EMF/Electromagnetic Fields

The subject of EMF is confusing to both scientists and laymen. This is due to three factors.  

1. The complexity and cross-disciplinary nature of the science

2. The unfamiliar language or jargon used to describe the various physical phenomena

3. The deliberate downplaying of risk by government and industry through misleading and deceptive communication strategies

To illustrate the complexity of the science, here is an excerpt from an introduction to the 2006 edition of the Handbook of Biological Effects of Electromagnetic fields which can be found at this link http://diyhpl.us/~nmz787/biological%20radio%20research/crc_-_biological_and_medical_aspects_of_electromagnetic_fields.pdf

The introduction was written by the late Dr. Charles Polk a well known expert in the field.

"Much has been learned since this handbook’s first edition, but a full understanding of biological effects of electromagnetic fields has yet to be achieved. The broad range of what must be studied has to be a factor in the apparent slow progress toward this ultimate end. The broad range of disciplines involved includes basic biology, medical science and clinical practice, biological and electrical engineering, basic chemistry and biochemistry, and fundamental physics and biophysics."

As you can see, even highly trained expert scientists, have noted the complexity and cross disciplinary nature of this subject. In this next section we will try to boil down the jargon and the science  to it's practical essentials so that  the subject is more readily accessible and understandable. We  also include a section of greater detail for those readers who wish to take a deeper dive into the subject. 

In order to deal with EMF biological effects and health, it is important to get familiar with key  terminology and language used to describe  various aspects of  electricity and  electromagnetism, as they relate to testing, testing equipment, and evaluating biological impact. The term EMF is actually a vague,confusing, and overly broad term that encompasses several distinct physical phenomena that are measured and evaluated with different devices, described with different words,and have different mitigation strategies. 

4 types of EMF

Let us start with the 4 types and sources of EMF that are generally considered the focus of concern:

1. AC Magnetic Fields – alternating current magnetic fields. They are produced by electric current. They emanate from conductors such as home wiring, power lines, metallic water lines. They also emanate from electronic devices and appliances which are referred to as point sources.   

2. AC Electric Fields –  are produced by voltage on the home wiring, appliance wiring, and power lines. Here we are referring to the 60 Hertz power frequency. 

3. RF – Radio Frequency Radiation/microwave radiation/wireless communication – This is electromagnetic radiation  that radiates out from transmitters like Cell Towers,WiFi, Blue Tooth, Your Cell Phone  etc. This is called Radiation because it leaves its source and travels through space, as opposed to the Electric and Magnetic "fields" from Voltage and Current of Electric Power.

4. DIrty Electricity”  is also known by numerous other names including, “High Frequency Voltage Transients”, “Micro Surge Electrical pollution”, Harmonics, Hash, Electrical Noise, Dirty Power, and various other names. This is part of the electric field referenced above except that here we are referring to high frequency voltage spikes and in particular those above 1.7 Kilohertz in Frequency

Measuring Units and Measurement devices:

The measuring units generally used to evaluate electromagnetic fields in terms of biological effects are:

1.Magnetic Field – Measured with a Gauss Meter as milliGauss or nanoTesla. milliGauss or Gauss units are  commonly used in the USA to describe the intensity of a magnetic field in terms of magnetic flux density. Magnetic Flux Density is also known as the B Field.  Tesla units are a metric system used in Europe to describe the same thing. 100 nanoTesla equals 1 milliGauss. The higher the milliGauss reading. the stronger the intensity of the field. A one milliGauss magnetic field from AC Current is  regarded by many,  as a demarcation point between an acceptable level and a potentially hazardous level of exposure in terms of chronic exposure . Numerous studies have indicated an apparent dose response relationship - the higher the milliGauss level from AC magnetic fields and/or the longer the duration of exposure, the greater the risk to health. 

2.Electric Field – The 60 Hertz power frequency measured with an Electric Field Meter as volts per meter when measuring the field directly, or milliVolts when measuring the field effects as "body voltage". Body voltage, or more accurately skin voltage. refers to the effect of the electric field on your body, and specifically on your skin, not the voltage generated by your body. Skin voltage measurement is an indirect means of measuring the electric field in a room. Building Biologists recommend getting the electric field in the sleeping area down to 0.3 volts per meter for no risk or down to 10 milliVolts  when measuring the E field as voltage on the skin.  

3.RF/Radio Frequency – Generally measured in the "far field"  with a Broadband High Frequency meter as "power density". measurement units are microWatts per meter squared or milliWatts per meter squared. There are 1000 microWatts in 1 milliWatt. and 1000 milliWatts in 1 Watt.

