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Electromagnetic hypersensitivity is a growing health concern

Jueves 29 de noviembre de 2007 · 1910 lecturas

Convenience may be causing people to get sick

Electromagnetic hypersensitivity is a growing health
concern
BY MARIA TZAVARAS
November 27, 2007 11:52 AM

Tips to have less EMFs in your home
Health Canada official statement on electromagnetic
fields

Modern technology makes our lives convenient and
efficient, but is it also making us sick?

Electromagnetic fields, or EMFs, are all around us,
emitted from items in our home, work and outside
environments. Whether it’s outside power lines, home
electrical wiring or appliances big and small, if it
uses electricity, it’s giving off EMFs.

That being said, it’s inevitable we are all going to
be exposed to EMFs so the question becomes what
exactly does that mean for our health?

Electromagnetic hypersensitivity is a growing health
concern and, according to Dr. Howard Fisher, a Toronto
chiropractor and author of The Invisible Threat, The
Risks Associated with EMFs, it can be attributed to
several health disorders.

Studies have confirmed these disorders include
fatigue, sleep disturbances, loss of mental attention,
headaches, depression, heart palpitations, memory
problems and burning and tingling sensations in the
head and extremities.

Fisher also said EMFs have been proven to have effects
on neurological tissues, contributing to nerve
degenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s, multiple
sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease.

Whether it causes or simply exacerbates symptoms,
Fisher said he can’t say, but if this is true, why
hasn’t the public heard more about it?

Health Canada, while recognizing EMFs exist, said it
does not feel they negatively impact the health of
Canadians.

"Health Canada has no scientific reason to consider
the use of wireless communications devices, such as
cellphones, BlackBerries, wireless laptop computers
and their supporting infrastructure, (are) dangerous
to the health of the Canadian public," said the
official statement from the health organization. "The
World Health Organization has recently confirmed this
as well."

Renee Bergeron, media relations officer for Health
Canada, said she gets calls on a weekly basis from
concerned citizens regarding electromagnetic
sensitivities, mainly regarding cellphones.

Currently Bergeron said there’s no concrete scientific
evidence to back up those concerns.

"We have a whole team of people working in the
radiation protection program area; that’s what they
do," she said.

However, Fisher said he strongly believes in the
negative health effects attributed to EMFs and has
known about it since the early ’80s.

Kevin Byrne, a former sufferer, also said the effects
are real.

Three years ago, Byrne moved into a house and did
renovations, including installing new lighting
complete with 15 compact fluorescent lights and three
dimmer switches. Over the next few months, Byrne
noticed he was feeling overall unwellness.

"I developed arthritic-like pain. I was very sore and
my joints hurt, especially my hips, and I wasn’t
sleeping well," he said.

He went to the doctor for a checkup, but everything
was normal. It wasn’t until he was visiting a
neighbour, an environmental engineer, that there was
some light shed on his situation.

The neighbour was using a Stetzer meter, developed to
measure dirty electricity.

Dirty electricity is caused by energy-saving devices
such as power bars and compact fluorescent light
bulbs. To achieve the lower voltage, electricity is
chopped up, allowing it to move slower and achieve
energy efficiency. As a result, electricity spews
outward and goes back through the wiring in your home,
contaminating everything that is plugged in.

After Byrne took to the meter home to his house, he
found high levels of dirty electricity.

"Your electricity, when it’s clean, there’s nothing
fundamentally wrong with it, but when it’s
contaminated ... it’s got radiation spewing off of
it," Byrne said.

Historically, Fisher said people have been aware of
the effects of EMFs since the 1950s. However, it
remains a controversial topic with many unknowns.

"What the medical world isn’t aware of we don’t know
how much of the symptoms that they see in practice on
a regular basis is due to electromagnetic field
effects or actual pathologies," Fisher said.

That being said, other countries such as Sweden and
Australia recognize this; so why not Canada?

"When you test anything, like drugs, products or
whatever, sometimes you have to look at how big the
studies are, how long did they test them for, what are
the variables, so we have to accumulate a lot of
studies and we have to see a pattern before we can
verify it," Bergeron said.

Visit www.dirtyelectricity.ca to learn more about how
you can avoid EMF exposure.

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