I recently read in a French scientific magazine an article about electromagnetic waves. It is a question that interests me particularly as many of you know. This article deals with some aspects that are nowadays “fashionable”, like the effects of mobile phones, the effect of high-voltage electrical lines, the effect of wi-fi locations and even suggests a simple test on microwave ovens, the household appliances that exist in many homes. On this last point, there is a very simple test that we can all do (for those who have a “micro-wave” of course): Put your mobile in a microwave oven, close the door (without running the “micro-wave”, preferably…) and call yourself by using another mobile or your “fixed” phone. If your mobile rings, is that your oven is not wave-proof, which can be very dangerous. As I do not have a “microwave” at home, I did the test in the cafeteria of a company that has three of these ovens and my mobile did not rang. To be sure, I re-tested with my mobile next to the oven (outside), and it did ring.
A study in Tel Aviv, Israel, a country where the average mobile phone usage by young students is 40 minutes per day, determined that they have an abnormally high rate of cancers of the salivary glands. On the issue of mobile phones, it is also strongly discouraged their use by young children, because the skull is not as thick as in adults and adults themselves with exaggerated usage of mobile phones, are subject to a risk of 50% higher than normal in terms of developing brain tumours.
But there is another very disturbing statistical study on high voltage electrical lines (on which there has been much talk recently in Portugal). The effect of high voltage power lines on people living nearby (sometimes these same lines pass even above houses) has been agreed unanimously through the studies recently performed. Even the WHO (World Health Organisation) has concluded that there are two times more cases of childhood leukaemia among children living near high-voltage lines!
For more information on our exposure to magnetic fields, you can see the “sites” of the National Institute of Industrial Environment and Risks “(www.ineris.fr)(in French) and the page of the WHO on electromagnetic fields (http://www.who.int/topics/electromagnetic_fields/en/)(in English).
JMDS