EMF INTERFACE

How Terahertz Waves Tear Apart DNA

Great things are expected of terahertz waves, the radiation that fills the slot in the electromagnetic spectrum between microwaves and the infrared. Terahertz waves pass through non-conducting materials such as clothes , paper, wood and brick and so cameras sensitive to them can peer inside envelopes, into living rooms and “frisk” people at distance.

The way terahertz waves are absorbed and emitted can also be used to determine the chemical composition of a material. And even though they don’t travel far inside the body, there is great hope that the waves can be used to spot tumours near the surface of the skin.

With all that potential, it’s no wonder that research on terahertz waves has exploded in the last ten years or so.

But what of the health effects of terahertz waves? At first glance, it’s easy to dismiss any notion that they can be damaging. Terahertz photons are not energetic enough to break chemical bonds or ionise atoms or molecules, the chief reasons why higher energy photons such as x-rays and UV rays are so bad for us. But could there be another mechanism at work?

The evidence that terahertz radiation damages biological systems is mixed. “Some studies reported significant genetic damage while others, although similar, showed none,” say Boian Alexandrov at the Center for Nonlinear Studies at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and a few buddies. Now these guys think they know why.

Alexandrov and co have created a model to investigate how THz fields interact with double-stranded DNA and what they’ve found is remarkable. They say that although the forces generated are tiny, resonant effects allow THz waves to unzip double-stranded DNA, creating bubbles in the double strand that could significantly interfere with processes such as gene expression and DNA replication. That’s a jaw dropping conclusion.

And it also explains why the evidence has been so hard to garner. Ordinary resonant effects are not powerful enough to do do this kind of damage but nonlinear resonances can. These nonlinear instabilities are much less likely to form which explains why the character of THz genotoxic
effects are probabilistic rather than deterministic, say the team.

This should set the cat among the pigeons. Of course, terahertz waves are a natural part of environment, just like visible and infrared light. But a new generation of cameras are set to appear that not only record terahertz waves but also bombard us with them. And if our exposure is set to increase, the question that urgently needs answering is what level of terahertz exposure is safe.

Ref: arxiv.org/abs/0910.5294: DNA Breathing Dynamics in the Presence of a Terahertz Field

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/24331/

U.S. senator promises look into cellphone-cancer link

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor Maggie Fox, Health And Science Editor – Mon Sep 14, 7:46 pm ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Iowa senator Tom Harkin, newly empowered to investigate health matters as chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, promised on Monday to probe deeply into any potential links between cellphone use and cancer.

Harkin, who took over the committee earlier this month after the death of Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy, said he was concerned no one has been able to prove cellphones do not cause cancer.

“I’m reminded of this nation’s experience with cigarettes. Decades passed between the first warnings about smoking tobacco and the final definitive conclusion that cigarettes cause lung cancer,” Harkin said.

Cell phones, used by an estimated 275 million people in the United States and 4 billion worldwide, use radio waves. Years of research have failed to establish any clear link between their use and several kinds of cancer, including brain tumors.

Recent worries have been raised by the Environmental Working Group, an activist group, and epidemiologist Devra Lee Davis of the University of Pittsburgh, who has written a book alleging the government has overlooked many potential sources of cancer.

Harkin called a hearing of the Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education to look into the questions on Monday. “I will pursue this beyond this panel, with NIH (the National Institutes of Health),” Harkin said after the hearing.

He noted the appropriations committee did not have jurisdiction over the Food and Drug Administration or the Federal Communications Commission, but said the Health committee he now chairs does.

A staffer said the senator became concerned by a report from the Environmental Working Group showing that radio wave emissions vary from one cellphone brand and model to another; as well as some reports suggesting there might be a link.

PROVING A NEGATIVE

Linda Erdreich of science and engineering firm Exponent in New York said 50 years worth of evidence had failed to show that cellular phones can cause cancer.

“This part of the spectrum is known as non-ionizing radiation,” she told the hearing, explaining that this means radio waves cannot damage the DNA in cells.

But Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter pressed her on this, asking her repeatedly whether science had conclusively proved there was no connection. “Your statement that it is hard to prove a negative is right on,” Erdreich replied.

“What comes through to me is that we just don’t know what the answer is,” said Specter, a cancer survivor who said he avoids white flour and sugar in case it might feed tumors.

(Editing by Todd Eastham; additional reporting by Thomas Ferraro)

news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090914/hl_nm/us_cellphones_cancer

The government watchdog group on Wednesday releases a list ranking cellphones in terms of radiation. The free listing of more than 1,000 devices can be viewed at www.ewg.org.

Concerns about radiation and cellphones have swirled for years. Scientific evidence to date has not been able to make a hard link between cancer and cellphones. But recent studies “are showing increased risk for brain and mouth tumors for people who have used cellphones for at least 10 years,” says Jane Houlihan, senior vice president of research at the Washington-based group.

CTIA, the wireless industry lobbying association, disagrees. In a statement it noted that “scientific evidence has overwhelmingly indicated that wireless devices do not pose” a health hazard.

