ELECTROPOLLUTION - the latest science reveals
a MECHANISM  of  HARM  at the  CELLULAR  LEVEL

from an article by  Dr Sherrill Sellman, ND,  published in NEXUS Magazine,   August - September 2007

... emerging science has discovered that the problem with mobile phones does not come from power output (thermal effect) but rather from the information piggybacking on the so-called "carrier wave" emitted from and received by the mobile phone's antenna.  This is called an "information-carrying radio wave" (ICRW).  It is a frequency that conveys specific packets of information allowing the transmission of various features of mobile phones, e.g., voice, (and with cellphones) text, graphics, etc.¹²  Herein lies the problem: this ICRW has a frequency that has never before existed in nature; our cells are totally unfamiliar with it and perceive it as a dangerous foreign invader.

The latest research has clearly identified the biological mechanisms of harm caused by ICRWs.  We have special receptor sites, called "microtubules" on our cell membranes which can sense frequencies.  The receptor sites interpret the ICRW as an unknown, threatening energy.  Instantaneously the cell membrane will go into a protective lock-down mode.  This means that nutrients cannot get into the cell and toxins and waste products cannot get out.  It also means that vital cell-to-cell communication is lost.¹³

This effect is immediate and lasts for as long as a person is exposed to the ICRW's. The longer this condition persists, biological damage occurs - often resulting in free radical damage, genetic mutation, loss of cellular energy, premature aging, and, ultimately, degenerative disease.

Introduction

Power lines, transmitters, electrical wiring and appliances create both electric and magnetic fields - invisible lines of force that surround any electrical device.  Our love affair with all things electrical means that we are now living in a dense sea of electromagnetic energy waves, called electromagnetic radiation (EMR), which are estimated to be 100-200 million times greater in prevalence than a hundred years ago!

Compounding the problem is the explosion of wireless technology such as cellphones (mobile phones), Bluetooth, PDAs (personal digital assistants), Wireless Internet, WiFi (wireless fidelity, which allows for internet access in airports, hotels, coffee shops and schools, etc.) and powerful microwave-emitting towers that are required for transmission.  This pervasive wireless world emits a particular spectrum of electromagnetic radiation that has its own damaging effects on living systems.

Electromagnetic radiation from cellphones, towers and electrical appliances, as well as new wireless technologies, is causing new stresses on our health by disrupting intercellular communication and in some cases triggering cancer.

A growing body of scientific research acknowledges that, presently, the greatest threat to our health and well-being (and to that of all life-forms) is an insidious, all-pervasive and invisible form of pollution called "electropollution".  Many health issues have been linked to EMR exposure, including various cancers (especially brain, eye, ear and leukaemia,),  miscarriages, birth defects, chronic fatigue syndrome, headaches, chronic stress, nausea and heart problems, autism, learning disabilities, insomnia and Alzheimer's disease.

Whatever your thoughts may be about living in this high-tech world, this technology poses serious health threats to us all.  Robert Becker, MD - author of "Cross Currents: The Perils of Electropollution",¹ medical researcher, expert on electromagnetic radiation and twice Nobel Prize nominee - is very concerned about electropollution: "I have no doubt in my mind that at the present time, the greatest polluting element in the earth's environment is the proliferation of electromagnetic fields.  I consider that to be far greater, on a global scale than warming ... and the increase in chemical elements in the environment." ^{1, 2}

Anatomy of Electropollution

The 100 trillion cells of the human body communicate with each other by subtle, low-frequency electromagnetic signals as well as through biochemical reactions.  These signal pathways carry the information that becomes translated into all the biochemical and physiological processes of the body.  Continuous exposure to electromagnetic radiation can drastically distort and disrupt these cellular communication pathways, resulting in abnormal cellular metabolism and, ultimately, disease.

Electropollution-induced biological stress profoundly compromises normal physiology and intercellular communication. Imagine the chaos that results when communication systems go down in a city.

In the body, on a cellular level, similar chaos is created when normal processes shut down and intercellular communication is disrupted.  Cell function deteriorates, cell membranes harden, nutrients can't get in and toxins can't get out.  The breakdown of healthy cellular processes leads to biological chaos in our bodies.