The usual method in assessing RF is to measure "Power Density" which measures the energy output in a given  unit of space as described above."Power Density" is used both by Building Biology and the FCC in determining exposure threshold limits.

Building Biology recommends getting the level down to 0.1 microWatts per meter squared in the sleeping area for no risk and the Bio-initiative report from 2020, recommends a public exposure threshold of 3 to 6 microWatts per meter squared.The FCC standards are orders of magnitude higher, at 10 million microWatts per meter squared. The FCC regulations are based on outdated science that only considers thermal effect and not non thermal biological effects. 

4.Dirty Electricity/EMI – This can be measured with an oscilloscope. The easiest and cheapest way to measure this is with a Stetzer Microsurge meter which measures in Graham Stetzer/GS units.  Dave Stetzer the pioneer of this field, recommends getting the levels down to at least 50 GS units.This corresponds to about 1.7 to 2 Kilohertz in frequency when measured with an oscilloscope. At 1.7kHz (Kilohertz) it has been demonstrated by J. Patrick Reilly, that the energy from the electric field can overcome the electrical impedance of the skin and dissipate internally to the body as an electric micro-current. 

Ideally according to Stetzer,  one should try to get the level down to 35 GS units or less as that was the level indicated as having significance in studies conducted by Dr. Magda Havas and Dr. Sam Milham.

5.Electric current on water lines or other conductive pathways, is measured as amperage  and referred to as "amps". Because this current has no opposing current in the opposite direction, it will cause high magnetic fields. 

A deeper dive into EMF

AC Magnetic Fields are a product of electrical current. This means the "flow" of electricity. Magnetic fields are subject to field cancellation and augmentation effects similar to the concept of constructive and destructive interference that is found in wave dynamics. When there is an insufficient cancellation effect from home wiring or power lines, an elevated magnetic field can be present. There are three main scenarios where this occurs:

1.Separation of conductors such as in aerial  transmission lines. Because of the required spacing between the wires there is often insufficient cancellation and a large magnetic field can occur.

2.Net Current produced by a "Parallel Neutral Current Path". This happens when there is an unequal amount of current between incoming(hot) and outgoing (neutral) current. This is caused by wiring errors, certain types of wiring code violations,or wiring damage, that causes Neutral to Ground or Neutral to Neutral diversion of current. It can also be caused by certain legal wiring configurations.

3.Net Current on the water line. This is a common problem in North America where in most jurisdictions, buildings are required to have  the water line act as part of the grounding system and everyone is connected to a conductive water main. When neutral return current gets on the water lines, it can cause high AC magnetic fields in a home. This is an example of a Parallel Neutral Current Path that is actually caused by electric code requirements. Electric codes are designed for fire and shock safety and do not take other biological effects of Electromagnetism into account. This particular problem is compounded by the fact that electric utilities have successfully evaded regulatory requirements that they increase the return current capacity of their Neutral wires. 

It is important to determine which of these three scenarios contribute to undesirable magnetic fields in order to have an effective mitigation strategy. Although for other types of EMF there are shielding options that are effective, for magnetic fields, shielding is generally not an effective option.

In the case of wiring issues,which are common, the field can be completely eliminated by correcting the wiring issue. Similarly with electric current on the water line there are ways of correcting that. If the magnetic fields are coming from power distribution lines there is usually not a lot you can do. Therefore it is better to assess the magnetic fields, before you move into a home.

AC Electric fields are a product of electrical voltage not current. By way of analogy, Voltage is often described as similar to water pressure in a pipe, and current is described as the water being pushed by the pressure. Even when devices such as a bed lamp are switched off, so long as there is voltage present on the wiring, a field will extend 6 to 8 feet from both the wiring in the wall, floor, or ceiling, as well as the lamp.

Electric field mitigation is a key area of focus of Building Biology. Building Biologists in Germany and the USA have amassed over 30 years of observational experience demonstrating that this type of mitigation often has dramatic, quick, and beneficial effects for their clients.

Radio Frequency/RF is produced by wireless communication devices. Many people are concerned (and rightfully so) about their exposure both inside and outside the home to  sources such as cellular transmitters and the like. However the first step in mitigation is eliminating the exposure that you do to yourself inside your home. You can and should lower your exposure by  getting rid of your wireless sources at least while you are sleeping. You can do this very effectively  by powering down cell phones,unplugging WiFi and unplugging Cordless/DECT phones before going to sleep at night.

