The age-old adage First Do No Harm should be the tempering goal of not only medicine, but government and industry, especially when they team up to deploy new technologies, set policies and serve the people.

This blog exists to reveal and analyze areas in which these powerful groups are failing to "first do no harm."

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Smart Meter Update from Wyoming, Ohio and Maine

Here is a link to more reports from earlier this year of utility bullying of Wyoming and Ohio energy customers over installing wireless smart meters.

And here is an update on the fight in Maine, from Dianne Wilkins, June 12, 2011
Her lawsuit may create precedent to HELP US ALL. (stay tuned)
Comment at EMR Health Alliance of BC

In Maine, 7 people, representing over 70 customers of the electric Utility CMP, filed 7 complaints with the Maine Public Utilities Commission, and recently won the right to opt out of the RF smart meter program (for a fee). Because of the publicity generated by our cases, 7,000 people wrote the utility to ask to opt out of the program. I am one of the 7 lead complainants. The Maine PUC only allowed the opt out option on the basis of economic feasability for the customers and the utility, ignoring our constitutional rights to protect our homes/bodies from harm and to prevent anyone from putting something into our homes without our permission. I am now appealing this decision in the Maine Supreme Judicial Court (case 2010400) to ask the court to define our legal rights and hopefully set a State Supreme court precedent so that all U.S. Citzens can use this precedent to fight this outrageous, unlawful intrusion into our homes! To see all of our court documents, testimony, & exhibits, visit the Maine PUC website, go to “virtual filings” and type in one of our case numbers 2010400, 2010345, 2010398, 2010389, 2010346, 2011085, & 2011120. Hopefully you can use some of the exhibits to support your fight to hardwire the smart meters instead of using radiofrequency waves that emit harmful radiation. Unfortunately, I have filed a Notice of Appeal but have been unable to find an attorney to take this case on a Pro Bono basis. I am still searching and hoping to find an informed, generous, lawyer willing to fight Golieth for us all!

And I echo Dianne: When are the lawyers going to get on this???

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Smart Meters DO NOT save energy

Devvy Kidd has another well-researched smart meter column with lots of information, this time on how smart meters do NOT save energy.

Here are more informative wireless smart meter informational sites worth a look:

Smart Meters can reveal your personal habits on the worldwide energy web.
Who gets the power the smart grid creates? Who is in charge of the new technocracy? Not You or Me!
And for people not yet aware of "what's wrong with smart meters" here is a beginner's guide.
"Information is power."

Monday, September 26, 2011

Should Wisconsin Public Utility Institute Ban Public Input?

The Wisconsin Public Utility Institute (WPUI) has announced cancellation of the September 27 Smart Meter roundtable meeting for unspecified “financial” reasons shortly after public notice was given here that a smart meter protest was being planned outside the event.

Citizen inquiries about the event, suggesting a desire to attend and join the discussion, led to clarification that, while citizens could attend (for a $125 fee), they could not participate. Chatham House Rules were also instituted after that first inquiry, so it was against conference rules for attending utility officials to be held accountable for statements they made. Roundtable content could only be discussed in abstract terms. Journalists were not invited. It seems that when it became clear that there would be some coverage, due to the protest, the conference was cancelled.

Wireless smart meters are causing health problems for many individuals. They also pose a threat to national and personal security since data is broadcast wirelessly, making it easy for knowledgeable hackers to obtain data or even shut down large segments of the electrical grid. (See Electrical Pollution or Stop Smart Meters sites.)

Contrary to utility claims, transmitting smart meters are being found to be out of compliance with the FCC. And despite the assertion that "power range of wireless signals from smart meters is much less severe" than WiFi networks or cell phones, smart meters have been measured to give off more radiation than a cell phone TOWER.

The utilities do not "acknowledge" any health effects from the radiofrequency (rf) radiation transmitting devices they install. Yet, they admit the "RF issue" is a Key Barrier to their plans as they scramble to try to control consumer perception and get everyone to happily climb aboard the new system. But people experiencing illness relating to wireless meter installation, and those with concerns about privacy and security cannot or will not climb aboard. This is the precisely the point that needs to be openly, publically aired.

The Wisconsin Public Utility Institute supposedly incorporates the “Wisconsin Idea,” meant to foster outreach, forums and debate on utility policy to benefit the citizens and the state. Their (cancelled) Smart Meter Roundtable violated that mission. WPUI Director Cara Lee Mahany Braithwait told me in an email that Chatham House Rule was common during institute meetings, but none of the other events in their archives mentioned using the rule, or the overt exclusion of public input. So, why expend such great effort to control the information at the Smart Meter Roundtable? And is this a proper use of WPUI resources?