Hundreds of studies have shown the harmful effects of EMR on the immune system,³ enzyme synthesis,⁴ the nervous system,⁵ learning, moods and behavioural patterns.⁶  All aspects of life at the molecular, cellular, biochemical and physiological levels can potentially be damaged by EMR exposure.

Cellphones and Near Field Radiation

We now know that a very dangerous and specific form of EMR affecting the functioning of the brain and body is the information-carrying signal that is emitted from the cellphone's antenna, known as a "near-field plume".  (Note that in newer cellphones, the antenna may be hidden and not be visible to the user; nonetheless, the near-field radiation is still a health issue.)  The near-field radiation emanates outwards about 15-18 centimetres [approx. 6-7 inches] from the antenna in all directions.  It is the result of a burst of power required to carry a radio signal to a base station that may be many kilometres away.  Whenever we activate the phone to send or receive, whether it is held against the head, clipped to a belt or kept in a pocket, we are being exposed to dangerous information-carrying waves in the near field radiation plume.

The latest research shows that background radiation from the many EMR-emitting electrical appliances as well as the explosion of wireless hot-spots equals the density of the information-carrying waves emitted from the near-field.  This means that there is danger not only close to the cellphone antenna, but also now in the general environment to which we are exposed every day.⁷

Although the wireless technology industry and some governmental agencies continue to assure the public of the safety of cellphones (which is very reminiscent of the tobacco industry), the truth is that recent scientific evidence has revealed an emerging pattern of severe health problems caused from exposure to near-field radiation. Cellphones are anything but safe and harmless. Some of the specific biological problems include disruption to the blood-brain barrier, genetic damage, breakdown in cell-to-cell communication and increase in the risk of cancers.⁸

The blood-brain barrier is a special filter in the blood vessels of the brain that keeps dangerous chemicals from reaching sensitive brain tissue and causing DNA to break.  Near-field radiation is able to open up the blood-brain barrier, allowing damaging toxic chemicals a free ride into the brain tissue.

Near-field radiation also contributes to DNA damage. Many studies have found micronuclei (fragments of DNA with a surrounding membrane and with no physiological purpose) in the blood of people who use cellphones.  Micronuclei result from a breakdown of the cell's ability to repair itself, and they indicate genetic damage.  If the brain cells become unable to repair the themselves, then tumours could develop.⁹

More troubling is the fact that the presence of micronuclei can also indicate other health issues, e.g. compromised immunity, sleep disturbances, attention deficient disorders, autism and Alzheimer's disease. Since the body's master glands (pituitary, hypothalamus, pineal) are located within the brain, massive disturbances to the hormonal signalling capacities may potentially be generated for continual cellphone use.

Then there's the electrical circuitry from cellphones, which generate a competing energy that interferes with one's own biofield, or energy field. This kind of pervasive, or ambient, EMR compromises many physiological processes.  When a cellphone is clipped onto the belt or kept in a pant pocket, this ambient field most powerfully affects the tissues and organs that it is closest to, particularly in the pelvic area.  Two studies have already shown a 30 per cent reduction in sperm count in male mobile phone users.  As more women chip their cellphone to their belts female reproductive organs may also be at risk.^{10, 11}

A word of caution also needs to be mentioned about the dangers caused by ambient radiation from headsets.  It is now acknowledged that headsets, far from being protective, can actually increase radiation emissions into the brain by as much as 300 per cent. Bluetooth technology is especially dangerous.  The only safe headset to use is a hollow air-tube headset.

Cellphones, Cell Membranes and Carrier Waves

In recent years, exposure to radio frequencies emitted from cellphones and wireless communication devices has taken centre stage, implicated as causing serious physiological to damage cells.

Initially the wireless technology industry and the US government did not consider radio frequencies from cellphones to be a health risk.  Despite massive evidence to the contrary, the industry still maintains that position.  In the early days of this technology, it was believed that only a thermal effect, the heating of tissues (such as what occurs with a microwave oven), resulted in damage to tissues.  Since cellphones do not have enough power to heat tissue, the US government did not require any studies to be done to investigate tile potential health problems.

