DIRTY ELECTRICITY

Here’s a new term for your vocabulary! Dirty electricity.

Of all the concepts in electromagnetic radiation, "dirty electricity" is probably the most important term to understand as it has an enormous effect on health and well-being, and there is no way of escaping it these days.

The bad news is that most of the world’s population has never heard of dirty electricity so continues to experience countless symptoms of ill health and poor quality living. These people would probably be classified as having electrical hypersensitivity or be called electromagnetic sensitives, if they knew about it. Researchers estimate that 50 percent of the population today is affected by dirty electricity.

The good news is that there are filters available that will reduce the dirty electricity to “healthy” levels, or levels that don’t appear to contribute to illness, and even begin to reverse adverse affects. It might be noted here that researchers have found that people who consider themselves healthy and energetic really aren’t aware of how their lives are being curbed by dirty electricity, and all have improvements in general day-to-day health with installation of the filters.

What is Dirty Electricity?

Since the introduction of electricity (1930s) and the rapid growth in our use of electronic devices (ending?? with the cell phone in the 1990’s) the quality of electrical power at home and at work has been deteriorating. It is caused by the electrical companies in the distribution of power. It is also caused by the relatively recent influx of technology in our homes (i.e. computers).  Most of us have known for some time that computer equipment is subject to malfunctions such as power surges and most of us have various forms of surge protectors on all our sensitive equipment. Well, that’s only part of the story. Those surge protectors will not protect us from the dirty electricity because they don’t cover the right range of frequencies. It has really never occurred to us, nor have we been informed, that this dirty electricity is what they call “biologically active” or capable of damaging our bodies.

Having a home without electricity today would almost be impossible. And we don't have control over the quality of electricity received at the door (so to speak). In our mad dash into consumerism to meet our addiction to instant communications we have installed a proliferation of computers, television, dimmer switches, three-way switches, halogen lights, energy efficient lighting (fluorescents), and appliances. ALL of these (and more) create dirty electricity - which we can't see! Our individual and collective health is being affected as symptom after symptom, and case after case of serious illness is becoming evident.

All of these modern conveniences, along with the tree branches that short out of distribution lines from time to time, can be visually seen as distortion on the 50 or 60 Hz sine wave, when viewed with an oscilloscope. Millions of micro-surges or “high frequency harmonics and transients” can be seen spiking close together across the screen, riding over top of the regular, relatively harmless sine wave. “Even the 25 MHz burst of energy every 1.5 seconds from strobe lights on cell phone towers has been measured more than 5 km away.”

Photo by: The National Foundation for Alternative Medicine

Symptoms & diseases associated with dirty electricity

In a review of the research these are some of the symptoms and diseases associated with dirty electricity (interestingly, many are the same as those associated with electric hypersensitivity) –

• Attention deficit (ADD, ADHD)
• Balance or coordination problems
• Bladder and bowel dysfunction
• Body aches & pains
• Chronic fatigue
• Cold extremities
• Confusion
• Depression
• Diabetes
• Disruptive behaviour
• Dizziness and vertigo
• Elevated plasma glucose levels
• Fatigue
• Headaches
• Hearing loss
• Impaired sleep
• Interference with learning
• Joint pain and stiffness
• Memory loss
• Multiple sclerosis
• Muscle weakness
• Numbness in extremities
• Painful teeth and gums
• Problem solving difficulties
• Speech and swallowing disorders
• Tinnitus
• Tiredness and irritability
• Vision problems

What Can You Do About It?

A company called Stetzer Electric have developed a filter than can be installed in the wall receptacles throughout the house. The filters reduce the dirty electricity to acceptable levels, meaning that there are no ill health effects.  The filters remove frequencies that are most likely to be internalized.

“Graham/Stetzer filters are able to improve power quality by reducing micro-surges in the frequency range of 4 to 100 kHz on electrical wiring.”

Testing equipment is also available for purchase from Stetzer Electric if you wish to complete the job yourself.

Easy Alternative - Easy Solution

We at Transforming Environments™ are trained to test and install the Stetzer filters. Having us, or other trained technicians, complete this for you will ensure that you have made the optimum use of the filters – it isn’t as simple as putting a filter on every receptacle, nor is it necessary. Count how many receptacles you have in the house, and then consider that on average you may need 20 to complete the job. See the saving?

Generally, as Bau-Biologists, we do this work in conjunction with a more thorough assessment of electromagnetic radiation problems in your home (or workplace). There are other related issues that are just as damaging to our health.

With installation of the Stetzer filters, these are some of the improvements that have been experienced, often within hours – even for a “healthy” person.

• Acid/alkali change to normal
• Calmness
• Headache reduction
• If woken, return to sleep quickly
• Improved sleep (immediately)
• Improvement in balance
• Less anxiety
• Less disruptive behaviour
• Less head “pressure”
• Less need to eat
• Less stiffness and muscle pain
• More energy
• Multiple sclerosis symptoms reduced
• Reduced blood sugar levels improved
• Less insulin required
• Reduction of cold in extremities at night
• Vivid dreams

From the research on diabetes and dirty electricity, it is even being suggested that there is a third type of diabetes that can be attributed to poor power quality. The dirty electricity may be the cause of the rapid increase in numbers of diabetics and those who are having difficulty controlling their blood sugar with medication.

More Interesting Particulars about Health Effects

Scientists have for some time been trying to provide an answer on the safety of certain frequencies. Here are some of the discoveries:

• At frequencies below 1 KHz (1,000 cycles per second)* 80 percent of the energy is dissipated on the skin and 20 percent is dissipated internally.
• At frequencies above 2 KHz (2,000 cycles per second) all of the energy is dissipated internally.

Putting Things in Perspective

Some of the numbers and terms are out of range of our experience. This information is provided to give you some perspective.

Hertz is the word for cycles per second. The frequency spectrum ranges from extremely low frequencies (cycles per second) as found in the body to extremely high frequencies such as in x-rays, gamma rays and so on.

The human can only see and hear in about 10 percent of the frequency spectrum. Ultra violet and Infra red are just outside our range of perception. Animals can sense, hear and smell a larger range of light than we can.

An alternating current signal having a frequency of 1 kHz (mentioned above) is within the range of human hearing. “An electromagnetic signal at a frequency of 1 kHz has a wavelength of 300 kilometres, or about 190 miles.” An AM radio broadcast extends from 535 kHz to 1,605 kHz as you see on the dial.

“We are living in an increasingly complex electrical environment and are inundated daily with electromagnetic frequencies ranging from less than 20 Hz (electric trains) to greater than 1 billion Hz (wireless telecommunication). Most of these frequencies are man-made and were not present until the invention and subsequent commercialization of electricity (early 1900s), radio (1920s), radar (1940s), television (1950s), computers (1970s), and cell phones (1980s).“

Acronyms – or sets of initials set out to confuse us!

EMF
RF
ELF
EHF
VLF