Even better, substitute wired Ethernet connections in place of WIFI and disable your WIFI.Substitute wired phones for cell phones and cordless phones. In terms of  the RF power density  inside your home, you are likely exposed to higher levels of RF radiation from wireless devices inside your home than from the cell transmitters outside.

As far as the radiation from outside which does come into your home,the reality is that in today's RF saturated environment, you are unlikely to be able to achieve the " no risk" levels recommended by Building Biology- (0.1 microWatts per square meter or less) without some kind of shielding strategy. 

The levels of  man made Radio Frequency Radiation that are currently in our environment, are about One Quintilian times higher than the  natural  levels  of Radio Frequency Radiation.Most of this man made RF has been introduced over the last 25 years as you can see in this link from the Lancet in  2018 https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5196(18)30221-3/fulltext . One Quintilian is the number 1 followed by 18 zeros or 10 to the 18th power. In addition to harming human health, RF has been linked to die offs in bee,amphibian,and bird populations. ( See the book Invisible Rainbow a History of Electricity and Life by Arthur Firstenberg) 

Dirty Electricity is caused by arcing and sparking during electrical generation, and by devices that interrupt the flow of electric current such as dimmer switches, switch mode power supplies, and variable speed motors.Sources include computer, and energy saving light bulbs such as CFLs and LED lights.

A big source of Dirty Electricity is Solar Power from Photovoltaic panels. This is due to the inverters that are required to convert the DC current generated by the solar panel to AC current that can be used by your home and the grid. Although the solar energy installations and the energy efficient CFL and LED light-bulbs are being sold to the public as "green" and environmentally friendly, they are in fact not good for living creatures, human or otherwise.

A good first  step in lowering DIrty Electricity in your home is to identify which devices in your home are contributing to the problem, and eliminate them by disconnecting or replacing them.

Unfortunately even if you shut all the power off to your home you are still likely to be exposed to Dirty Electricity from outside your home.This is because the Dirty Electricity voltage and current frequencies propagate into the electrical system grid and in the earth. They can then enter your home along the neutral wire,grounding system or conductive plumbing. These frequencies then spread along your home wiring in the neutral and grounding wires. From the wires, the transient frequencies affect the body through capacitive coupling. From an electrical standpoint,the human body can be viewed as having two capacitors and three resistors and this model is called the UL5 component model from Underwriters Laboratory. The skin having 200 ohms of resistance going from the outside and 200 ohms of resistance going from the inside, with 100 ohms of resistance from internal body fluids and structures such as the blood. In this model the average human body is considered as having 500 ohms of electrical resistance.   At 1.7kHz the electrical frequencies start to overcome the electrical impedance of the skin and dissipate their energy internally to the body, causing electrical micro-currents to flow inside the body and causing a push and pull attraction and repulsion between positive and negative charges that couple from the source of the electric field to the body. Electrical current internal to the body, of 18 micro-amps has been acknowledged by the NIEHS, as capable of causing cancer as seen in this excerpt from a paper by Kavet et al in reference to contact current.

https://www.electrahealth.com/The-Possible-Role-of-Contact-Current-in-Cancer-Risk-Associated-With-Residential-Magnetic-Fields_df_60.html

 "In addition to these relative aspects of dose, the absolute (as well as  modest) level of contact current modeled (18 μA) produces average  electric fields in tissue along its path that exceed 1 mV/m. At and  above this level, the NIEHS Working Group [1998] accepts that biological  effects relevant to cancer have been reported in "numerous  well-programmed studies". The effects the Working Group cites are  "increased cell proliferation, disruption of signal transduction  pathways, and inhibition of differentiation". The NIEHS endorses this  conclusion in its final EMF RAPID report [1999]." 

It should be noted that the Kavet paper on Contact current was funded by EPRI, the Electric Power Research Institute. EPRI is the nonprofit research arm of the electric power industry. It is not difficult to imagine that the contact current theory may have been an attempt to deflect concerns about AC magnetic fields from power lines. Nonetheless the paper makes some good points. An important point is the  acceptance of the 18 microamp / 1millivolt per meter carcinogenic hazard, that was stated in the NIEHS Rapid Report working group summary and  final report. Once you accept that a 1 millivolt per meter electric field will cause carcinogenesis, you do not need contact current to achieve that level of exposure. You can easily get the same level of exposure from an Electric field of sufficient frequency, through capacitive coupling.

