Can This Be Safe

It has an eerie beauty about it, but it is probably destined to reopen a
national debate about public safety. Richard Box took 1,300 fluorescent
light bulbs - the strip type you find in practically every office in the
land - and stuck them in a field just off the A46. Unlinked, and unpowered
by any conventional source, row upon sentinel row begin to glow as dusk sets
in. The source of their energy: "spare" electricity just floating around in
the air around the electric pylons which dot our countryside. Richard Box is
an artist, and his electro-show is certainly eye-catching. But it is no
fanciful whim which has prompted him to put this creation together. Mr Box
works with the Department of Physics at Bristol University, where he is
"artist in residence"; the co-creator of his astonishing field of light is
none other than the university's Professor Dennis Henshaw. Prof Henshaw is a
world-renowned authority on pylons and power lines, and has written several
papers on what effect these eyesore structures - or, more accurately, their
ambient electricity - have on the people who live below or near them. (...)
This spectacular attention-grabber is an inspired move in the scientists'
quest to further focus public attention on the question of power lines and
their effects. Prof Henshaw's department has raised the possibility of risks
associated with long-term exposure to magnetic and electromagnetic forces,
which they claim raise the risk of leukaemia in children, adult brain
tumours, depression and miscarriage, and other disorders.

Below is some related text from David Yarrow's "Return of the
Dragon: hazards of man-made magnetism." copyright 1990.

UK Artist-Physicist Richard Box lights 1300 fluorescent lights from "'spare'
electricity just floating around in the air around the electric pylons which
dot our countryside."

"Domestic power lines are taken for granted and assumed harmless. However,
this assumption has never been adequately tested. Low-level harmful effects
could be missed, yet might be important for the population as a whole, since
electric lines are so ubiquitous. [Our] study suggests, in fact, children
who develop cancer are unduly often near high current electric lines."
Electrical Wiring Configurations and Childhood Cancer. Nancy Wertheimer.
Amer. Journal of Epidemiology. March 1979.

Nancy Wertheimer recieved a Ph D? from Harvard and Radcliffe in experimental
psychology in 1954. In 1968, HEW awarded her a grant for an epidemiological
study of childhood leukemia, but divorce and family forced her to turn the
grant down. Six years later she resumed her study with the idea leukemia
might be linked to environmental or infectious factors. Therefore, she
searched for any clustering among victims.
Colo. Dept. of Vital Statistics supplied addresses of every Denver child who
died of leukemia from 1950 to 1969. She visited each home to note a few
environmental conditions: apartment or house; number of stories; building
materials; proximity to highways and factories; etc. Her field survey
detected no unusual clustering, but one day she noticed yet another black
cylinder hanging on a pole beside a victim's house. Nancy didn't see any
import to this until she saw a news photo of a farmboy holding a fluorescent
tube under a 345 kilovolt (kv) powerline-the bulb lit by EM from the line.
Plotting leukemia victims on a map of Denver power substations showed only a
faint correlation, so she returned to the field to note proximity of
powerlines, transformers and substations. This revealed a definite pattern:
with notable frequency, victims lived in the first or second house nearest a
pole-mounted transformer.
In fall 1974 Nancy took her data to physicist Ed Leeper, who thought this
wasn't due to electric fields, which are uniform regardless of distance from
a transformer, but maybe magnetic fields, which decrease rapidly with
distance. Also, an electric field is easily insulated and shielded, but
magnetism penetrates anything, including metal, lead, steel, concrete-and
human skin.
In 1975 Nancy compared field measures of magnetism with addresses of
childhood leukemia. Results showed disproportionate leukemias in homes near
powerlines called secondaries. Later Ed made a gaussmeter to accurately
measure 60 hertz (hz) magnetism, and Nancy found some primaries with fields
as strong as secondaries.
In 1976 Nancy coded wire configurations near homes to study all childhood
cancers in Denver from 1950 to 1973. This analysis upheld her prediction:
children near high-current powerlines had twice the cancer death rate of
those in low-current homes. Even more persuasive: kids who spent their
entire life in high-current homes show the strongest association, and six
who lived near power substations all died of cancer.
Not satisfied her findings weren't accidental, she spent 1977-8 reanalyzing
her data for co-factors such as pollution or traffic. Only then did she and
Leeper publish 'Electrical Wiring Configurations and Childhood Cancer' in
the March 1979 issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology.
In 1980, Wertheimer applied for a National Institutes of Health grant to
study adult cancer and high current magnetism. It was rejected, but on her
own Nancy collected 1,179 cancer cases from 1967-75 in Boulder, Longmont,
Denver, and suburbs. For two summers she visited each home to classify by a
refined wire configuration code. As she plodded along, a host of others
emerged:

In June 1982, Swedish medical officer Dr. Lennart Tomenius reported on 716
child cancers in Stockholm, where most power is delivered at 50 hz in 200 kv
buried cables. He measured AC magnetism at each home's door to find an
average of 2.2 milligauss (mgs).
Twice as many children with cancer lived near 200 kv lines, and where
magnetism is over 3 mgs, cancer is twice as frequent. This was published in
1986 in Bioelectromagnetics.

