electrical pollution article

Kurt Gutknecht in the Fitchburg Star (Thursday, Dec. 29, 2005 - Vol. 30, No.
21 - Pg. 1 and continued on pg. 16)

Is 'dirty electricity' making you sick?
By Kurt Gutknecht
Fitchburg Star Editor

As people lug computers and other electronic equipment from stores this
holiday season, there's more to consider than just finding plugs for everything.

Those nettlesome black converters may not be the best thing for your health,
and not just because they're unsightly. They also add to growing levels of a
phenomenon known as “dirty electricity.”

Recent studies by a Canadian researcher confirm accounts by people who say
that dirty electricity, the unwanted by-product of 200 million or so personal
computers and millions of other electronic gadgets in America, is making them
sick.

The study found that cleaning up dirty electricity in several schools made
about half the teachers feel much better. The behavior and concentration of
students also improved.

The findings are the latest in a long and contentious struggle involving
people who say they are electrically sensitive, an ailment widely accepted in
several European and Eastern European countries but one that has received
relatively little attention in the medical community here.

In the study, participants didn't know when the filters used to correct dirty
electricity had been installed. When they were, they reported feeling more
alert and less fatigued. Some said headaches vanished.

The researcher,Magda Havas, a professor of Environmental and Resource Studies
at Trent University, said she was startled by the findings. She has studied
the effects of chemicals and electromagnetic phenomena for more than 25 years.

“I really wasn't expecting the filters to do anything,” said Havas, “When I
saw the results, I thought, 'My God, this is absolutely crazy.'”

Indeed, that's just what public health officials and electric utilities have
been saying for decades to those who think electricity has affected their
health.

Dirty electricity is currently viewed only as a problem in industrial
settings where it can damage electronic equipment and motors. Until Havas learned
about the filters, she hadn't heard anything about dirty electricity's effects on
humans.

She agreed to conduct the study because the woman who made the request “
sounded sincere” and said the health of her daughter, who is electrically
sensitive, had improved after the filters were installed in her home.

The woman had also convinced the school to install the filters, overcoming
one of the major hurdles to conducting
research in schools.

At most, Havas expected 2 percent of the study participants to report feeling
better, which was a commonly cited estimate of the percentage of those who
are electrically sensitive.

Teachers also reported students' concentration and classroom behavior
improved when the filters were used. Results were similar when the experiment was
repeated at two schools in Minnesota.

The findings confirm the experiences of hundreds of people throughout
Wisconsin and other states who have reported remarkable improvements in their health
following the installation of filters.

For decades, farmers experiencing so-called “stray voltage”have pleaded
with state officials to investigate their contention that they suffered as much
as their livestock.

Under existing regulations, utilities are required to take corrective action
only when “clean” electricity affects livestock, which are supposedly much
more sensitive than humans, using a protocol that farmers say is subject to
manipulation.

The utilities and the state agency with oversight over most of them, the
Wisconsin Public Service Commission, say there's no scientific evidence linking
dirty electricity with effects on human health.

Colleagues skepical of findings

Havas said many of her professional colleagues are skeptical of her findings.
They are familiar with the effects of electromagnetic energy at much higher
frequencies, such as those associated with radarionizing radiation, and the
damage associated with heating associated with ionizing radarradiation.

The levels she studied are at much lower frequencies than is widely believed
to be harmful. Different frequencies have different effects. Havas said
studies with laboratory animals show that frequencies as low as 16 Hertz
(oscillations per second) or harmonics (multiples) of that frequency are detrimental
because they are the frequencies associated with metabolic functions. For example,
the brain functions at 10 to 20 Hertz, and heart functions at about a beat
per second, or one Hertz.

Havas said the fact that the beneficial effects in the school studies were
more apparent among younger students is consistent with the age-dependent
effects of toxic chemicals.

The physiological mechanisms associated with dirty electricity haven't yet
been determined, Havas said, although studies on laboratory animals show that
electromagneticical fields affect calcium levels, which affect numerous
physiological processes, including membrane permeability and enzyme activity.

“We don't understand how many forms of cancer are manifested but wedon't
discount their existence,” Havas said.

Havas said we are becoming inundated with electrical pollution. Dirty
electricity is just one form. Others include utility lines, wireless Internet
networks and cell phones.

On a recent call-in program on Wisconsin Public Radio, Dave Stetzer, an
industrial electrician from Wisconsin who has repeatedly asked the state to
investigate the health effects of dirty electricity and has worked with Havas, said
most rooms are now completely girdled with electric wires.

Stetzer said the radiation from dirty electricity can transform them into
something analogous to a microwave.

Only a matter of time?

