you sleep, because you aren't moving the EMF’s affect you far more directly, damaging the cells over the time you sleep.

With a few of these changes, you should be able to lessen the amount of EMF that effect you, which will be minimize the damage the done by the electromagnetic fields that run rampant across our landscapes. On a secondary note, there have been proven methods that can minimize or sometimes even neutralize EMF’s harmful effects, so in time, a more widespread way of neutralize the damage may become available. But until then, I hope the tips I have given you prove to be helpful!

Is an Apple really that healthy? The Radiation Damage Caused by Apple Products.

In the current day and age, almost everyone is running around with an Apple product hanging at their hip. Be it the “Brand new” iPhone, or the latest incarnation of iPod, or the top of the line iPad. Apple has been proclaiming itself the greatest innovator in the world for years, but the important question is, “How safe are their products?”

To measure the amount of ambient radiation an object produces, we need to use a RF meter, which scans a nearby area to determine how many Microwatts of radiation are being generated per square metre. For a more educated estimation of the dangers being posed by these machines, I should explain in deeper detail the danger levels related to microwatts/m2.

• Less than 0.10 microwatts/m2 provide no risk of danger, or concern as cosmic background radiation (Of which we are all affected) remains in these levels.
• 0.10-10 microwatts/m2 is of slight concern, authorities in the field of radiation recommend that sleeping areas be kept below 10 microwatts/m2 for the safety of the occupants.
• 10 – 1000 microwatts/m2  Can be considered a risk to health, with 100 microwatts/m2 falling into the average scale for living areas within a home and the proposed safety limit for Europe, levels higher than this considered hazardous to human cells.
• More than 1000 microwatts/m2 is an incredibly dangerous amount of ambient radiation, a minimum of ten times the maximum safe human limit.

With these base danger levels established, we can begin the test to see the average microwatts/m2 output of several apple products.

Apple iPhone:

The ambient Microwatts/m2 level of the iPhone being used in this test, is 14.8, placing it in an area of slight concern, not however, in immediate danger, keep in mind that this level will also be affected by the ambient Microwatts/m2 of the room. Upon turning the devices Wifi on however, the levels jumped sporadically, increasing in bursts every few seconds. At this point, the lowest level displayed was 1.092, which was periodically lower than the phones average ambient Microwatts/m2, however this low level lasted less than a few seconds before leaping up into the hundreds. Within the first few second of turning the Wifi on, the Microwatts/m2 registered at 853.0, more than 8 times the maximum safe limit! Topping off at 990.7 Microwatts/m2, the iPhone proves to be a highly dangerous device.

In call, the Microwatts/m2 will tend towards the upper scale of 1000, keeping in mind that when in call, many people will hold their phone close to their head, which can and will cause the cells in your cranial cavity to rapidly heat, causing untold damage.

Apple IPod:

Being the same device as an iPhone, simply lacking the apparatus needed to make or receive phone calls, the iPod output similar Microwatts/m2 levels. When the Wifi is switched on, the iPod began to generate dangerous amounts of radiation, causing cells nearby to heat in a similar fashion to the iPhone. However, there is a single defining factor that divides the iPod from the iPhone, location. Traditionally, the iPod spends far more time in ones pocket than the iPhone, seeming as the default setting of the iPods Wifi is ON, the device is sending out levels of Microwatts/m2 measuring in the hundreds constantly, whilst affecting the entire mid section of the carrier, ranging from the stomach to the genitals.

Apple iPad:

At the start of the test you can see the iPad is producing no ambient Radiation level, a good sign to start the test on. As the device is switched on, the Radiation level slowly increases; however, it does so within safe levels. The iPads Microwatts/m2 levels reach their highest at 33.30, far below the maximum safe levels for Human use. This does comfortably place the iPad as the safest of the three devices being used on a regular basis, which in my mind, is a surprise as I personally expected the iPad to be generating the highest ambient radiation level, but this is a good show of an uneducated guess being highly inaccurate.

After thoughts:

After running a test on each, we can safely judge in the inbuilt risks of using these devices, with each kicking a significant amount of radiation out, with the iPhone generating a truly dangerous level of ambient radiation. Whilst it is known that all phone companies, (Apple included) package each phone with a small safety leaflet that roughly states “When the device is in use, hold at least four inches from the head”. This demonstrates the company is aware of the innate risks a mobile phone produces; yet, even holding the device a few inches from the head is not enough, as the measurement “Microwatts/m2” demonstrates, these devices project Radiation waves with a radius of at least a squared meter.

In the end, I can answer the question I posed myself and you, the reader, at the beginning of this article. “Are Apple products safe?” the answer being, on the whole, No.

