If our everyday existence is impossible to imagine without electricity, then it is also impossible to imagine without electromagnetic fields. But recent legal judgements confirm what some environmental activists have long said: those ubiquitous fields can pose a serious challenge to our health, housing values, and community development plans. This eye-opening book -- the most comprehensive resource available to consumers today -- explains why and where electromagnetic fields (EMFs) occur, which illnesses may have a strong connection to them, and how your Doctor's knowledge may be limited.

In a frank, balanced, and accessible manner, science writer B. Blake Levitt sorts through the complex social and medical issues. From high tension lines to radio towers, consumer products to government regulations, she explores our ever-increasing electromagnetic environment and shows us what we can do to live more safely within it. This is essential reading for community planners and all those concerned with personal and family health and well-being.

A Harvest Original. 0-15-628100-7 $15.00, 400 pages, 5-5/16 X 8, 23 illustrations or charts.
Available at finer bookstores everywhere, or contact the publisher at 1.800.543.1918.

Chapter 1: How Can This Be?
• A Normal Twentieth Century Day
• Serious Concerns
• The Global Environment
• EMFs and the Human Anatomy: The Cart before the Horse
• A Typical Scenario: Polarized Politics
• The Dynamics of Denial
• The Military: How Did We Get Here?
• The Business and Legal Climate

Chapter 2: The Difficulty with Setting Standards
• A Case in Point: The History of ANSI C95.1
• Standards: Where We Are Today
• The Environmental Protection Agency, the Federal Communications Commission, and the Food and Drug Administration
• The U.S. Congress: Toward Clearer Perspectives

Chapter 3: Electromagnetics Made Simple ... It's a Lot Like Baseball
• Atoms: The fundamentals of Energy
• Energy and the Electromagnetic Spectrum
• How to Read the Electromagnetic Spectrum
• Electromagnetic Fields: What They Are
• Electric Fields
• Electric Current
• Magnetic Fields
• Not All Fields Are Alike
• How Electromagnetic Fields Affect the Body
• Complexities of the Subject
• Those Confusing Measurements and Terms
• Comprehending the Invisible: How Things Work

Chapter 4: Nature's Electromagnetic Fields
• The Geomagnetic Envelope and the Magnetosphere
• Our Complex Electromagnetic Orb
• The Earth's Magnetic Grid, Geopathic Stress, and the Dowsing Phenomenon
• By Land and by Sea: Nature's Electromagnetic Sixth Sense

Chapter 5: Trees and Plants: The Things That Sustain Us All
• Electricity and Plants
• Plants, EMFs, and Some Alarming New Findings
• Electroagriculture in the Future
• Corona Effect, Tree Damage, and Deforestation

Chapter 6: What Your Doctor Doesn't Know, and Why
• What Primitive People Knew: Vitalism and the Beginnings of Western Medicine
• Ancient Texts and the Origins of Energy Medicine
• The Genesis of Western Medicine
• Scientific Medicine Emerges
• The Age of Science and Reason
• The Death of Vitalism, Understanding Electricity and the Fragmentation of Medicine
• The Twentieth Century

Chapter 7: The Body's Electrical System
• A Quick Overview
• Physical Mechanisms
• The Human Anatomy
• Circadian Biorhythms
• Other Frequencies and How They Affect Us
• Central Control: The Pineal Gland and Melatonin
• Other Hormones and Neurotransmitters
• Stress Response
• A New Model: The Body's Own Direct Current

Chapter 8: The Secret Electrical Life of Cells
• Cells and How They Grow
• Normal Cell Division and EMFs
• Calcium Ions
• A Lethal Triad
• Cells and Resonance
• Differentiation
• Cancer: Abnormal Cell Division and EMFs
• Some Electrotherapeutic Approaches
• Magnetic Materials in Body Tissues

