Subject: SX1 Current Flow on Water Pipes Between Houses (fwd) Date: Tue, 25 Aug 1998 130707 -0500 (CDT) From: "Roy L. Beavers" <rbeavers@llion.org> To: emfguru@hotmail.com -------------------------------------------------- .......Hi Spark!!! Haven't heard from you in quite some time..... ...One comment: As the EMF RAPID working group report found, we're still not sure that all the bio-effects are attributable to the _magnetic_ field.....It now seems more likely that -- we are getting so many bio-effects (even, perhaps, many not yet recognized) -- that we need to de-emphasize the "technical analysis" (which introduces "assumptions" about "how much" of "what" will do "what") and simply talk about proximity or exposure to the EMR or EMF source, as the case may be..... I believe that comes closer to describing the approach that is taken for reporting the results contained in the final report.....It admits that we know too little about (1) the proper metric or metrics of the EMF/EMR to be measured, and (2) about the biological activity that is occurring...... I believe it is fair to say that the strongest consensus of all is that: biological activity is occurring!!!! Now, let us get busy and see what it means!!!!.......[BTW, I have received my printed copy of the final report.].....guru..... ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Tue, 25 Aug 1998 13:21:38 EDT From: Envoptions@aol.com To: rbeavers@mail.llion.org Subject: SX1: Current Flow on Water Pipes Between Houses This is in reference to the yesterday's postings on the putting of a dielectric union in the water service supply pipe of a house. I wish to comment on these three issues. 1) Electrical Safety 2) Biological Issues 3) Proper use of terms to avoid confusion. ================================== 1) Electrical Safety For the water pipe issue, I agree that eliminating the metallic connection of your on site grounding system from neighboring systems is needed. However caution is advised whenever messing around with a building electrical wiring and / or grounding system, that is the appropriate Electrical Codes must be observed. The Electric Code, as presently written, is not an obstacle here, it's just a matter of proper application of the code and doing the job right to satisfy shock and fire concerns. Doing work based on "have a dielectric insulator placed just inside the wall " will be dangerous if the neutral / ground of the electrical supply service leading into the house is not intact. Murphy's law applied here has that upon the cutting of the pipe, a large voltage difference will be between the two pipe parts. The size of the voltage will depend on what loads are on at that particular moment and how they happen to be balanced out across the 240 Volts. Assuming you don't get a shock (which you will get if your touching the pipes) the next worst case is the 240 V shows up at your TV and computer and destroys them. There is not an electrical mystery here, it is just a matter of understanding the electrical circuits before you mess around. I have the details of the proper work techniques written up but they are much easier to understand by referring to the diagrams that go with the text. I'll show these to the Guru (or anyone else who is interested) at the DOE EMF Research Conference in Tucson in September 1998. Otherwise contact me for further information. Note: Karl Riley does not advocate the use of a dielectric union as it was vaguely described in the original post. I advocate the work being done inside the house as here in Wisconsin, the water supply pipes are down six feet (for freezing protection) and thus are not accessible as they are in hot country where Riley's solution is appropriate. My approach has more steps than "cut the pipe" but the steps are straight forward and Electric Code compliant. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------- 2) Biological Issues >From my experience, and that of colleagues doing similar work, is that, in general, the driving force of mitigation work is not an intellectual decision based on the results of epidemilogical studies but rather on real time immediate effects such as the Electrical Sensitivity that is manifested in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, headaches, muscle aches, asthma, SID, brain tumors, stuttering etc. However from the perspective of the engineer / technician the healh issues of why the work is done is irrelevant. His/ her primary assignment is good electrical wiring The technician's assignment is to find sources of exposure and get rid of them. Thus the water pipe to neighbor issue is just another source, (in addition to being a poor way to distribute electricity). Thus the technician can justify, to him / herself or any electrical inspector, the work as just a better and more proper way to distribute electricity. This also extends wiring errors within the building. Where this is relevant is that in the search for technicians (engineers, electricians, plumbers) you don't have to convince the technician that there is a health issue. Just by knowing the technical facts you can use any electrician to put in a better electrical system in terms of Electrical Code issues (shock and fire hazards) that coincidentally has lower field exposure. ================================================== 3) Proper use of terms to avoid confusion The use the term "EMF" leads to confusion. For the water pipe as a path discussion, the proper term to use is Magnetic Fields. Magnetic Fields are caused by Current Flow. Electric Fields are caused by Voltage Differences. These apply to the frequencies that are below Radio Frequencies. It is a gradual transition in going from "low " frequency (where one distinguishes between Magnetic Fields and Electric Fields) up to EMF ElectroMagnetic Fields, where the two blend together and the energization of the space around the electrified conductor becomes a radiated field. The term EMF should be used to refer to this transition area. When above this call it Radio Frequency. I would propose in discussions that it be made clear which of the four (Magnetic, Electric, ElectroMagnetic and Radio) the writer is referring to. This then clarifies what types of sources are being discussed and what types of mitigation technologies are relevant. All of the pipe discussion above was in reference to Magnetic Fields, however the mitigation mind set also applies to Electric Fields except that the hardware configuration issues are different, and thus the solutions are different. The Electric Field exposure issues revolve around "grounding" issues, using the strict definitions of the word, and not the vague use of the word "ground" as in the original post. The solutions for minimizing field exposure are straight forward as long as you get your detailed facts straight. ========================================== M. Spark Burmaster Electrical Engineer ENVIRONMENTAL OPTIONS Chaseburg, Wisconsin 608-483-2604 envoptions@aol.com Archive provided courtesy of WaveGuide, http://www.wave-guide.org Reprinted with permission of Roy Beavers, http://www.feb.se/EMF-L/EMF-L.html