Goldsworthy-how these effects can arise, & how virtually all of them shar

[Guest guest]

My comment: Smart Meters are **non-ionising electromagnetic radiation**

Goldsworthy Witness Statement April 2010

Many people suffer one or more of a wide variety of symptoms when exposed

to weak

non-ionising electromagnetic radiation, including that from cell phones

and Wi-Fi. In this submission I explain just how these effects can arise, and

how virtually all of them share one of two common mechanisms. Knowledge of

the mechanisms makes it possible to mitigate the worst of these effects

and I have made a number of suggestions as to how this might be done. I have

also explained how a simple test, taking just a day or two to perform,

could be used to assess the biological safety of both new and existing wireless

technologies. Until this has been done, it would be wise to halt the

roll-out of new wireless technologies and withdraw from sale particularly

hazardous items such as DECT baby monitors which radiate continuously next to a

very young child..

CONTENTS: A new approach; Effects on cryptochrome;Calcium efflux effects;

Demodulation; Calcium loss weakens cell membranes; Consequences of leaky

cell membranes-Effects on metabolism; Cardiac arrhythmia; Effects on the

skin;Effects on the blood brain-barrier; Effects on allergies; Effects on

nervous tissue; Electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS); DNA fragmentation;

Effects on fertility; What can be done about it?; Key References.

_http://www.mcs-america.org/GoldsworthyWitnessStatement.pdf_

(http://www.mcs-america.org/GoldsworthyWitnessStatement.pdf)

Excerpts ...............................................

A new approach

A more realistic approach is to look at frequently reported effects of

non-ionising

electromagnetic fields to see if there are any underlying threads that may

indicate a common mechanism and then to change the characteristics of the

signal to minimise these effects.

I have tried to do this and have been moderately successful in that I have

found two mechanisms, which together can explain most of the diverse

health effects frequently reported as stemming from this sort of radiation.

Both

should be preventable or minimized by suitable modifications to the way in

which the signal is modulated.

The first is due to effects on cryptochrome, which affect animal

navigation, endogenous circadian rhythms and the immune system.

The second is due to effects on calcium efflux from cell membranes. These

include early dementia, multiple allergies, DNA fragmentation, loss of

fertility, increased cancer risk and electromagnetic hypersensitivity.

Effects on cryptochrome

Cryptochrome is a ubiquitous pigment in animals and plants. Plants use it

to sense light to

optimise their ability to photosynthesise. Animals use it to sense the

direction of the

Earth’s magnetic field. Both animals and plants also use it to regulate

their body clocks,

which anticipate dawn and dusk to switch metabolism between day and night

modes. In

animals, it regulates the sleep-wake cycle and also the immune system,

which has peak

activity during the night phase (Koukkari and Sothern 2006).

Unfortunately, radio waves badly upset the cryptochrome molecule to affect

all of these

functions. The energy doesn’t come from the radio wave itself but from a

previously

absorbed high energy photon of light that flips an electron between two

parts of the

molecule to drive it into a high energy “free radical stateâ€. This decays

spontaneously as

the electron returns to the restore the status quo. Light intensity at any

one time is

perceived from the proportion of cryptochrome in the free radical state.

The direction of the Earth’s magnetic field is detected because free

radicals are magnetic

and the rate at which the electron returns is determined by the

orientation of the magnetic

field in relation to the molecule. This time, the proportion of the

cryptochrome in the free

radical form is a measure of the strength and direction of the magnetic

field. Both

processes appear to be disrupted by radio frequency magnetic fields and

the magnetic

component of radio waves. In plants, radio waves are perceived as if they

were light and

have profound effects on their physiology. Animals that use the Earth’s

magnetic field for

navigation may partially or completely lose that ability, which can

account for colony

collapse disorder in bees. The role of cryptochrome in the body clock

means that this too

can be disrupted by radio waves. Since the activity of the immune systems

of both

animals and plants are closely linked to the body clock, if the clock

fails, their immune systems will not at any time function at full capacity.

This will result in a reduced resistance to pathogens. It may also account for

the increased incidence of cancer often reported around cell towers as the

immune system becomes less able to deal with incipient cancer cells. I

will not labour these points here since you should all have

received an email from me giving a more detailed account of it together

with a number of

attachments containing the experimental evidence. Much of this evidence is

very recent,

the earliest being Ritz et al (2004) and most people are still unaware of

it. Fortunately,

the frequencies responsible (below about 10MHz) are outside the main cell

phone

frequencies, but occur as out-of-band frequencies arising from the

transmission of

harmonics of the main signal. They are therefore easy to filter out

without loss of

information carrying capacity. This has now been taken on board by the

British Office of

Communications (Ofcom), who are very much **on the ball** and asked for

(and was

given) my permission to pass it on to the UK operators.

Calcium efflux effects

Calcium efflux from the membranes of brain tissue in response to weak

electromagnetic

fields was first discovered by Bawin et al. (1975). It has since been

repeated many times

and also with other tissues such as frog heart muscle (Schwartz et al.

1990). The effects

are strongest in the extremely low frequency range and in radio waves that

have been

amplitude modulated with extremely low frequencies). The phenomenon is

curious in

that it occurs only within **amplitude windows** with little or no effect

at amplitudes

above and below the window. However, the explanation is simple. Divalent

positive ions

such as calcium, because of their double charge, are more easily removed

from the

negatively charged membrane by weak alternating fields. If an alternating

electrical field

is applied across the membrane, the negatively charged membrane and the

positively

charged ions move in opposite directions so that the ions tend to bounce

on and off the

membrane. If the field is very weak, most of the ions remain stuck to the

membrane. If it

is very strong, they all bounce on and off more ore less equally but,

somewhere in

between, ions such as calcium with a double charge will be preferentially

removed and

replaced by less affected ions with a single charge such as potassium

(potassium is the

most likely ion to replace the calcium since it is by far the most

abundant positive ion in

living cells). This explains the amplitude windows for calcium release.

16Hz is

particularly effective because it is the ion cyclotron resonance frequency

for the

potassium ion in the Earth’s magnetic field. The potassium ion resonates

at this frequency

and acquires extra energy from the field, which makes it even more likely

to replace the

lost calcium. The whole process requires very little energy, since the

ions are only moved

by molecular dimensions. The effect is simply to change the chemical

equilibrium

between mono and divalent ions bound to the membrane and there is no

theoretical minimum below which there is no effect, but the biological effects

can be devastating.