Are household electromagnetic fields (EMFs) a residential health concern?
Wherever electricity flows there is the potential for EMFs. Items as diverse as electric power lines and electric blankets have EMFs, and the core question is whether such fields are a health hazard.
According to an editorial in New England Journal of Medicine, July 3, 1997), “electromagnetic fields have no reproducible biologic effects at all, except at strengths that are far beyond those ever found in people’s homes.”
The editorial also states that, “18 years of research have produced considerable paranoia, but little insight and no prevention. It is time to stop wasting our research resources.”
In a similar manner, a 1995 study of more than 1,000 scientific papers by the American Physical Society, a group which includes 45,000 physicists, found no link between power line electromagnetic fields and cancer. See: “Cancer Fear Is Unfounded, Physicists Say, The New York Times, (May 14, 1995).
The nature of environmental hazards is that we tend to know more about them over time. If EMFs are a concern, then look for the latest academic research on the Internet, contact the physics department at a local college, or speak with representatives of your electric company for additional information.
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