Electromagnetc Radiation: Controversy or Conspiracy?
Paul Brodeur, author of The Great Power-Line Cover Up, The Zapping of America and Currents of Death , came on the scene in 1968 when he revealed the negative health effects of asbestos. Brodeur's early journalistic career had revolved around exposing CIA secrets amidst the backdrop of the Cold War. In the latter part of his career he has chronicled the evidence that electromagnetic pollution can cause a number of different serious medical conditions.
And in this corner, Robert Park of the American Physical Society is one of many prominent scientists who strongly contend that the association between power lines, magnetic fields and diseases (like cancer and leukemia) is simply fear mongering and bad science. Park's recent publication, Voodoo Science, is one of many books on the market that purports to distinguish between good science and flimflam.
In 1976, the scientific establishment reacted with consternation to a New Yorker article in which Brodeur claimed, “It is known that microwaves exert a profound effect on the central nervous systems of rhesus monkeys and other primates.” Ellie Adair, a leading authority on the body's temperature-regulating mechanism, and who exposed her monkeys to microwaves on a regular basis, thought the claims were bunk. The levels of exposure in her lab apparently caused no harm, and the monkeys could even control the level of exposure themselves. Adair and her physicist husband Bob Adair could call upon decades of open research that established the safety parameters of different forms of electromagnetic radiation.
The safety research in question was started by the Army in WWII, when a technician passing by a transmitter noticed the chocolate bar in his pocket had melted. The Army set out to evaluate any potential hazards to its personnel, and Park notes that much of the research into microwaves is still supported by the Department of Defense. Bob Adair argued that DNA damage was the mechanism known to cause cancer with ionizing radiation such as x-rays or ultraviolet. (Photons which can break chemical bonds are called ionizing radiation.) But microwave photons can merely twist and bend chemical bonds, and cannot sever them; therefore, according to the Adairs, microwaves are harmless:
“The lowest energy photons capable of directly breaking chemical bonds are in the near ultraviolet region the spectrum, just beyond … visible light. These photons are about a million times more energetic than the microwave photons Ellie Adair was using.” (Voodoo Science, p. 148)
Park, agreeing with the Adairs, casts suspicion on Brodeur for his cold war era journalist's mindset (ever on the look out for the Qui Bono - “Who benefits, and what are they covering up?”). Park goes on to pay lip service to the lessons learned by the public from exposed cover-ups by tobacco companies, the nuclear industry, chemical companies, carmakers, and drug manufacturers. He cites the fact that the federal government conspired with civilian contractors to conceal the spread of radioactive contamination. Were the federal government and the electronics industry doing the same thing with microwaves and the subsequent debate about power line safety?
Bob Adair is quoted as saying that anyone who believed electromagnetic fields could promote cancer “would believe in perpetual motion or cold fusion.” Park has stated that there is no known biological response to electromagnetic fields that would “lead one to expect harmful effects” and that “at most a few contradictory reports of weak biological responses.” Park and the Adairs apparently find no evidence for the suppression of information about this public health concern. Perhaps their reasoning is that since there the alleged phenomenon is not valid, evidence of government and corporate wrongdoing is simply irrelevant.
How deep can you go into the controversy before it constitutes conspiracy theory? Park contends that the microwave bombardment of U.S. embassy personnel in Moscow was later revealed to come from bugging devices. The literature for weapons systems based on electromagnetic radiation, and the subsequent rivalry among superpowers, is extensive. The ABC News website reported early in 2002 about a “hum” in the midwest somewhere; it's the latest in a long line of such reports from various locales. Are these hums the result of manmade electromagnetic radiation? Nick Begich, prominent investigator of the infamous HAARP project, contends that the “hum” mechanism is related to increasing electromagnetic pollution. This is similar to the mechanism of Dr. Patrick Flanagan's “Neurophone”, which bypasses the ears and goes through the skin. The Neurophone patent was suppressed by the Defense Intelligence Agency for many years. The various hums usually bring out audio-monitoring types, when the mechanism could be totally different. The chasm between the existing technology chronicled by Begich and mainstream skeptics like Park is nearly too huge to cross without recourse to “conspiracy theory.”
Plus, the latest study in the U.K. has found hard evidence of biological effects from microwave levels too low to produce heat (New Scientist Online News 19:00 06 February 02). This was supposed to be impossible.