That’s why the American Cancer Society, World Health Organization and Food and Drug Administration, among others, “all have concurred that wireless devices are not a public health risk,” the CTIA statement says.

Houlihan acknowledges that “the verdict is still out” on whether cellphones can be linked directly to cancer.

“But there’s enough concern that the governments of six countries” — including France, Germany and Israel — “have issued limits of usage of cellphones, particularly for children.”

Houlihan says her group is “advising people to choose a phone that falls on the lower end of the (radiation) spectrum” to minimize potential health problems. The Samsung Impression has the lowest: 0.35 watts per kilogram, a measure of how much radiation is absorbed into the brain when the phone is held to the ear.

The highest: T-Mobile’s MyTouch 3G, Motorola Moto VU204 and Kyocera Jax S1300, all at 1.55 W/kg.

The Apple iPhone, sold exclusively by AT&T in the USA, is in the middle of the pack at 1.19 W/kg.

The Federal Communications Commission, which sets standards for cellphone radiation, requires that all devices be rated at 1.6 W/kg or lower.

The Environmental Working Group says the FCC’s standard is outmoded, noting that it was established 17 years ago, when cellphones and wireless usage patterns were much different. The group wants the government to take a “fresh look” at radiation standards.

The FCC currently doesn’t require handset makers to divulge radiation levels. As a result, radiation rankings for dozens of devices, including the BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8230 and Motorola KRZR, aren’t on the group’s list.

SOURCE: USA Today

Cellphone radiation levels vary widely, watchdog report says

Earlier this week, Wired posted a Halloween story which showed how to “Make the Ultimate Haunted House“. Now for me, fake blood and smoke doesn’t really qualify for the ‘Ultimate’ banner. If you want to move beyond the kid’s stuff you have to try something a little crazier than that, and perhaps do something like what Professor Chris French and his team at the Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit at Goldsmiths College in the UK did: they built a room and saturated various parts of it with electromagnetic fields and infrasound – which are both suspected by some researchers as being correlated with reports of hauntings and paranormal experiences.

French’s study was set up in order to test these suspicions scientifically. The results will soon be published in the journal Cortex, under the title “The ‘Haunt’ Project: An attempt to build a ‘haunted’ room by manipulating complex electromagnetic fields and infrasound“.

Read entire article here:

The Haunt Project | TDG – Science, Magick, Myth and History

The potential link between mobile telephones and brain cancer could be similar to the link between lung cancer and smoking — something tobacco companies took 50 years to recognize, according to US scientists’ warning.

Scientists are currently split on the level of danger the biological effects of the magnetic field emitted by cellular telephones poses to humans.

However, society “must not repeat the situation we had with the relationship between smoking and lung cancer where we … waited until every ‘i’ was dotted and ‘t’ was crossed before warnings were issued,” said David Carpenter, director of the Institute of Health and Environment at the University of Albany, in testimony before a subcommittee of the US House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Reform.

“Precaution is warranted even in the absence of absolutely final evidence concerning the magnitude of the risk” — especially for children, said Carpenter.

Ronald Herberman, director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute — one of the top US cancer research centers — said that most studies “claiming that there is no link between cell phones and brain tumors are outdated, had methodological concerns and did not include sufficient numbers of long-term cell phone users.”

Many studies denying a link defined regular cell phone use as “once a week,” he said.

Read Entire Article Here:

Scientists warn US Congress of cancer risk for cell phone use

Energetic Effects on Consciousness: Invisible Pollution or Panacea?
Presented by James B. Beal, B.S. (M.E.)
Tuesday, September 23rd, 6:30 – 8:30 P.M.
Austin History Center, 810 Guadalupe, Austin, TX 78701

Potential causes, symptoms, therapies, cures, precautions, and recent research associated with hazardous EMF’s will be discussed.  The wide-ranging healing stimulation effects of EMF’s have been utilized in many other countries since 1849; why, then, have EMF studies been suppressed in the US since the 1920s?  Research documents and references on this topic will be available.

Need we be concerned about the biological effects of electromagnetic fields (EMF’s) from the proximity to power lines?  Should we be concerned about the new wireless technologies in and around near our homes, such as cell phones, wireless networks, cell towers, antennas, and portable home phones? Wireless networks in home, schools, offices, libraries and public places around the globe are starting to be dismantled due to cognitive, neurological and other symptoms adults and children are experiencing as a result of long tern use. See The BioInitiative Report  (www.bioinitiative.org).

A Point To Ponder:  All the good comes with some bad.  Think about it! We pay a price for everything in life.  And you pay a higher price if you don’t know what price you are paying.  In the power and communication areas, the corporations who are bringing you all the wireless and power novelties, claim to occupy the “high ground of new tech.”  They claim they are bringing us better “service.”