Public participation at the upcoming WPUI Energy Utility Basics 2011 – where smart meters will be a topic – will be curtailed by expense and prohibition of discussion during the “training” sessions. In order to be heard, concerned Wisconsin citizens plan to protest outside the conference during the smart meter segments October 24-28, 2011. Details will follow later.

--co-written by myself and Catherine of Electricalpollution.com.

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Anthony Swerdlow telecom investor's study says cell phones safe


Evidence "increasingly against" phone cancer risk


URL of this page: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_113933.html (*this news item will not be available after 10/02/2011)

Monday, July 4, 2011

The Reuters article by Ben Hirschler touted a new study that found no link with brain cancer and cell phone use, despite the World Health Organization's new classification of cell phone use and other wireless radiofrequency sources of radiation as potential cancer agents.

Turns out the guy who led the study and his wife own shares in telecom companies world wide, creating a blatant conflict of interest. Anthony Swerdlow of Britain's Institute of Cancer Research, IARC, "said it should become much clearer over the next few years whether or not there was any plausible link," since his study did not back up the WHO's call for caution.

In plain words, the industry stockholder conducted a study and said he found no link of health harm from the devices he was invested in. So, let the great experiment on the people continue until all studies show harm, even those conducted by industry shills like him. Amazing.


Friday, September 23, 2011

Microwaves Cause Leakage of Albumin through Blood Brain Barrier - and WHAT IT MEANS TO Human Kind

Please read this crucial 2008 evidence for the biological harm manmade microwaves are unleashing on the world, especially human health. The Blood Brain Barrier was created to keep harmful toxins and and substances in the blood away from the brain. Exposure to Electromagnetic Fields causes this natural protective mechanism to FAIL, and allows a brain to be damaged by leakage of harmful substances, such as stored metals or pesticides, now entering the BRAIN.

My reading also has shown evidence of exposure to bursts or pulses of low level microwave radiation to "excite" atoms and cells, thereby making them release STORED TOXINS into the blood. This interferes with the body's natural protective and immune measures, and would logically progress to more free radical damage as toxins are re-circulated again and again.

The same process of atom/cell excitation could account for some positive effects in some conditions and circumstances, where this activity keeps plaques from settling and causing damage, for example, in Alzheimer's patients. But at the same time, the stored toxins in their bodies could be causing brain damage from now entering the brain across the blood-brain barrier.

When will the scientists wake up? When will the legislators wake up? When will the people awaken to the truth about these harmful effects and take action to prevent devastating results to the population? Will it take bodies lining the streets as the human guinea pigs fall? Will it happen only when wireless industry leaders' families fall beside the rest? When, oh, when will the human race wake up?

Progress of Theoretical Physics Supplement No. 173, 2008 283
The Mammalian Brain in the Electromagnetic Fields Designed by
Man with Special Reference to Blood-Brain Barrier Function,
Neuronal Damage and Possible Physical Mechanisms

Leif G. Salford,1,) Henrietta Nittby,1 Arne Brun,2 Gustav Grafstr¨om,3

Lars Malmgren,4 Marianne Sommarin,5 Jacob Eberhardt,3 Bengt Widegren6

and Bertil R. R. Persson3

1Department of Neurosurgery, Lund University, Sweden

2Neuropathology, Lund University, Sweden

3Medical Radiation Physics, Lund University, Sweden

4Applied Electronics, Lund University, Sweden

5Department of Plant Biochemistry, Lund University, Sweden

6Tumour Immunology, Lund University, Sweden

Life on earth was formed during billions of years, exposed to, and shaped by the original

physical forces such as gravitation, cosmic irradiation, atmospheric electric fields and the

terrestrial magnetism. The Schumann resonances at 7.4 Hz are an example of oscillations

possibly important for life.1)

The existing organisms are created to function in harmony with these forces. However,

in the late 19th century mankind introduced the use of electricity, in the early 20th century

long-wave radio and in the 1940-ies short-wave radio. High frequency RF was introduced in

the 50-ies as FM and television and during the very last decades, microwaves of the modern

communication society spread around the world. Today, however, one third of the world’s

population is owner of the microwave-producing mobile phones and an even larger number

is exposed to the cordless RF emitting systems. To what extent are all living organisms

affected by these, almost everywhere present radio frequency fields? And what will be the

effects of many years of continuing exposure?