The iPhone product, is the most sold device that Apple produces, also making up 70% of all owned mobile phones, with roughly 2100000000 calls being made daily across the world on them. Each and every call generating dangerous levels of radiation for an average time of 3 minutes and 15 seconds each time, so it is evident the amount of damage that is being done.

My personal recommendation, if you must own an Apple product, try and keep to the iPad, as it is simply the safest of each device.

Although, to be fair to Apple, it is not just them producing mobiles and other devices that produce exceedingly dangerous levels of radiation, all mobile companies produce this cloud of radiation that is damaging us, and none of them seem to making much of an effort to minimize the radiation levels that currently plague our world.

I hope that this article has been of use and will help guide you to a slightly cleaner, Radiation free lifestyle. 

EMF - An Invisible Killer

Madame Marie Curie

In 1903 Madame Curie won the Nobel prize for her pioneering work on radioactivity, which she mistakenly considered harmless to humans.  We now know that her premature death from a rare blood disease was directly related to her exposure to radiation.  Lead was a common ingredient in house paint and other house-hold items until scientists fully understood the deadly effects of lead poisoning.  Until the 1980’s the US Federal Government was reluctant to stand up to the powerful tobacco industry even though millions had died of smoking related diseases.

Let’s face it, some times we’re slow to recognize danger when its not painfully obvious.  And the government is reluctant to take action even after the danger has been exposed.

Unfortunately, many people suffer and die before we eventually get around to dealing with many potential risks.  And in spite of the fact we have curtailed smoking, regulated harmful pesticides in agriculture, reduced the kinds of chemicals we use in food and household products, decreased dangerous toxins that pollute our air, many diseases are on the rise, including Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s and some forms of cancer.  Why?

Well many scientists believe we’re under assault by another form of pollution we may have underestimated.  Invisible, odourless, silent and potentially deadly, this form of pollution is everywhere.  You can’t escape it.  EMF’s or Electro Magnetic Frequencies are produced by most electrical devices, appliances and the high voltage power lines that surround us.  Electro magnetic radiation emitted by most wireless devices and microwaves, the same energy frequencies we use to cook food in microwave ovens.

But your microwave oven isn’t the only source of pulsing microwave radiation that assaults you every minute of every day.  Television, telephone and computer signals are transmitted by microwaves.  Even some automatic garage door openers use microwaves to operate.  Some environmentalists call this proliferation of EMF’s, electro pollution.  And United States agency warns that the levels Americans are exposed to every day, without even being aware of it, may be dangerous.

The fact is, you, your loved ones, you children, are exposed to one hundred million times more EMF’s and microwaves than your grandparents.  And now, one source of electro-pollution has become an increasingly integral part of our lives.  Up close and personal; the cell phone.

In 1993 the first lawsuit was filed against the cell phone industry by a man who claimed his wife’s brain tumour was caused by cell phone use; a brain tumour shaped exactly like the cell phone antenna.  The resulting publicity prompted the cell phone industry to fund a twenty five million dollar study to prove that cell phones were safe.  They hired Dr George Carlo, a highly respected public health scientist to conduct the research.  Dr Carlo’s study was thorough and conclusive, proving just the opposite of what the cell phone companies wanted.  In fact, Carlo found a strong connection between cell phone use and brain tumours, neurological disease and genetic damage.  The scientific evidence is mounting daily.  Brain cancer is up 25% since cell phones became popular.  Every year there are 183,000 more cases in the USA alone.  And this may just be the beginning.  Like smoking and lead poisoning, the damage from electro pollution is cumulative and may take years, even decades to reveal itself.  But every exposure may adversely effect your health.  Several renowned neuro-surgeons now believe radiation from cell phones and other mobile devices are directly related to the 21% increase in brain tumours in children.  Children and teenagers are at greatest risk from electro pollution damage, because their skulls are thinner, they have more brain fluid and their bodies are not fully developed.  How much time does your child spend on the cell phone every day?  And how will the constant barrage of electro magnetic radiation from cell phone use effect your child’s’ health in five years, ten years, twenty or more years?

The effects of cell phone radiation on a rats brain

In a recent study neuro-surgeons at Lund University in Sweden proved conclusively a link between radiation from cell phones and brain damage.  The researchers attached cell phones to the cages of rats and exposed them to intermittent electro magnetic radiation for only two hours, emulating typical cell phone use.  Fifty days after that single two hour exposure, the rat’s brain showed significant blood vessel leakage, as well as areas of shrunken, damaged neurons.  Researchers concluded that if human brains are similarly effected, the damage could produce long term mental deficiencies.  And in 2004, respected scientists in Sweden proved for the first time, a definitive human link between cell phone use and benign brain tumours, located exactly where the patients held their cell phones.

