I am always interested in claims of electrosensitivity, which is defined as a negative effect on human health (or at least well-being) from electromagnetic fields. While I've yet to read a definitive study correlating a negative health impact of any form in humans from a consumer-grade electromagnetic field, again, of any form, I'm also always up for a little field work when the opportunity presents itself. Before we get to that part, I should restate: if such a correlation is ever found, I will find a new line of work - I'm not going to promote a technology that harms people. Hey smoking! It's great! But only do it until you start wheezing!
So I was recently contacted by a homeowner in a small, rural town out in the beautiful Berkshires of Massachusetts who was absolutely convinced that the high-pitched and warbling tones being heard in the house, by the homeowner and others, just had to be the result of electromagnetic energy of some form. Now, there's no mechanism I'm aware of, save for a few anecdotal reports of receiving AM radio on tooth fillings, for electromagnetic energy at any frequency to be converted into sound apart, obviously, from that wonderful machine we call a radio. But I had to allow for the possibility that perhaps some other transduction was taking place, resulting in the symptoms being reported.
So my friend and colleague Mike Craig and I piled into my Honda and headed 90 miles west of Farpoint Group's headquarters, armed with a very expensive 50 GHz. spectrum analyzer and a surprisingly useful Radio Shack sound pressure meter which we coupled to an incredibly useful (and amazingly low-priced) Pico 2105 USB oscilloscope and proceeded, in Ghostbusters-like fashion, to look for a wireless, well, ghost.
To cut to the chase, we didn't find one. We did see some self-jamming from the notebook that the scope was connected to, a few low-amplitude narrowband signals, and some DSL uplink leakage, but no smoking wave. We did, however go to very quiet parts of the house and just listen. And, there it was - a very high-pitched tone, slightly buzzy, equal in both ears. Note also that this part of the Berkshires is very, very quiet, with ambient noise in the 30-40 dB range. Hence, with little encouragement, the tone was indeed everywhere, with most people in the house reporting it.
My conclusion, however, is that this is tinnitus, not the result of any effect from electromagnetic energy. The whooshing and other more complex sounds reported could be pulsitile tinnitus, which is literally hearing the blood flowing in vessels near the inner ear. I have that in my right ear from time to time; it's usually the result of nasal congestion. I also have low-grade (only noticed in very quiet environments) tinnitus likely from, well, too much heavy metal, which I still enjoy to this day, albeit at reduced volume levels. In short, though, we saw nothing from the test equipment that would lead us to conclude that electromagnetic waves are the culprit here.
If you're interested, though, check out electromagnetichealth.org, which is a large compendium of information from a group that is convinced that electromagnetic waves do indeed represent a health risk. The jury remains out regardless, and I'm looking forward to more time in the field.
Mathias is a principal at Farpoint Group, a wireless advisory firm in Ashland, Mass.
The Leader in Network Knowledge
electro magnetic radiation and human health
www.es-uk.info is a UK based registered charity established to help those who may become sensitised to electro magnetic radiation by becoming electro sensitive, known as radiation sickness since the 1950s.
We now help people from around the world to understand the myriad of symptoms prompted by an exposure and just what can be done to help them to live as normal a life as is possible. We see reactions to mobile phones, cell phone towers, PDAs, WiFi internet connections, DECT cordless homephones, baby listeners, burglar alarms, wireless door entry systems and many other EMR field emitters. We publish a regular newsletter and run a telephone help line.
This Isn't Radiation Sickness
Radiation sickness is the result of exposure to ionizing radiation. The frequencies and energy levels used in consumer-grade wireless are non-ionizing and very low, respectively. Again, I'm not saying there is no such thing as electrosensitivity, but a causal relationship between it (if it exists) and exposure to consumer-grade wireless has not been shown to my knowledge.
Thanks for the note.
Craig.
Microwave sickness or EHS?
Hi
Researchers in the field of bioelectromagnetics are well aquainted with the symptoms of microwave sickness.
You may be interested to read the Bioinitiative Report. A review of over 2000 published studies on the adverse effects of microwave radiation and electromagnetic fields.
www.bioinitiative.org
Many of these individual sections have now been published in the Journal of Pathophysiology
The radiation levels are trillions of times higher than the microwave background levels and the now 24 hour exposure has never been tested for safety.
The science is now fairly advanced in that there are several theories of the possible damage mechanisms.
www.mastsanity.org is working to bring the information to public attention.
Phantom Text Messages and ES
Should you carry your mobile in your trouser pocket or motorbike jacket?
Until last summer I was, like most people nowadays, very fond of all my modern communication gadgets from wifi to mobile, from Palm to laptops and all their advantages.
From 2006 onwards I went several times to see a doctor for heart palpitations, but they couldn’t find anything wrong with me.
Then in July 2008 I suddenly started experiencing dizziness on numerous occasions, till it got so bad one night, suffering even from speech problems, that I ended up in A&E thinking I had a stroke or heart attack; in the following weeks I underwent many tests. The results showed I was absolutely fine, but the symptoms stayed. The doctors told me I was just stressed, but the thing is I wasn’t stressed at all prior to this.
To my own shock and confusion I realized that my dizziness always occurred, when I was in close vicinity to Wifi, mobiles, Blackberries and mobile masts.
After medical professionals weren’t able to help, I started my own research and found many websites and blogs by people, with exactly the same problems as mine. They are sufferers of electro-sensitivity (ES), a condition fully recognized in Canada and Sweden as a medical impairment (with 300.000 sufferers in Sweden alone) but unfortunately ridiculed in the UK. I had never heard of it (this to show I am not a hypochondriac), but once I realized that this was the source of my problems, I started clearing my home environment from Wifi, DECT phones and non-essential electrical items. My problems immediately started to get noticeably better.
Most men (especially on a motorbike) carry their mobile in their jacket or trousers for easy access. I used to carry mine in my motorbike jacket’s front left pocket. I stopped doing that; my palpitations vanished.
In conversations with friends, colleagues and fellow bikers I heard that many of them experience similar symptoms like pain or tremors in the heart area or what are called “phantom phone vibrations”. Every now and then I’d think I had a text message, when carrying my phone in my trouser pockets, but when I checked there was no message?
According to Swedish scientist and ES expert Olle Johansson this is caused “by high intensity bursts of extremely-low frequency electromagnetic field charges that your phone is producing and affecting your nervous system.”
Of course I don’t know, if carrying your mobile is a causing ES or if the Phantom text messages are just another symptom and the causes lie somewhere else, like problems with your immune system for example, but I guess it can’t be good to have heart palpitations.
I know: I have heard every joke about “vibrating pockets” and have been many times referred to Ben Goldacre’s “Bad Science”. There are definitely pseudo-scientists out there making a lot of money from scaremongering, but you have to distinguish between those and the victims in all this.
Retrospectively I am convinced that my heart palpitations were an early warning sign for what was happening later on. And believe me: ES is not an easy thing to live with.
Looking back it would have been great, if I had known more about the possible problems of overexposure to modern communication. So I am trying to raise awareness wherever I can and hope that by reading this you might suspend your disbelief and rethink some of your habits, until it’s really proven that there are no dangers involved in using wireless technology to the extent we do at the moment.
For more information:
www.electrosensitivity.org
www.weepinitiative.org
http://www.feb.se/index_int.htm
Giles from, London, UK
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