“It's only a matter of time before people put two and two together and
realize that they feel worse in certain environments,” Havas said.

“Humans are very sensitive electromagnetic beings. The body tries to maintain
normal body processes following exposure to dirty electricity. The resulting
stress is characterized by excessive fatigue. The effects aren't apparent in
the diagnostic tests associated with ailments, which leads most doctors to
conclude that there's nothing physically wrong with the patient, Havas said.

Most doctors, who haven't encountered such ailments, “mistakenly conclude
these patients must be suffering from a psychosomatic ailment,” Havas said.

At the behest of patients, more doctors are contacting her for information.
Several doctors attending a recent seminar she offered were electrically
sensitive and wanted to know how they could reduce their risk.

She recommends monitoring levels with a GS meter, named after the inventors,
Dave Stetzer and Dr. Martin Graham, professor emeritus of electronics and
electrical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley.

Havas said many people who are electrically sensitive are affected at 30
units on the GS meter. It's not uncommon in schools or other locations to find
levels that reach hundreds or thousands of GS units.

A British researcher recently estimated that 35 percent of the population is
electrically sensitive. Havas's estimate is 50 percent.

She also found that dirty electricity increases the blood sugar levels of
many diabetics.

She's working with a New York resident with diabetes whose blood sugar levels
increased when she worked out on a treadmill. This baffled her because
exercise usually decreases blood sugar levels.

The woman subsequently learned that the dirty electricity from the variable
speed motor in the treadmill was responsible. Her levels do not decrease
increase when she exercises in electrically “clean” environments.

She's also found similar beneficial effects with some forms of multiple
sclerosis, including an “almost miraculous” improvement in the condition of a
woman who was so dizzy she could hardly walk.

“She improved so fast that at first I thought it was the placebo effect. I
was just amazed,” Havas said.

When filters are installed in the houses of those diagnosed with diabetes,
she recommends that patients carefully monitor blood sugar levels and reduce the
amount of insulin accordingly.

While there's skepticism among her colleagues, the students taking her class
in electric pollution grasp the concept of dirty electricity when she makesan
analogy with clean water that's contaminated and continually reused.

She has worked with a local utility to reduce levels. The utility was “quite
hostile” until they realized that she wasn't trying to cause trouble but
wanted to find a solution to a problem.

Havas said a utility in Barbados is also interested in minimizing problems
associated with dirty electricity.

Most utilities in North America aren't receptive to the information. Havas
attributed this to the fact that most are run by executives with experiencein
the legal profession who are more interested in avoiding liability than in
finding solutions to the problem.

She said the utility in Barbados was managed by engineers who are natural
problem solvers.

Havas has written three papers on her findings and is writing another
concerning the results in the Minnesota schools. She can be contacted at
[hidden email].

State insists there's no reason for concern

If you think dirty electricity or another electrical phenomenon is making you
sick, well, you're wrong.

That's the official opinion of the state department of health and family
services, which has refused to investigate health-related complaints associated
with dirty electricity and most other electrical phenomena.

The reason: The department said it only investigates health threats in which
peer-reviewed studies result in “clear and consistent conclusions regarding
negative health implications.”

Those with health complaints about dirty electricity are referred to the P
ublic Service Commission or their utility, which will also not investigate
health-related claims.

The department of health is aware of the Graham-Stetzer filters but said it
is not in “the position to endorse, recommend or somehow validate the
development or marketing of this product.”

State agencies have also refused to participate in a study in which utilities
would implement measures to reduce levels of dirty electricity, which could
be achieved without the Graham-Stetzer filters.

The filters rely on capacitors, which are widely used in electrical motors
and other types of electrical equipment. Utility representatives tried
unsuccessfully to get the state Department of Commerce, which is responsible for the
state electrical code, to prohibit the use of plug-in capacitors.

The state department of public instruction refused to investigate the
accounts of teachers and a nurse at a school in Wisconsin who reported remarkable
improvements in health similar to those documented by Professor Havas following
the installation of filters. It will not do so because the Department of
Commerce did not indicate that the issue threatened the health, welfare or safety of
Wisconsin students.

Officials with the department of health recommended that residents concerned
about electrical sensitivity should “bring their concerns to the Governor's
office or their elected state officials.”

Those with complaints have received little support from elected officials,
who often cite the position of state agencies. Electric utilities are major
campaign contributors and lobbyists. Critics say many top administrative
positions in state agencies are held by people who have been employed by orhave ties
to electric utilities.

Researchers face similar obstacles in obtaining funding for such studies.

Results of a pilot Wisconsin study involving the health of women with chronic
fatigue syndrome who installed capacitors have still not been published
several years after data were collected, for reasons that have not been specified.


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