In July 1982, New England Journal of Medicine printed a letter from Dr.
Milham, physician and epidemiologist in the Washington Dept. of Social &
Health Services. He reviewed 430,000 deaths from 1950-79 to find leukemia
more prevalent in occupations with EM exposure. Of 11 occupations with
higher than normal leukemia, ten were linked to EM exposure.

In November 1982, respected British medical journal The Lancet reported a U.
of So. California School of Medicine study found acute leukemia and acute
myeloid leukemia is significantly higher among power and telephone linemen
in Los Angeles.

In 1982, Robert Becker and Andrew Marino, leading medical researchers in
bioelectromagnetics, published Electromagnetism and Life, whose Preface
stated: "The environment is now thoroughly polluted by man-made EM with
frequencies and magnitudes never before present. Man's activities probably
changed earth's EM background to a greater degree than any other natural
attribute-whether land, water or atmosphere. Evidence indicates abnormal EM
environments constitute a health risk. Today interest in all facets of this
is at an unprecedented pitch."
The pitch went up a full octave in June 1989 with publication of Currents of
Death by Paul Brodeur in The New Yorker magazine.

W. Ross Adey received a medical doctorate in 1949 in Australia, and was a
Research Fellow at England's Oxford University. He went to the U.S. in 1954
as UCLA professor of anatomy. In 1961, he joined the new Brain Research
Institute to pioneer implanting EEG sensors in live monkey brains to study
weak EM effects on outer membranes and inner workings of brain cells.
In the 1960s, using monkeys with EEG implants, Adey found that both seven-
and ten-hz fields increased EEG action in the limbic system, an ancient part
of the brainstem. While 10 hz had no effect on primate behavior, seven hz
caused delays in reaction time. In the 1970s he found effects of low level
EM at seven, 45, 60, and 75 hz on primates. Consistently, ELF fields as low
as 1 vpm changed in EEG and behavior.
Cats-a different species-with implanted electrodes were exposed to very high
frequency (VHF) EM of 147 million hz (Mhz). By itself, VHF EM had no effect,
but modulated at ELF, it altered feline brainwaves. Effects were specific
for sites in the brain and particular EL Fs?.

In 1974, Adey made a breakthrough. He exposed live chick brains to low-level
147 Mhz EM, again with no effect. But ELF modulation caused up to 20 percent
rises in calcium ion release by brain cell membranes.
This occurred at several specific frequencies between six and 20 hz, with a
maximum at 16 hz and lower responses at adjacent frequencies. This calcium
release follows a classic resonance curve which depends, not on EM
intensity, but frequency. Subsequent study revealed this narrow window
effect also occurs at specific field strengths and exposure times.
By 1976, Adey had proven that weak EM directly affects the central nervous
system, and theorized that ELF oscillations of protein-calcium strands are
cell-to-cell communication. Weak ELF EM alters calcium movement in cell
membranes to change neural chemical action.
By 1977, he'd shown that low level microwaves of 450 Mhz, modulated at six
hz, changes brain tissue chemistry in the cerebral cortex. This was
observed-but just how weak EM did this remained unknown. Few scientists
tried to repeat Adey's experiments.

In 1979 Carl Blackman, an EPA Health Effects Research Lab biologist,
confirmed Adey's 16 hz window effect on calcium ions. Blackman found 50 Mhz
(ham radio frequency) modulated at 15 hz also increased calcium ion release
from chick brain tissue.
Further experiments showed the power level of the internal magnetic field in
tissue was critical. In 1980, Blackman found that 16 hz increased calcium
release at two power levels, but one and 30 hz showed no effect. Then he
explored one to 100 hz to reveal windows at 15, 45, 75, and 105 hz, with
weak reactions to 30, 60 and 90 hz.
Blackman's real discovery came in 1983. In studying frequency window
effects, Blackman stumbled on the solid state physics principle of cyclotron
resonance-that static magnetic fields cause electric particles to move in
circles at a frequency related to static magnetic strength.
Using Helmholtz coils to create static magnetism, he cut local geomagnetism
in half-and 15 hz calcium ion effects vanished. In other tests, a new window
appeared at 30 hz with an effect proportional to geomagnetism. In July 1984,
Blackman told the Bioelectromagnetics Society that local geomagnetism is a
critical variable in experiments, and explained why researchers had trouble
reproducing biomagnetic experiments-results depend on local geomagnetism in
each lab.

Many scientists repeated Blackman's experiments. Oakland University
physicist Abraham Liboff suggested neural tissue ions are in cyclotron
resonance with external magnetism. He altered geomagnetism to a level at
which lithium ions resonate, and found rats exposed to 60 hz had impaired
response time-a behaviorial effect.

In 1974 Dr. Nancy Wertheimer began a study which would link powerline
magnetism to child leukemia. After a decade of denial, by 1984 a vast body
of research showed man-made magnetism adversely affects delicate biological
processes: bone growth, cell communication, biocycles, white blood cells,
neurochemistry, genetic replication, and immune system.

Dr. Robert Becker insists, "Our unwise use of EM produced unprecedented
environmental changes. Today we swim in a sea of almost totally man-made
energy. Evidence is clear EM's unrestricted use creates environments
hazardous to life and results in significant abnormal physiology and
function.. Clearly we face a major crisis-all the more critical because it's
not recognized by agencies responsible to deal with it."

http://pesn.com/