Chapter 9: Pregnancy, Children, and Magnetic Fields
• Defining Some Terms: Heat and Pregnancy
• The Period of Organogenesis
• How Some Frequencies Affect Pregnancy
• Nonthermal Effects
• Additional Studies and Adverse Outcomes
• EMFs and Infertility
• Miscarriage Clisters and VDTs
• Diagnostic Tests
• Children
• Learning Disabilities
• Sudden Infant Death Syndrome
• Conclusion

Chapter 10: Twentieth-Century Maladies
• Immune-System Disorders
• Electromagnetic Sensitivity Syndrome
• Chronic Fatigue Immune Dysfunction Syndrome
• Gulf War Syndrome, the Military, and Electromagnetic Pulse
• AIDS
• Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
• Alzheimer's Disease
• Cancer

Chapter 11: Getting a Handle on Our Altered Environment
• What Have We Done?
• Prudent Avoidance
• How to Measure Electromagnetic Fields
• Gaussmeters

Chapter 12: What's at Home?
• How Fields Can Cancel Out
• Domestic Wiring
• Elevated Magnetic Fields in the Home
• Other Wiring Sources of High Residential Fields
• A Quick Note About Underground Wiring
• Electrical Appliances
• Stoves and Ovens
• Microwave Ovens
• Personal Appliances: Hair Dryers, Electric Razors, Electric Blankets
• Flourscent and Incandescent Lights and Light-Dimming Switches
• TVs and Computers
• Phones, Remote Controls, and Wirelass Technologies
• Cordless Phones and Specific Absorption Rates

Chapter 13: What's at Work?
• Offices
• How to Arrange an Office
• Low-EMF Architecture
• Electrical Professions
• Radio-Frequency/Microwave Professions
• A Note About Radar
• Other RF/MW Professions
• Ham and CB Radios
• Medical Professions
• Electromagnetic Interference

Chapter 14: Power Lines
• How the Electric Utility System Works
• A Quick Review of Some Terms
• High-Tension Lines
• The Electromagnetic Environment Around High-Tension Lines
• How Close is Too Close?
• Magnetic Fields Near High-Tension Rights-of-Way
• Standards
• High-Current Homes
• Studies
• Wiring Configurations and Mitigation

Chapter 15: The Blinking Horizon ... Radio Towers and Microwave Dishes
• Transmitters
• How Radio and TV Transmission Works
• What Radio Frequency Radiation Is
• Another Quick Review of Some Terms
• A Research Vacuum
• The Bioeffects of Radio Frequencies
• Typical RF Exposures
• How to Recognize Antennas in Our Midst
• Cellular-Phone Towers
• How Cellular Towers Work
• Standards
• What a Community Can Do

Selected Bibliography

Planning and Zoning Information Available

A hands-on Planning and Zoning Information Package is available from B. Blake Levitt that can be adapted to your community. The package includes:

• An autographed copy of Electromagnetic Fields, A Consumer's Guide to the Issues and How to Protect Ourselves, ©1995, Harcourt Brace & Company
• A sample of zoning by-laws from Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, and Washington. Includes liability indemnification clauses for your town, setback information, and how to write zoning regulations for FCC-defined "adequate" coverage, rather than the blanket coverage preferred by industry.
• An updated FR test protocol, with recommended equipment, to measure the environment before a tower goes on-line, and afterward, as well as on a regular basis to make sure installations are in compliance with FCC regulations.
• FCC Fact Sheet
• Sample moratorium language
• The Stamford, Connecticut Health Department Ordinance -- considered the best in the country when viewing RF applications, together with an article from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory Technical Digest which discusses the ordinance.
• Connecticut Siting Council Guidelines on what to consider with tower applications.
• Miscellanious articles from The Washington Post, Computers & Technology, and Radio Communications Report, among others.

B. Blake Levitt
Att. EMF/RF
P.O. Box 2014
New Preston, CT 06777 USA

B. Blake Levitt, a former feature writer for the New York Times, is the coauthor of Before You Conceive: The Complete Pregnancy Guide, for which she won an award from the American Medical Writers Association. She lives in Connecticut.