RF Radiation Hazard
Posted on January 8, 2012
Back in the 1980s there was a period of time during which standards for dangers and exposures to electromagnetic radiation were being reviewed and revised.
Back in the 1980s there was a period of time during which standards for dangers and exposures to electromagnetic radiation were being reviewed and revised.
Prior to that time there was a book by Paul Brodeur called “The Zapping of America.” In the book, which seems to have disappeared from the market, Mr. Brodeur sites corporate and military studies of a whole range of health effects or affects caused by different types of non-ionizing radiation.
Around that time CBS 60 Minutes ran a story about hazards from television and FM high power levels and the public health consequences, including depression, lukemia and cancer. I wrote CBS and asked for a transcript of the program, and they wrote back and said, “There has never been any such program.”
I was involved in FM and TV work and held conversations with engineers, and at one TV station the engineers spoke in a state of fear, because they said they had the highest cancer rate in the station’s building, but needed their jobs. One engineer told that major dental problems resulted from electrolytic reactions between the enamel of teeth and fillings in the teeth, brought about by the RF from the many TV monitors and microwave relay transmitter.
So I did an article in a city magazine titled “The Electronic Soaking of St. Louis.” But the journalistic standard kept me from going full tilt on what I believed, and I only reported what could be definitely proven, which was not too much. I protected the identities of the TV engineers but that weakened my report.
I also had known an engineering union official who was dying of prostate cancer and told by his doctor that his cancer was a result of years working at the 5kW transmitter at 1380kHz. When I asked my doctor, he said, “There’s a lot we don’t know.” When I asked another doctor he said, “If there was something to it we’d know about it.”
The hint and suggestion of RF danger continues to boil. Fine time to be a frog.