However, emerging science has discovered that the problem with cellphones does not come from power output (thermal effect) but rather from the information piggybacking on the so-called "carrier wave" emitted from and received by the cellphone's antenna.  This is called an "information-carrying radio wave" (ICRW).  It is a frequency that conveys specific packets of information allowing the transmission of various features of cellphones, e.g., voice, text, graphics, etc.¹²  Herein lies the problem: this ICRW has a frequency that has never before existed in nature; our cells are totally unfamiliar with it and perceive it as a dangerous foreign invader.

The latest research has clearly identified the biological mechanisms of harm caused by ICRWs.

We have special receptor sites, called "microtubules" on our cell membranes which can sense frequencies.  The receptor sites interpret the ICRW as an unknown, threatening energy.  Instantaneously the cell membrane will go into a protective lock-down mode.  This means that nutrients cannot get into the cell and toxins and waste products cannot get out.  It also means that vital cell-to-cell communication is lost.¹³

This effect is immediate and lasts for as long as a person is exposed to the ICRW's.  The longer this condition persists, biological damage occurs - often resulting in free radical damage, genetic mutation, loss of cellular energy, premature aging, and, ultimately, degenerative disease.

If anyone should know about the harmful effects of cellphones and wireless technology it is George Carlo, MD, PhD, author of Cell Phones: hwisible Hazards in the Wireless Age.  A respected medical professor of epidemiology, Dr Carlo was hired by the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA) as the chief research scientist to lead a US$28m (million), six-year research program investigating the potential harmful effects of cellphones.  The CTIA was confident that no health effects would be found.  However, Dr Carlo and a team of 200 research scientists his WTR (Wireless Technology Research) called on, found otherwise.  Upon presentation to the CTIA of his findings he was summarily fired and the damaging results were shelved.  Dr Carlo has gone on to become one of the most reputable and vocal critics of the wireless technology industry and one of the world's leading experts on electropollution.

According to Dr Carlo: "We understand that these information-carrying radio waves trigger protein membrane responses at the cell membrane level, leading to disruption of intercellular communication and build-up of free radicals inside the cell.  This mechanism understanding is very important because it now explains the wide diversity of symptoms that we are seeing in patients who am reporting electrohypersensitivity and also other conditions such as headaches and unexplained anxiety that henceforth ... we'll know will be associated with these information-carrying radio waves."¹⁴

Imagine what happens to the functioning of a cell if it can't receive vital nutrients, eliminate waste products or communicate properly with other cells: complete havoc on a cellular level !!!

Since we are surrounded by cellphone towers and users, it has become virtually impossible to escape continuous and unrelenting exposure to ICRWs and ongoing ham to our physiological processes.

Increasing Risks from Wireless Technology

The Mobile Telephone Health Concerns Registry is a non-profit organisation created to gather information about health effects from cellphones.¹⁵  Previously, complaints were about health problems caused by cellphones.  In the past 2 years, however, most complaints have to do with ambient (background) ICRWs information-carrying radio waves coming from a vast variety of wireless sources.  The strength of these ambient ICRWs is approaching the intensity of the radio frequencies emitted by cellphones.

What does this mean?  It means that whether or not you choose to have a cellphone, the proliferation of wireless technology is exposing you and your children to dangerous radiation that instantaneously damages your cells and alters all physiological processes. There is nowhere to hide any more.

Dr Carlo has profound insight into the unprecedented public health disaster brewing from an increasingly wireless world.

"Scientific studies continue to accumulate showing that information-carrying radio waves from mobile phones and other wireless devices, now used by more than 3 billion people worldwide, are dangerous.
The mobile phone industry has not addressed the problem; governments around the world continue to be burdened by entanglements with the industry that renders them unable to protect consumers.
Emerging science shows links to conditions ranging from learning and spectrum disorders to cancer.  If unabated, the brunt of the disease burden will continue to be borne by our children and grandchildren.¹⁶

The bad news is that we face an unprecedented public health disaster.  The good news is that there are effective, scientifically validated, preventative interventions.