Dr Sheldon Levy, a respected physician and surgeon has studied the effects of EMF radiation, “I have to tell you, it’s hard to ignore the data.  You must consider the long term risks of cell phone use.  If indeed the effects are cumulative, then young people who are using cell phones at such an early stage of their development, run a particularly high risk”.

But cell phones aren’t the only culprit.  Scientists have become increasingly concerned about the potential risks involved in exposure to low level microwave radiation from microwave ovens.  Keep in mind, like all forms or radiation, you may not see or feel the microwaves that escape your microwave oven, but don’t underestimate the power of this insidious form of electro pollution.  Just think, it only takes about a minute to boil a cup of water in a microwave oven; disconcerting when you consider the human brain is 90% water.

Certain body organs are particularly sensitive to this thermal effect or heat, generated by invisible microwaves; your stomach, intestines and bladder are especially sensitive to thermal damage from high levels of microwaves, EMF’s and electro magnetic radiation.  Likewise, the testes are very sensitive to changes in temperature.  Exposure to high levels of microwave energy can alter or kill sperm, producing temporary sterility.  According to one study, men who kept their cell phones in their pockets experienced a 35% reduction in sperm count.

And there is no escaping this invisible menace.  Electro pollution is not limited to cell phones and microwave ovens.  Home computers, laptops, cordless phones, televisions, refrigerators, hairdryers, coffee makers, even our cars add to the daily accumulation of electro pollution and may be pushing us closer to a national health crisis.

Do you or children use a laptop computer or a video game console?  Do you use these devices on your lap?  Consider this: scientists are exploring the connection between the EMF’s from the electronic devices we use on our laps and the astounding 50% increase in testicular cancer over the past twenty years.  One important study in the USA, found as link between those who work in an environment with high EMF exposure and neuro degenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and Lou Gehrigs disease.

But it’s not just about diseases.  Research shows that continual exposure to this onslaught of electro pollution, disrupts your natural energy levels, triggering an adrenal response which in turn increases stress responses.  This constant stress contributes to your energy depletion and fatigue, lack of concentration, poor work performance and difficulty getting a good nights sleep.

Dr Sheldon Levy told us, “Based on the research that I’ve reviewed, I’m convinced that the chronic exposure to electro magnetic frequencies, plays some role in the dramatic increase in stress related diseases and conditions that we’ve been seeing”.

If electro pollution is so dangerous, why doesn’t the government step in and do something about it?   Government officials will tell you that the studies are inconclusive, that they’re waiting for long term human studies to prove that cell phones, which bombard us continually with radiation, are truly harmful.

Can you afford to wait?  Are you willing to put your health and the health of your loved ones on the line, while the government spends years confirming what so many respected scientists already consider an international health crisis?

EMF - Seeing is Believing

EMF.  Three letters which give very serious cause for concern.  Whether from cell phones, computer routers or overhead power lines, this EMF energy is all around us.

It's one thing to know it exists, but another to be able to actually see it, or at least see the effects.  We know the wind exists, because we can see it moving a field of wheat, and in the same way there are ways of seeing EMF energy in the world around us too.

Richard Box, artist in residence at Bristol University's Physics department, struck upon a remarkable idea for an art installation after a chance conversation with a friend.  ‘He was telling me he used to play with a fluorescent tube under the pylons by his house,’ says Box. ‘He said it lit up like a light sabre.’

Bristol University's Physics department had been leading some pioneering work on the effects of magnetic and electrical fields on human health.  Richard had been collaborating with the departments resident glass blower to create art from neon tubes.  But in talking to Denis Henshaw, professor of radiation effects, whose work inspired an investigation by the National Radiological Protection Board, he struck upon an idea to show the bleed off energy from the overhead power lines.   "I wanted to describe what happened within the field," Mr Box said. "There is always a power loss along any overhead power line, and the fluorescent tubes- all 1,301 of them- make the power loss visible. The result has surpassed all my expectations."

Professor Henshaw praised the work saying, 'It's very creative and it illustrates graphically that power lines do indeed have these electrical fields around them. Even when the bulbs are on the way out, and start flashing or flickering in their sockets, they still light up under the power lines.'

The amount of light emitted by the tubes varies with the weather conditions and the presence of someone walking among them can plunge those tubes close to them into darkness; the human body absorbing the EMF energy instead of the tube.  'You affect the lights by your proximity', says Richard, 'because you're a much better conductor than a glass tube. And there's sound as well as light - a crackling that corresponds to the flashing of the lights. There's a certain smell too, and your hair stands slightly on end.'

The pylons used in Richard’s installation are not typical, but one of a handful specially designed at a reduced height for use when a 400KV line came close to the flight path of Bristol International Airport.  And although most electricity pylons are built at a greater height, the art installation does illustrate quite dramatically, the EMF energies created by mains power lines.