Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: ELF

[William L. Mahan (freebird]

I'm a registered nurse which gives me some background in these things<s>.

On Wed, 5 Oct 1994, Pablo Halpern wrote:

> > From: stanifor [at] cs.ucdavis.edu (Stuart Staniford-Chen)
> > 
> > Pablo talks about the possible health effects of electromagnetic fields.  
> > I just wanted to point out that the health problems are a lot more 
> > controversial than he suggests.
> 
> I'm sorry if I made it sound non-controversial. I am aware of very strong 
> controversy.
> 
Controversy is true science.  But I must agree with Stuart that the 
evidence for biological effects from ELF is slim to none.  What HAS been 
evident is the signs of chemical changes.  Chemical changes are not 
biological as in we're creating mutated monsters <s>.  These changes are 
transitory and recede when the source of the ELF is taken away.  No long 
term effects have been proven, nor is any REASONABLE experimentation been 
done.  The most is anedoctoal information.

> > The reason for this is that the fields in question are of 
> > too low a frequency to have any effect on chemistry (ie no molecule could 
> > be split because of them, nor could any chemical reactions in the body be 
> > affected).  This is in contrast to, say, X-rays which are of much higher 
> > frequency and can and do split molecules.

Not necessarily as we use TENS units to control pain, they effect the 
chemistry of the nerve endings, increasing endorphines.

> I don't know how low frequency fields alter physiology, but it may be 
> electro-chemical rather than just chemical in nature. The fact the very low 
> frequency EMF can and do have an effect on biological systems is not in 
> dispute. 
> What IS in dispute is whether the relatively low-intensity fields we find in 
> our 
> homes causes harmfull effects. I believe the evidence is pretty clear that 
> HIGH 
> intensity ELFs cause noticable biological effects, so frequency is not he 
> whole 
> story.
> 
Yes, its more likely electro-chemical.

> BTW, it is not just cancer but also miscarriages and other problems. Studies 
> with high intensity fields showed that ELFs caused general stress reactions 
> in 
> laboratory animals.

BEEEEEP!!! No way, no evidence to back this one up.  These cases are 
purely anecdotal, not proven in any scientific manner (i. e. statistical 
evidence does not point this out.

> 
> I don't have any recent references. The definative book on the anti-ELF side 
> is 
> __Currents of Death__, by Paul Brodeur, published by Simon and Schuster, (c) 
> 1989. Warning: Brodeur is a conspiracy theorist.
>
So?  Rush Limburger is too <g>.  And I won't believe any of them <g>.

Well, now I've stirred the hornets nest <s>