Here are some other effects of electromagnetic radiation (EMR) that are of concern.

EMR and Stress Hormones

Exposure to high levels of EMR also increases the level of adrenaline, the flight or fight hormone, released from the adrenal glands.  B. Blake Levitt, author of Electrical Fields, states: "Prolonged chronic stress is detrimental to every anatomical system, including the reproductive one.  Subliminal stress may affect fertility and elevate blood pressure, which can head to heart disease and stroke, as well as suppress immune function … even short EMR exposures, like the use of a cordless phone on and off throughout the day, could cause spikes in such hormone levels." ¹⁷

The other stress hormone is cortisol, which affects long-term stress response.  Also produced by the adrenals, cortisol is involved in glucose metabolism, blood pressure regulation, insulin release, inflammatory response, hormone balance and immune system function. The cortisol level also influences energy and memory.  It should come as no surprise that EMR exposure has been found to cause increased serum cortisol.^{18, 19}

EMR, Melatonin Suppression and Cancer

Our modern lifestyle poses many threats to optimal endocrine function.  Stress, toxicity, poor-quality food, sleep deprivation and pharmaceutical medications are all known hormone disruptors.  However, there is one particular kind of hormone disruptor that has been seriously overlooked: electromagnetic radiation.

Perhaps one of the most serious consequences of EMR exposure is its effect on our hormonal systems.  Embedded deep within the brain is a light-sensitive endocrine gland, the pineal gland, which is about the size of a pea.  Since ancient times, the pineal gland has been associated with the mystical all-seeing "third eye".  Once dismissed as a useless gland, the pineal, which in fact is a light-sensitive organ, is now considered to be one of the most significant glands in the body.

The pineal gland is the primary source of the hormone melatonin.  Discovered 50 years ago, melatonin is now hailed as a miraculous hormone, regulating many key functions of human growth and health and providing powerful anticancer protection.  Melatonin is produced about 90 minutes after one falls asleep.  Studies have shown that blood concentrations of the hormone rise after dark from low daytime values and usually peak in the middle of the night.  Because the pineal gland responds to signals transmitted by the optic nerves, bombarding a person's eyes with bright light during the night can erase the usual nocturnal melatonin surge and lower the overall melatonin production for the day.  Artificial light during sleep has a far more depressive effect than natural light.

Researchers are increasingly surprised at the extent of the physiological processes that are either controlled or influenced by melatonin.  It regulates our circadian rhythms governing our waking/sleeping cycle and is one of tile most efficient destroyers of free radicals, thereby ensuring that DNA synthesis and cell division occur.  Melatonin not only inhibits the release of oestrogen but also actually suppresses the development of breast cancer.²⁰

Melatonin's other anticancer property is its ability to increase the cytotoxicity of the immune system's killer lymphocytes.  It is even able to enhance the immune system and counteract stress-induced immunosuppression.  Melatonin's breast cancer fighting ability also addresses two other threats that can increase cell division in the breast: the hormone prolactin, and the hormone known as epidermal growth factor".

Melatonin also enhances the tumour-fighting power of vitamin D and increases this vitamin's ability to stop tumour growth.  In fact, it makes vitamin D's tumour-fighting ability 20 to 100 times stronger.  In addition, melatonin acts as an aromatase inhibitor, a powerful protection against oestrogen-dependent cancers.²¹

Needless to say, it is vital to ensure the body's ability to produce regular and adequate levels of melatonin on a daily basis.  Unfortunately, sleeping in a room surrounded by all our favourite devices - cordless phone, cellphone, digital clock, CD/radio player, computer and TV - can seriously suppress our nightly melatonin production.

Suppression of melatonin by the pineal gland has been suggested as a pathway for EMR's deleterious effects on health.