Since 1988 our group has studied the effects upon the mammalian blood-brain barrier

(BBB) in rats by non-thermal radio frequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF). These have

been shown to cause significantly increased leakage of the rats’ own blood albumin through

the BBB of exposed rats, at energy levels of 1W/kg and below, as compared to non-exposed

animals in a total series of about two thousand animals.2)6) One remarkable observation

is the fact that the lowest energy levels, with whole-body average power densities below

10mW/kg, give rise to the most pronounced albumin leakage. If mobile communication,

even at extremely low energy levels, causes the users’ own albumin to leak out through the

BBB, also other unwanted and toxic molecules in the blood, may leak into the brain tissue

and concentrate in and damage the neurons and glial cells of the brain.

In later studies we have shown that a 2-h exposure to GSM 915 MHz, at non-thermal

SAR-values of 0.2, 2 and 200 mW/kg, gives rise to significant neuronal damage, seen not

only 50 days after the exposure7) but also after 28 days but not after 14 days. Albumin

extravasations and uptake into neurons was enhanced after 14 days, but not after 28.8)

In our continued research, also the non-thermal effects on tissue structure and memory

function of long-term exposure for 13 months are studied.9) We have also performed microarray

analysis of brains from rats exposed to short term GSM both at 1,800 MHz and at

900MHz and have found significant effects upon gene expression of membrane associated

genes as compared to control animals.10),11)

(etc...)

Wisconsin UPDATE: One Utility Meeting Protest Cancelled, Another One Planned

The Wisconsin Public Utility Institute cancelled the Smart Meter Roundtable after a protest was announced, but said it was due to undisclosed "financial" reasons. Here is the update.

Monday, September 19, 2011

Sunspots: Devvy Kidd posts Smart Series on "smart meters"

Blogger Devvy Kidd has posted her experience fighting the smart meter installation on her home in Texas, including tons of links and information on the nationwide fight. Share these information packed columns with newbies and experienced researchers in the smart meter battle.

Part 1: Smart Meters: the New Silent Killer

Part 2: Smart Meters: the New Silent Killer

My Fight Against the 'Smart Meter(you don't want one of those dangerous things on your house)

New scientific study finds electromagnetic hypersensitivity "a bona fide syndrome"

A new scientific study finds electromagnetic hypersensitivity to be "a bona fide environmentally-inducible neurological syndrome." But did the authors really need to call it a "novel" neurological syndrome in the title? Novel means strikingly new, unusual, or different.

Radiofrequency Sickness Syndrome has been around for decades, and there is nothing "unusual" about having functional impairment upon exposure to radiofrequency/microwave radiation. Just the fact that the syndrome is currently experienced by a small percentage of the population does not make it unusual any more than having a deadly reaction to peanuts is unusual.

Nevertheless, this is an important finding to add to the long, growing list of "studies to ignore" by the U.S. FDA and FCC if they ever want to update their grossly outdated wireless exposure standards.

ELECTROMAGNETIC HYPERSENSITIVITY: EVIDENCE FOR A NOVEL NEUROLOGICAL SYNDROME

Authors: David E McCarty, Simona Carrubba, Andrew L Chesson, Clifton Frilot, Eduardo Gonzalez-Toledo, Andrew A Marino

The International journal of neuroscience. 07/2011

ABSTRACT Objective: We sought direct evidence that acute exposure to environmental-strength electromagnetic fields could induce somatic reactions (EMF hypersensitivity). Methods: The subject, a female physician self-diagnosed with EMF hypersensitivity, was exposed to an average (over the head) 60-Hz electric field of 300 V/m (comparable to typical environmental-strength EMFs) during controlled provocation and behavioral studies. Results: In a double-blinded EMF provocation procedure specifically designed to minimize unintentional sensory cues, the subject developed temporal pain, headache, muscle-twitching, and skipped heartbeats within 100 s after initiation of EMF exposure (P < 0.05). The symptoms were caused primarily by field transitions (off-on, on-off) rather than the presence of the field, as assessed by comparing the frequency and severity of the effects of pulsed and continuous fields in relation to sham exposure. The subject had no conscious perception of the field as judged by her inability to report its presence more often than in the sham control. Discussion: The subject demonstrated statistically reliable somatic reactions in response to exposure to subliminal EMFs under conditions that reasonably excluded a causative role for psychological processes. Conclusion: EMF hypersensitivity can occur as a bona fide environmentally-inducible neurological syndrome.

