Re: Question about very strong Electric and Magnetic Fields

["Bjorn Cedervall" <bcradsafers@hotmail.com>]

>Could someone please direct me to a reference that would give me an 
> >indication of what kinds of acute health effects would be likely >after 
>exposure to very high strength EMF, especially those in the 
> >power-transmission frequencies?  I am looking for something that >will 
>tell me how strong a field would need to be to induce serious >health 
>problems.

What is meant by a strong field can really be a matter of debate - but to 
start somewhere:
The static field of the Earth is the order of 40-50 microtesla.

I was in touch with producers of pacemakers (Siemens and one other company) 
- according to them - for 50 Hz, below 500 microtesla should definitely be 
safe (from interference with the pacemaker function) - most pace makers are 
probably safe at levels below 1000 microtesla.

If I recall correctly, no considerable thermal effects can be expected for 
fields below the order of 10-30 millitesla. Covering your ears with your 
hands are said to give more of a temperature rise than using a mobile phone 
(information from a Swedish professor in neurology).

I asked some magnetic field experts at the ICRR conference at what level one 
could expect quantum states of unpaired electrons to be affected (which in 
turn, hypothetically could alter the function of a protein - that is result 
in an amplication effect): The answer was: The order on 10 tesla.

We do have people working at our hydropower stations that are exposed to the 
order of 10 microtesla for hours and with occasional short spikes up to 
about 100 microtesla (=1 Gauss). Standing under power lines probably means 
the range of something in the range of 1-30 microtesla but I am uncertain 
here.

In contrast, as I previously mentioned here, our TV-media scare people for 
levels in the 25 to 140 nanotesla range (cancer talk) - one can be pretty 
sure that "nano" is not understood by about 98% of the population - 
nanotesla probably sounds like some microorganism to non-scientists.

According to my opinion, no one has shown cancer effects at any levels of 
exposure.

Many details can be found at the pages that Prof. John E. Moulder provides. 
Try http://www.mcw.edu/gcrc/cop.html
as a start. I have linked to some of his pages and also a few other EMF 
sites on my website ( http://www.geocities.com/bjorn_cedervall/ )
-please email me directly about EMF sites that you think I should add.

There is a lot you that can be found through the Radsafers archive also. 
Please comment, correct or finetune if your information is more precise.

Bjorn Cedervall  bcradsafers@hotmail.com

PS. I may mention that we had an accident some years ago with a small indoor 
forklift truck (I am uncertain about the proper word) that came to close to 
an MRI machine at the Karolinska Hospital and therefore ran into a wall with 
some damage that followed. Can't recall that anyone was hurt but potentially 
metal objects like scissors could result in health dangers (this is probably 
in the millitesla range and up - please fill in - anyone who knows).
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