Comments on: EMF: Is Electricity Harmful to Your Health?

By: Ed

Ed — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 21:41:00 +0000

I played electric guitar in my high school’s marching band, and I was always told by my instructor that the intense electric shocks I experienced during rain storms and days when the field was wet were “harmless”. It’s been a year since then, but I haven’t developed any cancer. In fact, I kind of like the feeling – it’s like a burst of adrenaline, and it gave me the energy I needed to jump around (it was a 50s-themed show). It was also a good excuse to hold girls’ hands; they’d scream “ow” and it would turn into something funny.

By: GTT

GTT — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 17:49:00 +0000

WHATÂ´S IN THE VIDEO?? I cant see it here at work and IÂ´m extremely curious!!

By: gibson8or

gibson8or — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 02:43:00 +0000

My dad’s been an electrician for the last thirty years, and he’s OK. And he’s been working on really high-voltage commercial stuff, not home wiring.

On the other hand, my grandfather was an electrician even longer, and he did get cancer, but that’s hardly definitive.

By: Sue

Sue — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 00:12:00 +0000

electricity is boogery anyway. i think we all know that by now. and worrying about the EMFs seems pretty pointless, because what can we do about it anyway? everythign around us is electrical for the most part. shouldn’t we have been worrying about all this, oh, i don’t know, well before now?
i imagine the main thing the EMFs might do is screw up your personal magnetic feild, which may or may not mess up anythign else in you. certainly there is no reason to be right on top of ANY of your appliances, microwave or no.

but i wonder how many EMFs i soak up sitting right next to the space heater? lol
i don’t care if it’s bad for me- it’s fucking COLD in NY during the winter.

the cell phone thing causes more problems because of radiation and radio frequencies anyway. or at least that’s what i was lead to believe.

By: JenDiggity

JenDiggity — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 00:07:00 +0000

All I know is I get a tummy ache if I have my laptop on my lap for very long. Oh, and I can also say I loved that song back in the day. Thanks for the memories!

By: Joel

Joel — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 21:53:00 +0000

I am a microwave/RF engineer, and there are a few things wrong with your post. First, for those who know about “EMF” (more appropriately called “radiated emissions”) there is no link between radiated emissions and cancer because cancer is mutated cells– EMF, when taken in high doses, actually cooks your flesh, rather than mutate it. For instance, your microwave works by very quickly (about 900,000,000 times a second) switching the polarity of the magnetic field in the oven chamber. This causes water molecules, which have dipole moments that align to magnetic fields, to literally move back and forth aligning and realigning to the switching magnetic field. This causes friction at miniscule levels which in turn causes heat, and heat cooks food.
The second thing is that EMF is different from, say, nuclear radiation in that small doses of nuclear radiation leave small traces of radiation in your cells. Thus, the cumulative amount of exposure you receive from nuclear radiation is how much radiation you have. The same is not true for microwave radiation. Small doses do nothing other than generate VERY tiny amounts of heat. It’s doubtful that the amount of heat generated in small doses can be reliably or accurately measured. However, once you cross a certain threshold, dependent on cellular-level biology that I cannot speculate on, once you cross that threshold things can get very bad very quickly. The thing about microwave fields is that they permeate through your body pretty easily. I once shocked myself with about 125W of 900MHz power, and this caused a burn through my finger that resembled a cone, rather than just affecting the surface.

By: Bri

Bri — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 17:45:00 +0000

Interesting.. mostly because often times (for a period it seemed like EVERY time) I touched an electronic device (specifically when I turned on a radio) I’d experience an immediate and intense urge to urinate. I never needed to pee a great volume, usually just a trickle, but I’d certainly have wet my pants had I attempted to ignore the sensation. I always wondered if the electricity was stimulating my reflex.

By: g

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 17:25:00 +0000

so microwave is 2000 @ 1.2 inches and 80 @ 12 inches, but a hair dryer is 20,000 @ 1.2 inches and 70 @ 12 inches. Is the decay rate different for different items, I think not. what is the medium here? air? then there decay rates would be common and the hair dryer would still be ten times as powerful as the microwave. fuzzy math makes me doubt propaganda pamphlets.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 17:19:00 +0000

EMF’s are a concern, especially for HAM operators like myself. We are always told to keep antennas away from our heads (hard to do with hand held radios) and to keep feed lines as far away as possible. It is also important to operate with low power. The ARRL website has some good reading about EMF’s and human safety

By: Witty Nickname

Witty Nickname — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 16:51:00 +0000

What did it say about keeping a cellular phone clipped to my belt ALL DAY very close to me, eh, baby factory.