“They” are interested in supplying more power and more improved communication systems as rapidly as possible, for the benefit of mankind (and their pocketbooks).  If anybody says “Let’s go slow here, and look at long-term effects”, it looks like the imposition of a narrow judgment view on a society impatient to enjoy, immediately, the miracles of modern electronic technology.  The “quick, unthinking, habituated response” is “Shoot the messenger!”  Massive denial of any hazardous biological effects of EMF’s, even though known, as with controlled frequencies and intensities of many types, have been successfully used i n healing therapies in other countries since 1849!  Pioneering electromagnetic researcher, Dr. Robert Becker, suggests there is both a “peril and a promise” to emerging electromagnetic technology.  Where does the truth lie?

What happens when biologically effective frequencies and intensities are “accidentally” in our environment long-term?   What do we know? What does the research prove, from other countries?  Are we aware or unaware of a pollution that is invisible?  Are these invisible energies affecting us? Are environmentally sensitive people being the “human canaries for the rest of us? Think about it!

About James Beal

James B. Beal, B.S. (M.E.), EMF Interface Consultant and retired NASA engineer, will present a 45-year overview of research findings about the healing aspects and the hazards of electromagnetic fields (EMF’s) and effects on health and consciousness. This will be about the EMF long-term biological effects on (as well as emitted by) living creatures (including humans ), when exposed to the strong artificial fields produced by our power and wireless technologies.

After 35 years work at Boeing, NASA, and Martin Marietta: External Tank Facility, New Orleans, Beal studied the effects of natural and artificial electromagnetic fields (EMF’s) on living systems. Beal shares a patent on electrostatic cooling, a form of weld for the Space Shuttle External Tank, with Michael Badinger, still of Louisiana.  Beal serves on Advisory Boards of The Monroe Institute, which studies hemi-sync energetic tapes and The Gladys T. McGarey  Wholistic Medical Foundation, and the INACS Board of Austin, Texas.  He assisted astronaut Edgar Mitchell in the formation of The Institute of Noetic Sciences (1972-73).  Chapters on consciousness and field effects appear in seven books.  Mr. Beal has obtained numerous grants for travel and lectures internationally. He now does private consulting for individuals at home, business and property assessments for health-stressful EMF Effects.

Contact info:
James B. Beal, EMF Interface Consulting
P.O. Box 2112
Wimberley, TX 78676
512-847-0371
www.emfinterface.com
EMFEFFECTS@aol.com

(Submitted by IONS-Austin Program Coordinator, Roberta Shoemaker-Beal)

Energetic Effects on Consciousness 09/23/08 « IONSAustin

Alarming new research from Sweden on the effects of radiation raises fears that today’s youngsters face an epidemic of the disease in later life

By Geoffrey Lean, Environment Editor
Sunday, 21 September 2008

Children and teenagers are five times more likely to get brain cancer if they use mobile phones, startling new research indicates.

The study, experts say, raises fears that today’s young people may suffer an “epidemic” of the disease in later life. At least nine out of 10 British 16-year-olds have their own handset, as do more than 40 per cent of primary schoolchildren.

Yet investigating dangers to the young has been omitted from a massive £3.1m British investigation of the risks of cancer from using mobile phones, launched this year, even though the official Mobile Telecommunications and Health Research (MTHR) Programme – which is conducting it – admits that the issue is of the “highest priority”.

Read entire article here:

Mobile phone use raises childrens risk of brain cancer fivefold – Science, News – The Independent

ANI/Business Wire India
June 22, 2008

NEW DELHI: The studies and survey conducted by Australian Health Research Institute indicates that due to billions of times more in volume electromagnetic radiation emitted by billions of mobile phones, internet, intranet and wireless communication data transmission will make almost one-third of world population (about two billions) patient of ear, eye and brain cancer beside other major body disorders like heart ailments, impotency, migraine, epilepsy.

According to the reports the tissues of children are tender and are likely to be more effected by use of any wireless gadget and devices and they should not be encouraged to use mobile phone.

The fatal and volumetric effects of electromagnetic radiation emitted mainly by mobile phones, mobile phone antenna, tower, mast, transmission tower, microwave oven, wireless devices, system and equipment.

These dangerous effects have been certified and confirmed repeatedly by many leading medical and scientific research institutions of the world including Ministries of health of various governments, W.H.O. and now have been admitted and confirmed by Govt. of India in their recent press releases.

The attached image shows and proves about the serious ill effects of E.M. radiation released by Radiation Nuclear and Safety Authority of FINLAND as to how E.M. radiation emitted by mobile phones damages the various body cells and causes incurable and fatal diseases.

2 Billion may suffer from Mobile Cancer by 2020: Study – Newindpress.com

The EM Brace is a wearable device for physically engaging with electromagnetic radiation emitted by the consumer and communication technologies that constantly permeate our bodies. The device attunes the body to the presence of electromagnetic frequencies through amplifying these frequencies and turning them into powerful sound waves that vibrate the wearer.

In this new series, Rhizome invites artists to explain the nuts and bolts of their work. Our first contribution comes from recent ITP graduate and Rhizome’s dynamo former Technology Assistant Nick Hasty. Here, Hasty describes his project The EM Brace.

Read all about it here: Tools of the Trade: Nick Hasty, The EM Brace - Rhizome