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Four Components that Comprise Dirty Electricity and other EMFs in a Home
Dirty Electricity -
Ground Currents -
Radio Frequency Radiation -
Electromagnetic Fields
Several Factors Contribute to High levels of Dirty Electricity and other electromagnetic fields in today's Homes and Buildings:
Dirty Electricity and Electrical Pollution
"Dirty Electricity" and other electrical pollutants come from a number of sources. Harmful high frequency energy can be picked up and carried along into a home or building as it makes its way to you from the utility. It can come from your neighbours, whose polluted electrical current may find its way into your home's electrical system though a shared transformer, or through your water pipes (plumbing current) caused by grounding and wiring problems ,or through ground current as the electricity makes it's way back to the substation via the ground.
Most of the dirty electricity is created by electrical devices in our own homes. Computers, TVs, florescent tube, CFL and low-voltage halogen lighting and virtually all of today's energy-efficient electronic devices induce high levels of high frequency harmonics and electrical "noise" back onto circuits and then into a building's electrical system creating an invisible, powerful, high frequency EMF called "dirty Electricity". This happens when transformers and power supplies convert our AC current to the low voltage power used to run all of our electronics. In the process of saving energy these energy-efficient devices chop up the conventional AC 60Hz sine wave and create what are known as electrical "transients".
Transients are pulses of high frequency electromagnetic energy that are much more dangerous then your home wiring's extremely low 60Hz frequency because can actually radiates out from the wires in the form of a dangerous radio wave. High frequency transients can extend into radio frequencies above several megahertz and often in the microwave range of the
electromagnetic spectrum.
These transients are micro-surges of powerful electromagnetic RF energy that can contain up to 2,500 times the energy of a conventional 60 Hz electrical system. This energy is then coupled to our bodies by the capacitance between our bodies and electrical devices and the electrical wires within the walls of our homes. This dirty electromagnetic energy is capable of penetrating the human body at a frequency of 1.7 Kilohertz -- causing us a great deal of harm.
Read The Health Implications of electrical pollution
Ground Currents and Plumbing Current
Every time an electron leaves a power plant to create electricity for our homes, schools and offices it must return to create more electricity – fundamental law of physics. Today, the earth’s surface has a higher conductivity then the utility’s overburdened neutral return wire, so now it's estimated that as much as 70 to 80% of returning current travels back along the earth’s surface in what’s known as the “skin-effect.”
Many homes today are now affected by plumbing current . The happens when some of the current that would normally return through the electrical service line is instead channeled into the grounding system, where it returns to the transformer by way of alternate paths, including water pipes, the public water main and neighboring residences.
Two laws of physics support the fact that returning electrical ground current takes the path of least resistance and will take any and all paths - including into your home. This EMF energy can be conducted into a home's electrical system through water and gas pipes, phones lines, and other conductive objects instead of back to the substation through the neutral return wire as originally designed.
These electrical contaminates can then intermingle with a building’s 60 Hertz (Hz) electricity, polluting it it with undesirable high frequeicies and in some cases higher voltages. We are capacitively coupled to this with this run-away electric energy by simply being in a contaminate building or in contact with common household fixtures like sinks, bathtubs and other conductive objects.
Read Duane Dahlberg's paper: Ground Currents
Radio Frequency Radiation
We are exposed to radio frequency RF radiation energy every day and it comes from a number of sources. The high frequency electrical transients found in many of our home's electrical wiring have been proven to radiate high amounts of radiation-laden energy often in the
microwave range of the electromagnetic spectrum into a building or room. We spend much of our time each day living in and working close proximity to a building's wiring and electrical devices and now many of us are unwittingly being exposed to high levels of EMF energy. And because electrical energy couples to a human body proportional to the frequency, high frequencies RF energy surrounds and penetrates a person whenever they enter a contaminated area or building.
Wireless communication devices such as cellular phones, transmission towers, cordless/DECT phones and wireless computer networks all produce high frequency RF radio waves can penetrate a buildings walls and contribute to our ongoing daily exposure to electromagnetic RF energy.
The high frequency radio waves (RF) produced by cellular, broadcast and other communication towers can travel long distances and the closer you are to the transmission source the more RF energy you will likely absorb. Conductive objects, including a home or building’s electrical wiring system, can act like an antenna picking up and reradiated some of this RF energy for several feet. These invisible radio frequencies add to a person's daily, ongoing exposure to RF radiation.
Read Arthur Firstenberg's paper: Radio Wave Packet
60Hz Electromagnetic Fields (EMF)
Whenever electric current is flowing, electric and magnetic fields exist. There are actually two fields created, an electric field and a magnetic field. The strength of the electric field depends on the voltage being carried, while the strength of the magnetic field depends on the amount of current (amperage) being carried.
All modern electronic devices produce electromagnetic fields (EMF) when they are switched on. Some, such as florescent lights, electric heaters, vacuum cleaners and older CRT style TVs and computer monitors produce a more powerful electromagnetic field. Sometimes high voltage lines or transformers are located nearby and can be a source of high 60Hz EMFs.
In many cases EMFs (at 60 Hz) are caused by internal electrical wires that are overloaded, damaged are not wired properly, have knob and tube wiring or have unusual wiring configurations – especially older buildings or buildings that have been renovated. A building's electrical systems can also be affected by plumbing current carrying harmful EMFs into a home. Extension cords, power bars and transformers, ballasts, high-efficiency lighting, can all be potential sources of EMFs in your home.
Read the California EMF Risk Evaluation
See Dirty Electricity and other electromagnetic fields (EMF) are Dangerous to your Health
"Electromagnetic (EMF) pollution may be the most significant form of pollution human activity has produced in this century, all the more dangerous because it is invisible and insensible."
Andrew Weil, M.D.,
