Subject: EMF Thoughts (by Alasdair Philips).....
Date: Sat, 6 Dec 1997 055656 -0600 (CST)
From: "Roy L. Beavers" <rbeavers@mail.llion.org>
To: emfguru@hotmail.com
--------------------------------------------------
Hi everybody:
Alasdair is an electrical engineer in the U.K. ... and perhaps the leading
activist there........
He has been paying attention to what we have been saying..... The
main "message" I take from Alasdair's excellent explanation is one that
has recently been gaining currency in the research community as well
(I believe), namely that: there ARE more metrics to the "EMF exposure
problem" than just the "magnetic field." We must start paying attention
to those other metrics.... As you will see below, for example, in the
U.K. the "radon daughters" are still under suspicion....... They have
been virtully totally ignored in the U.S.
Cheerio.....
Roy Beavers (EMFguru)
rbeavers@llion.org..............http://www.feb.se/EMF-L/EMF-L.html
................................It is better to light a single candle ...
than to curse the darkness...............................................
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 5 Dec 1997 22:26:06 GMT
From: Alasdair Philips
To: "Roy L. Beavers"
Subject: EMF Thoughts
Dear Roy
It is really great that you are regularly forwarding mail and posting your
comments once again. After the initial ache of separation I had got used to
a quieter email in-tray, but it is delightful to have you mails and
comments once again. Thanks.
Frequency:
----------
There ARE great differences. Power frequencies generally do not "radiate"
in the sense of electromagnetic radiation which obeys maxwell's equations.
There is a tiny amount of radiation from some of the very long national
transmission networks. At 60Hz the wavelength is 5000,000 metres. You only
get real EMRadiation in the "far field" where you get a "plane wave" with
the electric and magnetic fields travelling through space orthogonally
interleaving (at right angles to each other) and its impedance is constant
and equal to that of free space = 120 x PI = 377 ohms. The near field / far
field transition takes place at around wavelength / (2 x PI), i.e. 800,000
metres or 500 miles. So you need to be at least this distance from the
radiating source to be truely in the realm of EMRadiation. Below this you
need to consider the electric and magnetic components separately, and UNLIKE
EMR, you can have electric or magnetic only, or any combination of amplitude
and phase of both.
With three-phase overhead powerlines you can also get rotating magnetic
field vectors which are, and interact with cells, in a completely different
way again. Kato, et al, have repeatedly demonstrated that rotating fields
have greater influence (on melatonin production for example) that simply
reversing or vibrating single-phase fields. Virtually all the ELF cellular
work and ALL the published epidemiology has not considered, measured or used
the amount of field rotation!
Most of the cellular digital systems pulse at ELF. The microwaves (near
field / far field transition of 900 MHz is at around 2 inches and 1 inch at
1800 MHz) penetrate in quite a different way from ELF fields, but polarised
molecules do dect them, just like an old crystal radio set, and so the body
is aware of the ELF pulsing too. I have a important letter in the
forthcoming edition of Microwave News on this subject. I will post a copy
here when it is published.
Marjorie's RF on power lines:
----------------------------
Critics should purchase a copy of her paper where she clearly explains what
various of your contributors have been commenting on - some in obvious
ignorance or mis-understanding. Basically you get RF travelling waves on
the very long, parallel, overhead wires and the
RF DOESN'T radiate in the normal sense but is contained close to the wires.
It leaks out mainly near to discontinuities, especially near to the
'transmitting' source.
I, too, do not believe that she has found the main cause of ill health as
the levels of RF I have found near to overhead power lines are quite low,
BUT I do believe that she has identified correctly one more potentially
important piece of this complex jigsaw which everyone else has been ignoring.
Henshaw's Radon daughter and ionised aerosols:
---------------------------------------------
I am working with Prof. Denis H. and his theroies and measurements are
continuing to get stronger and stronger. There is a real build up of toxic
and radioactive chemicals near high voltage lines. Even the McLaughlin
paper presented recently at San Diego which tried to play down Henshaw's
work admitted that "significant levels of the long-lived radon progeny
Polonium-210 were detected on power line insulators". The UK authorities
(COMARE) already admits that 14% of childhood leukaemia in the UK is
probably cause by radon. Any build up of radon decay products near to power
lines will increase this, not to say anything about the NOx SO2 H2S etc
which also get attracted and then split into free radicals by the ionising
current (corona) which leaks out around all very high voltage lines.
What a complicated subject real life is!
I am sure I had more things I wanted to respond to, but that is enough
before I overload you (all). More to come later!
Best wishes to all EMF /EMR pollution fighters.
ps
It is better, in my opinion, to have a cell mast on the ROOF of a school
than one in a field a quarter of a mile away pointing at the school windows.
Some fights in the UK have had then banned from the high school roof, where
the radiations would have mainly been beamed horizontally outwards, to only
have the cellular operator persuade another local landowner nearby to have
the mast - this time on the ground with the antennas at a lower level and
pointing at the school windows. OK if you can GUARANTEE that it won't be
placed within half a mile of the school, but do remember that the system
design sets the places where they need the base-stations and they won't want
to move far away.
I have "team led" an detailed evaluation (both theoretical and with
practical measurements) of the whole of a middle-eastern country's ETACS and
GSM phone systems from EMR point of view. If the installation is working
correctly VERY little microwave energy goes downwards. Peak signal level at
ground level is usually between 50 and 150 metres (or yards) away, and you
generally need to be AT LEAST half a mile away to get back anywhere towards
the low levels found immediately below a correctly fuctioning mast.
Campaigners need to be aware of what their actions might bring.
For example when there was a massive Greenpeace action against genetically
modified soy oil in margarine and cooking oils last year industry responded
by changing to using large amounts of Rape Seed oil (one of the most
carcinogenic of 'edible' oils) instead!!!!!
(Virgin Olive oil is one of the best of common edible oils)
Yes, we need to campaign, but we need to be very open minded and wide
seeing. All these issues are very complex and interlinked.
Alasdair.
Alasdair Philips (aphilips@gn.apc.org)
.-
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