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Smart Meter Update from Wyoming, Ohio and Maine

Here is a link to more reports from earlier this year of utility bullying of Wyoming and Ohio energy customers over installing wireless smart meters.

And here is an update on the fight in Maine, from Dianne Wilkins, June 12, 2011
Her lawsuit may create precedent to HELP US ALL. (stay tuned)
Comment at EMR Health Alliance of BC

In Maine, 7 people, representing over 70 customers of the electric Utility CMP, filed 7 complaints with the Maine Public Utilities Commission, and recently won the right to opt out of the RF smart meter program (for a fee). Because of the publicity generated by our cases, 7,000 people wrote the utility to ask to opt out of the program. I am one of the 7 lead complainants. The Maine PUC only allowed the opt out option on the basis of economic feasability for the customers and the utility, ignoring our constitutional rights to protect our homes/bodies from harm and to prevent anyone from putting something into our homes without our permission. I am now appealing this decision in the Maine Supreme Judicial Court (case 2010400) to ask the court to define our legal rights and hopefully set a State Supreme court precedent so that all U.S. Citzens can use this precedent to fight this outrageous, unlawful intrusion into our homes! To see all of our court documents, testimony, & exhibits, visit the Maine PUC website, go to “virtual filings” and type in one of our case numbers 2010400, 2010345, 2010398, 2010389, 2010346, 2011085, & 2011120. Hopefully you can use some of the exhibits to support your fight to hardwire the smart meters instead of using radiofrequency waves that emit harmful radiation. Unfortunately, I have filed a Notice of Appeal but have been unable to find an attorney to take this case on a Pro Bono basis. I am still searching and hoping to find an informed, generous, lawyer willing to fight Golieth for us all!

And I echo Dianne: When are the lawyers going to get on this???

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Smart Meters DO NOT save energy

Devvy Kidd has another well-researched smart meter column with lots of information, this time on how smart meters do NOT save energy.

Here are more informative wireless smart meter informational sites worth a look:

Smart Meters can reveal your personal habits on the worldwide energy web.
Who gets the power the smart grid creates? Who is in charge of the new technocracy? Not You or Me!
And for people not yet aware of "what's wrong with smart meters" here is a beginner's guide.
"Information is power."

Monday, September 26, 2011

Should Wisconsin Public Utility Institute Ban Public Input?

The Wisconsin Public Utility Institute (WPUI) has announced cancellation of the September 27 Smart Meter roundtable meeting for unspecified “financial” reasons shortly after public notice was given here that a smart meter protest was being planned outside the event.

Citizen inquiries about the event, suggesting a desire to attend and join the discussion, led to clarification that, while citizens could attend (for a $125 fee), they could not participate. Chatham House Rules were also instituted after that first inquiry, so it was against conference rules for attending utility officials to be held accountable for statements they made. Roundtable content could only be discussed in abstract terms. Journalists were not invited. It seems that when it became clear that there would be some coverage, due to the protest, the conference was cancelled.

Wireless smart meters are causing health problems for many individuals. They also pose a threat to national and personal security since data is broadcast wirelessly, making it easy for knowledgeable hackers to obtain data or even shut down large segments of the electrical grid. (See Electrical Pollution or Stop Smart Meters sites.)

Contrary to utility claims, transmitting smart meters are being found to be out of compliance with the FCC. And despite the assertion that "power range of wireless signals from smart meters is much less severe" than WiFi networks or cell phones, smart meters have been measured to give off more radiation than a cell phone TOWER.

The utilities do not "acknowledge" any health effects from the radiofrequency (rf) radiation transmitting devices they install. Yet, they admit the "RF issue" is a Key Barrier to their plans as they scramble to try to control consumer perception and get everyone to happily climb aboard the new system. But people experiencing illness relating to wireless meter installation, and those with concerns about privacy and security cannot or will not climb aboard. This is the precisely the point that needs to be openly, publically aired.

The Wisconsin Public Utility Institute supposedly incorporates the “Wisconsin Idea,” meant to foster outreach, forums and debate on utility policy to benefit the citizens and the state. Their (cancelled) Smart Meter Roundtable violated that mission. WPUI Director Cara Lee Mahany Braithwait told me in an email that Chatham House Rule was common during institute meetings, but none of the other events in their archives mentioned using the rule, or the overt exclusion of public input. So, why expend such great effort to control the information at the Smart Meter Roundtable? And is this a proper use of WPUI resources?