How to fix the problem. One solution is filtering the high frequencies  with Dirty Electricity filters.There are different types of filters manufactured by several companies. Some of them are plug in filters and some of them must be installed by an electrician. Some of them are capacitive filters and some are  inductive filters. Unfortunately there are no published studies comparing the different types of filters and health outcomes. As far as I have been able to tell, the only filters that have had published  studies on actual health and biological outcomes are the Stetzer  plug in filters. These are studies published by Dr. Samuel Milham and Dr. Magda Havas.

In Dr. Milham's Olympia library study,urinalysis demonstrated significant improvements in neurotransmitter levels. In Dr. Havas work, significant improvements in student and teacher well being in school settings were demonstrated. In Dr. Havas school studies there were a minority of teachers and students who reported a negative response. Similarly Building Biologists report that some electro sensitive clients respond favorably to filters and others do not. It is not clear at this time why some  people would have a favorable response to filtration and some not and whether or not responses would change over longer periods of time than in the published studies. I would add, that in private communication with Dr. Sam Milham and myself, he emphatically stated that in his experience he had never seen negative effects from the filters.    

Here is an informative article describing the evolution of the realization of the Dirty Electricity problem and of the Stetzer Dirty Electricity filter. https://shieldtech.nl/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Declaration-about-comparison-of-filters-on-the-market-with-notes-Final-Version.pdf

There are some important points in this article that would weigh on a decision as to which type of filter to use. For instance a whole house filter installed at the electric service entrance versus the small filters plugged in around the house. Stetzer first tried the whole house filter approach with a filter he designed.He found in a double blind study done with the University of Wisconsin, that it was not as effective at reducing symptoms in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome patients as the small plug in filters distributed around a home. 

Another consideration is that using the filters is a contradictory strategy to the Building Biology approach to mitigating  Electric Fields. Building Biology advocates for identifying the circuit breakers that control wiring that runs through the walls, floor, and ceiling, of the bedroom, and turning those breakers off at night. The Stetzer Filter works by shorting the high frequencies between the Hot and Neutral lines. The process by which the Stetzer filters work causes a  field cancellation effect on those frequencies and eliminates them. If you power down the breaker, the filter will not work. There are no published studies comparing the two approaches as far as health outcomes. 

In the absence of a comparative study between a group that turns off the breakers and a group that uses the Stetzer filters or other high frequency filters, we are left with anecdotal evidence, and electrical engineering physics.The bottom line is that one probably has to make a decision based on the measurements of each individual situation by measuring  the 60 Hertz electric and magnetic fields and the electric line dirty electricity. If one is having health issues one may have to experiment and  try both approaches and see which one works best for their particular situation.

In the two years since I wrote the paragraph above this one, I have changed my thinking after extensive conversations with Dave Stetzer,  correspondence with Dr. Milham, and my own further research. I now think that in most instances the priority for EMF remediation should go to Dirty Electricity and should be remediated with the Stetzer approach of plug in Capacitor filters and the patented Stetzer meter. I suspect that the success building biologists have had via the circuit breaker method, is due to the reduction in the higher frequency voltage as opposed to the reduction of the 60 Hertz frequency voltage. Utilizing the Circuit breaker method will still leave the Neutral and Ground lines open to allow Dirty Electricity to propagate in a building. There is another alternative approach advocated by Arthur Firstenberg (invisible Rainbow) and that is to have a 3 Pole cutoff switch that disconnects  the Hot,Neutral and Ground. The Stetzer filters and meter were designed to be used by the masses with no need for any specialized training, EMF expert, or Electrician.That means you can buy them direct and install them yourself. There are companies that sell whole house filters which end up being more expensive than Stetzer filters. As I wrote above however, Stetzer tried that originally, but after the University of Wisconsin study on Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, he abandoned that approach  in favor of the distributed and targeted placing of filters around the home. According to Stetzer, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome symptoms are identical to Radio Wave Sickness symptoms and in his opinion are one and the same.

I do not intend to dismiss and  discount the issues arising from AC Magnetic Fields,60 Hertz Electric fields, and Radio Waves from wireless communication devices. However the evidence, physics, and easiness in mitigation of dirty electricity,  leads me to conclude that the Dirty Electricity  Mitigation should be placed at the top of the list for EMF mitigation.This is true even for people who are not suffering from acute Electro Hypersensitivity Syndrome. The fact of the matter is that due to the current configuration of the electrical grid in North America, almost every building has High Frequency Voltage Transients on its wiring unless they are filtered out.