In 2001, Dr Masami Ishido and colleagues at Japan's National Institute for Environmental Studies showed that breast cancer cells treated with melatonin would resume growing when exposed to power-frequency EMR.²²  They found that magnetic fields disrupted the cells' signalling system - their internal communications network, which determines how they respond to their environment.  In the process, Dr Ishido et al. also challenged one of the central tenets of mainstream toxicology: less is better and more is worse.  The EMR effect he observed at 12 milligauss (mG) was pretty much the same as the one he saw when he used a field 100 times higher - at one gauss (1 G). Dr Ishido found indications that the effect was even stronger at the lower EMF dose than the higher one.²³  This mechanism has helped to explain why reduced melatonin levels from EMR has been shown to cause a number of cancers including breast, prostate, colorectal, melanoma, ovarian malignancies and childhood leukaemia.

It is now known that melatonin suppression occurs at frequencies not far above those of the common household ranges of 50 hertz (Hz) (e.g., in Australia and New Zealand) and 60 hertz (e.g. in USA).  If you sleep next to a cordless phone base station and/or digital clock, or have faulty electrical wiring, there'll be enough continuous EMR exposure to suppress night-time melatonin production.

The connection between breast cancer and EMR continues to strengthen.  Dr Patricia Coogan and colleagues at the Boston University of Public Health reported a 43 per cent increased risk in women with a high likelihood of occupational exposure to magnetic fields, such as those given off by mainframe computers.²⁴  In fact, women who work in electrical jobs, including electricians, telephone installers, power line workers and electrical engineers have been shown to have a greater risk of dying from breast cancer.  This increased incidence has been directly linked to the suppression of melatonin by EMR.

And it's not just women who should be concerned about EMR's causal link to breast cancer.  In five studies, elevated EMR has been implicated in an increased incidence of male breast cancer.  Men who worked as telephone linemen, in switching stations and in the utilities industry were found to have as much as a six fold increase in breast cancer compared with the general male population.²⁵

About the Author

Sherrill Sellman, ND - a naturopathic doctor, psychotherapist, international lecture, radio host, writer and Certified Electromagnetic Radiation Safety Advisor (CERSA).

She is the author of the best-selling books "Hormone Heresy - What Women MUST Know About Their Hormones" (GetWell International, 1996, 2001 4th ed.) and "What Women MUST Know To Protect Their Daughters From Breast Cancer" (GetWell International, 2003).  Her website is http://www.whatwomenmustknow.com

Sherrill Sellman was recently in New Zealand - 2 - 8 November 2007 giving free public talks about her research and these latest scientific findings about real Mechanisms of Harm from EMR and ICRWs.

References

1.  Becker, Robert O, MD, Cross Currents: The Promise of Electromagneticine, the Perils of Electropollution, Jeremy P. Tarcher, New York, December 1989, 1st ed.

2.  Interview with Dr Robert 0. Becker by Linda Moulton Howe, London, 14 May 2000, at http://www.energyfields.org/science/becker.html.

3.  Sienkiewicz ZJ, Saunders RD, Kowalczuk CI (1991), "Biological Effects of Exposure to Non-ionizing Electromagnetic Fields and Radiation. II. Extremely Low Frequency Electrical and Magnetic Fields", NRPB Report R239, National Radialogical Protection Board, Chilton, UK.

4.  Saunders RD. Kowalczuk CI, Sienkiewicz ZJ (1991), "Biological Effects of Exposure to Non-ionizing Electromagnetic Fields and Radiation. III Radiofrequency and Microwave Radiation", NRPB Report R240, National Radialogical Protection Board, Chilton, UK.

5.  Becker RO, Marino AA, "Effects of Electromagnetic Energy on the Nervous System", summary of Chapter 5 in Electromagnetism & Life, State University of New York Press, Albany, 1982, at http://www.ortho.lsuhsc.edu/Faculty/Marino/EL/EL5/Summary5.html

6.  Paneth N, "Neurobehavioral effects of power-frequency electromagnetic fields', Environmental Health Perspectives 1993 Dec; 101:(S4):l0l-106.

7.  Carlo, George, Dr and Schram, Martin, Cell Phones: Invisible Hazards in the Wireless Age - An Insider's Alarming Discoveries About Cancer and Genetic Damage, Carroll & Graf, 2001, reprint edition February 9,2002, p. 217.

⁸.  Transcript from Dr George Carlo's meeting with Scrutiny Panel, Telephone Mast Review, States of Jersey, UK, 26 February 2007, http://wwwjerseymastconcern.co.uk/drcarlotraniscript.html.