Public participation at the upcoming WPUI Energy Utility Basics 2011 – where smart meters will be a topic – will be curtailed by expense and prohibition of discussion during the “training” sessions. In order to be heard, concerned Wisconsin citizens plan to protest outside the conference during the smart meter segments October 24-28, 2011. Details will follow later.

--co-written by myself and Catherine of Electricalpollution.com.

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Anthony Swerdlow telecom investor's study says cell phones safe


Evidence "increasingly against" phone cancer risk


URL of this page: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_113933.html (*this news item will not be available after 10/02/2011)

Monday, July 4, 2011

The Reuters article by Ben Hirschler touted a new study that found no link with brain cancer and cell phone use, despite the World Health Organization's new classification of cell phone use and other wireless radiofrequency sources of radiation as potential cancer agents.

Turns out the guy who led the study and his wife own shares in telecom companies world wide, creating a blatant conflict of interest. Anthony Swerdlow of Britain's Institute of Cancer Research, IARC, "said it should become much clearer over the next few years whether or not there was any plausible link," since his study did not back up the WHO's call for caution.

In plain words, the industry stockholder conducted a study and said he found no link of health harm from the devices he was invested in. So, let the great experiment on the people continue until all studies show harm, even those conducted by industry shills like him. Amazing.


Friday, September 23, 2011

Microwaves Cause Leakage of Albumin through Blood Brain Barrier - and WHAT IT MEANS TO Human Kind

Please read this crucial 2008 evidence for the biological harm manmade microwaves are unleashing on the world, especially human health. The Blood Brain Barrier was created to keep harmful toxins and and substances in the blood away from the brain. Exposure to Electromagnetic Fields causes this natural protective mechanism to FAIL, and allows a brain to be damaged by leakage of harmful substances, such as stored metals or pesticides, now entering the BRAIN.

My reading also has shown evidence of exposure to bursts or pulses of low level microwave radiation to "excite" atoms and cells, thereby making them release STORED TOXINS into the blood. This interferes with the body's natural protective and immune measures, and would logically progress to more free radical damage as toxins are re-circulated again and again.

The same process of atom/cell excitation could account for some positive effects in some conditions and circumstances, where this activity keeps plaques from settling and causing damage, for example, in Alzheimer's patients. But at the same time, the stored toxins in their bodies could be causing brain damage from now entering the brain across the blood-brain barrier.

When will the scientists wake up? When will the legislators wake up? When will the people awaken to the truth about these harmful effects and take action to prevent devastating results to the population? Will it take bodies lining the streets as the human guinea pigs fall? Will it happen only when wireless industry leaders' families fall beside the rest? When, oh, when will the human race wake up?

Progress of Theoretical Physics Supplement No. 173, 2008 283
The Mammalian Brain in the Electromagnetic Fields Designed by
Man with Special Reference to Blood-Brain Barrier Function,
Neuronal Damage and Possible Physical Mechanisms

Leif G. Salford,1,) Henrietta Nittby,1 Arne Brun,2 Gustav Grafstr¨om,3

Lars Malmgren,4 Marianne Sommarin,5 Jacob Eberhardt,3 Bengt Widegren6

and Bertil R. R. Persson3

1Department of Neurosurgery, Lund University, Sweden

2Neuropathology, Lund University, Sweden

3Medical Radiation Physics, Lund University, Sweden

4Applied Electronics, Lund University, Sweden

5Department of Plant Biochemistry, Lund University, Sweden

6Tumour Immunology, Lund University, Sweden

Life on earth was formed during billions of years, exposed to, and shaped by the original

physical forces such as gravitation, cosmic irradiation, atmospheric electric fields and the

terrestrial magnetism. The Schumann resonances at 7.4 Hz are an example of oscillations

possibly important for life.1)

The existing organisms are created to function in harmony with these forces. However,

in the late 19th century mankind introduced the use of electricity, in the early 20th century

long-wave radio and in the 1940-ies short-wave radio. High frequency RF was introduced in

the 50-ies as FM and television and during the very last decades, microwaves of the modern

communication society spread around the world. Today, however, one third of the world’s

population is owner of the microwave-producing mobile phones and an even larger number

is exposed to the cordless RF emitting systems. To what extent are all living organisms

affected by these, almost everywhere present radio frequency fields? And what will be the

effects of many years of continuing exposure?

Since 1988 our group has studied the effects upon the mammalian blood-brain barrier

(BBB) in rats by non-thermal radio frequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF). These have

been shown to cause significantly increased leakage of the rats’ own blood albumin through

the BBB of exposed rats, at energy levels of 1W/kg and below, as compared to non-exposed

animals in a total series of about two thousand animals.2)6) One remarkable observation

is the fact that the lowest energy levels, with whole-body average power densities below

10mW/kg, give rise to the most pronounced albumin leakage. If mobile communication,

even at extremely low energy levels, causes the users’ own albumin to leak out through the

BBB, also other unwanted and toxic molecules in the blood, may leak into the brain tissue

and concentrate in and damage the neurons and glial cells of the brain.

In later studies we have shown that a 2-h exposure to GSM 915 MHz, at non-thermal

SAR-values of 0.2, 2 and 200 mW/kg, gives rise to significant neuronal damage, seen not

only 50 days after the exposure7) but also after 28 days but not after 14 days. Albumin

extravasations and uptake into neurons was enhanced after 14 days, but not after 28.8)

In our continued research, also the non-thermal effects on tissue structure and memory

function of long-term exposure for 13 months are studied.9) We have also performed microarray

analysis of brains from rats exposed to short term GSM both at 1,800 MHz and at

900MHz and have found significant effects upon gene expression of membrane associated

genes as compared to control animals.10),11)

(etc...)

Wisconsin UPDATE: One Utility Meeting Protest Cancelled, Another One Planned

The Wisconsin Public Utility Institute cancelled the Smart Meter Roundtable after a protest was announced, but said it was due to undisclosed "financial" reasons. Here is the update.

Monday, September 19, 2011

Sunspots: Devvy Kidd posts Smart Series on "smart meters"

Blogger Devvy Kidd has posted her experience fighting the smart meter installation on her home in Texas, including tons of links and information on the nationwide fight. Share these information packed columns with newbies and experienced researchers in the smart meter battle.

Part 1: Smart Meters: the New Silent Killer

Part 2: Smart Meters: the New Silent Killer

My Fight Against the 'Smart Meter(you don't want one of those dangerous things on your house)

New scientific study finds electromagnetic hypersensitivity "a bona fide syndrome"

A new scientific study finds electromagnetic hypersensitivity to be "a bona fide environmentally-inducible neurological syndrome." But did the authors really need to call it a "novel" neurological syndrome in the title? Novel means strikingly new, unusual, or different.

Radiofrequency Sickness Syndrome has been around for decades, and there is nothing "unusual" about having functional impairment upon exposure to radiofrequency/microwave radiation. Just the fact that the syndrome is currently experienced by a small percentage of the population does not make it unusual any more than having a deadly reaction to peanuts is unusual.

Nevertheless, this is an important finding to add to the long, growing list of "studies to ignore" by the U.S. FDA and FCC if they ever want to update their grossly outdated wireless exposure standards.

ELECTROMAGNETIC HYPERSENSITIVITY: EVIDENCE FOR A NOVEL NEUROLOGICAL SYNDROME

Authors: David E McCarty, Simona Carrubba, Andrew L Chesson, Clifton Frilot, Eduardo Gonzalez-Toledo, Andrew A Marino

The International journal of neuroscience. 07/2011

ABSTRACT Objective: We sought direct evidence that acute exposure to environmental-strength electromagnetic fields could induce somatic reactions (EMF hypersensitivity). Methods: The subject, a female physician self-diagnosed with EMF hypersensitivity, was exposed to an average (over the head) 60-Hz electric field of 300 V/m (comparable to typical environmental-strength EMFs) during controlled provocation and behavioral studies. Results: In a double-blinded EMF provocation procedure specifically designed to minimize unintentional sensory cues, the subject developed temporal pain, headache, muscle-twitching, and skipped heartbeats within 100 s after initiation of EMF exposure (P < 0.05). The symptoms were caused primarily by field transitions (off-on, on-off) rather than the presence of the field, as assessed by comparing the frequency and severity of the effects of pulsed and continuous fields in relation to sham exposure. The subject had no conscious perception of the field as judged by her inability to report its presence more often than in the sham control. Discussion: The subject demonstrated statistically reliable somatic reactions in response to exposure to subliminal EMFs under conditions that reasonably excluded a causative role for psychological processes. Conclusion: EMF hypersensitivity can occur as a bona fide environmentally-inducible neurological syndrome.