⁹.  Lai H, Singh NP, "Magnetic-Field-Induced DNA Strand Breaks in Brain Cells of the Rat", Environmental Health Perspectives 2004 May; 112(6):687-94.

¹⁰.  Agarwal A, PhD (Director, Clinical Andrology Laboratory and Reproductive Tissue Bank; Director of Research, Reproductive Research Center, The Cleveland Clinic), "Relationship between Cell Phone Use and Human Fertility: An Observational Study", presentation P-398, October 23, 2006 at 62nd Annual Meeting of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM), New Orleans, October 21-25, 2006.

¹¹.  Henderson M. "Mobiles may decrease men's fertility", October 23, 2006, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article610494.ece

¹².  Carlo, George, Dr and Schram, Martin, Cell Phones: Invisible Hazards in the Wireless Age - An Insider's Alarming Discoveries About Cancer and Genetic Damage, Carroll & Graf, 2001, reprint edition February 9,2002, p. 246.

¹³.  Ungar J, McGregor S, Rahman M, Taylor D, Tomes N, Hanser A, "Energy Resonance Technology (ERT): A Targeted Intervention For Electro-Magnetic Radiation (EMR) Induced Biological Effect", International Journal of Clinical Bioenergetics 2007, Bioenergetics Institute, http://www.bioenergeticsinstitute.com/Portals/0/Document/Ungar2006ERTintervEMRbioeffectupdateCorrected.pdf.

¹⁴.  Television interview with Dr George Carlo in London, RTE News, Dublin, Ireland, 22 February 2007, http://www.rte.new/2007/0222/primetime_av.html?2222251,nul,230, reported at Omega-News, February 23, 2007, http://omega.today.net/20070223.

¹⁵.  http://www.health-concerns.org.

¹⁶.  http://www.safewireless.org.

¹⁷.  Blake Levitt B, Electromagnetic Fields: A Consumer's Guide to the Issues and How to Protect Ourselves, Harcourt Brace & Company, Orlando, Florida, 1995, p. 133.

¹⁸.  Becker, Robert O, MD, Cross Currents: The Promise of Electromagneticine, the Perils of Electropollution, Jeremy P. Tarcher, New York, December 1989, 1st ed.

¹⁹.  Hillman D, "Exposure to Electric and Magnetic Fields (EMR) Linked to Neuro-Endocrine Stress Syndrome: Increased Cardiovascular Disease. Diabetes & Cancer", Shocking News, no. 8, November 2005.

²⁰.  Srinivasan V, Spence DW et al., "Melatonin, environmental light, and breast cancer" Breast Cancer Res Treat 2007 May 31; PMID: 17541739.

²¹.  Robien K. Cutler G, Lazovich D, "Vitamin D intake and breast cancer risk in postmenopausal women: the Iowa Women's Health Study"'. Cancer Causes Control 2007 Sep; 18(7):775-82, epub 2007 Jun 5, PMID: 17549593.

²².  Masami I, Nitta H, Kabuto M, "Magnetic fields (MF) of 50 Hz at 1.2 µT as well as 100 µT cause uncoupling of inhibitory pathways of adenylyl cyclase mediated by melatonin 1a receptor in MF-sensitive MCF-7 cells", Carcinogenesis 2001 Jul; 22(7):1043-48.

²³.  "When Enough is Never Enough: A Reproducible EMF Effect at 12 mG", Microwave News, November 23, 2005, http://www.microwavenews.com/nc_nov2005.html.

²⁴.  Coogan PF, Clapp RW, Newcomb PA, Wenzl TB, Greg Bogdan G, Mittendorf R, Baron JA, Longnecker MP, "Occupational Exposure to 60-Hertz Magnetic Fields and Risk of Breast Cancer in Women", Epidemiology 1996 Sep; 7(5):459-64

²⁵.  Demers PA. Thomas DB, Rosenblatt KA et al., "Occupational Exposure to Electromagnetic Fields and Breast Cancer in Men", Am J Epidemiology 1991; 134(4):340-47.