Zap, You Have Autism
June 18, 2008 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
Electrical pollution linked to autism in children?
Actually, you already heard of this latest idea about what causes autism here.
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Heh. The title made me think of that Simpsons episode where there’s the toy collector store guy who’s gay and Homer gets freaked out that Bart might be “catching” gay from him. Zzzzzzap!
Orac over at Respectful Insolence needs to get right on this!
That is complete nonsense.
A fetus in utero is completely shielded from exposure to high voltage by the mother.
Current doesn’t flow through you unnoticed.
Press release. This is a press release, among many currently going out with slightly different audience focus, presumably in aid of selling a book.
Personal agenda. Check
Blanket bomb inference. Check.
Invocation of “Big Business”. Check.
So far the citing evidence in the PRs, except for speculative “what-if”s have been in relation to dairy farm litigation (Dairy farming being Mr. Allen’s specialty, not physics, biophysics, cellular electrochemistry, epidemiology or medicine). One of the PRs extended the speculation to the performance of the Green Bay Packers.
Mr. Allen did have a problem because his dairy farm was improperly grounded and he won a court settlement, which may have been insufficient to his actual costs. That case is publicly documented from court history. Personally that personal tale might be interesting on its own merit, since I find farm management interesting.
I don’t begrudge someone selling a book. but I am skeptical because of the fairly common use of autism as a hot market to do so.
The EMF/EMR theory of various illnesses have been circulating since I was a kid, mostly based on staunchly maintained correlation, even with later correlation failed to sustain the hypothesis. Recent variations have been the WiFi, cell phone, hypotheses. As my husband the physicist says, when I pose some of these what-ifs to him, the amounts discussed are beggared by the EMR that we are bathed in by natural phenomena.
http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/emf.html
I had to giggle a little about this–when I was pg with my first child (about 6 months) I was helping my husband work on his Harley and got zapped–HARD. Hmm… do you think the electricity waited for my 3rd son to hit??
Theories…LOL.
By the way…it’s no small coincidence that my first son is named Harley.
EMF’s are a serious health threat. I don’t know if they can lead to brain damage, but they’re not healthy and they do cause you to lose energy and slowly destroy your health. Here is some info you might find interesting:
For the past five decades, studies have confirmed that non-ionizing communications radiation in the RF/microwave spectrum has the same effect on human health as ionizing gamma wave radiation from nuclear reactions. (nukes) Leading German radiation expert Dr. Heyo Eckel, an official of the German Medical Association, states, “The injuries that result from radioactive radiation are identical with the effects of electromagnetic radiation. The damages are so similar that they are hard to differentiate.” .1 The identical damage resulting from both radioactive gamma waves and high frequency microwaves involves a pathological condition in which the nuclei of irradiated human cells splinter into fragments called micronuclei. Micronuclei are a definitive pre-cursor of cancer. During the 1986 nuclear reactor disaster at Chernobyl in Russia, the ionizing radiation released was equivalent to 400 atomic bombs, with an estimated ultimate human toll of 10,000 deaths. Exposed Russians quickly developed blood cell micronuclei, leaving them at high risk for cancer.
RF/microwaves from cell phones and cell tower transmitters also cause micronuclei damage in blood cells. This was reported a decade ago by Dr. Henry Lai and Narendrah Singh, biomedical researchers at the University of Washington in Seattle. Dr. Singh is famous for refining comet assay techniques used to identify DNA damage. Lai and Singh demonstrated in numerous animal studies that mobile phone radiation quickly causes DNA single and double strand breaks at levels well below the current federal “safe” exposure standards. (”Neurological Effects of Radio frequency Electromagnetic Radiation,” a paper presented by Dr. Lai to the Mobile Phones and Health Symposium, October 25-28, 1998, University of Vienna. Also “DNA Damage and Cell Phone Radiation,” http://www.rfsafe.com, 11-02-05.)
The telecommunications industry knows this thanks to its own six-year, wireless technology research (WTR) study program mandated by Congress and completed in 1999. Gathering a team of over 200 doctors, scientists and experts in the field, WTR research showed that human blood exposed to cell phone radiation had a 300-percent increase in genetic damage in the form of micronuclei. Dr. George Carlo, a public health expert who coordinated the WTR studies, confirms that exposure to communications radiation from wireless technology is “potentially the biggest health insult” this nation has ever seen. Dr. Carlo believes RF/microwave radiation is a greater threat than cigarette smoking and asbestos.
Because gamma waves and RF/microwave radiation are identically carcinogenic and genotoxic to the cellular roots of life, the safe dose of either kind of radiation is zero. No study has proven that any level of exposure from cell-damaging radiation is safe for humans. Dr. Carlo confirms that cell damage is not dose dependant because any exposure level, no matter how small, can trigger damage response by cell mechanisms.3 Recent Swedish epidemiological studies confirm that, after 2,000 hours of cellular phone exposure, or a latency period of about 10 years, brain cancer risk rises by 240 percent. (”Long-Term Mobile Phone Use Raises Brain Tumor Risk: Study,” Reuters, 03-31-06. This research was conducted by the Swedish National Institute for Working Life whose scientists studied 905 people with malignant brain tumors to confirm a 240% increased risk of brain tumors after heavy mobile phone use.)
Communications antennas now blast the human habitat with many different electromagnetic frequencies simultaneously. Human DNA hears this energetic cacophony loud and clear, reacting like the human ear would to high volume country music, R&B plus rock and roll screaming from the same speaker. Irradiated cells struggle to protect themselves against this destructive dissonance by hardening their membranes. They cease to receive nourishment, stop releasing toxins, die prematurely and spill micronuclei fragments into a sort of “tumor bank account.” This is precisely how microwave radiation prematurely ages living tissues.
The constant roaming pain is intense for 32-year-old Kenneth Hurtado of Southern California. He’s been to hell and back, starting with a seven-pound tumor on a kidney, diagnosed in 2002. The cancer spread to his brain. His first brain tumor was removed by craniotomy, the second by the cyber knife. In 2005, cancer nodes were found in his lungs. By 2006, the cancer had metastasized to his legs. This year he is battling three excruciating tumors on his spinal cord. Hurtado hates his seizures. His last one came on while he was driving. “It’s like the devil taking over your body,” he says.
Now unable to work, Hurtado says he was relatively healthy in 1998 when he began a career as an installer for a large international corporation manufacturing electronics equipment for wireless providers. At the base of cell towers there is an equipment “hut” where installers assemble the radios, amplifiers and filters which generate man-made microwave frequencies and route them up to transmitter antennas through huge cables. Mounted on sector supports aptly named alpha, beta and gamma, the antennas send and receive these carcinogenic radio waves and their pulsed data packets at the speed of light.
Posted on locked fences around the huts are “danger” warning signs. Hurtado says, “You look around these sites and you find many dead birds on the gravel. They can’t take the radiation and they,ll just die. You don’t have to ponder that too long to figure it’s bad.”
Hurtado doesn’t know how much radiation he got on the job. He says there are at least four connection spots inside the hut where radiation can leak. He could not avoid the “heat” when he turned the radios on for testing and he wonders if his cancer is the result. “When I first got hired, we had safety meetings, but they pretty much minimized the hazards,” he remembers. He was issued no electromagnetic safety clothing and it was not until 2002 that he got a radiation meter to wear. “The meter is supposed to warn you if you are getting too much radiation,” he says, “but I put mine on a stick and placed it next to antennas and the alarm never went off.”
A medical report in the International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health confirms that workers exposed to high levels of RF/microwave radiation routinely have astronomical cancer rates. The report notes that, for these workers, the latency period between high radiation exposure and illness is short compared to less exposed populations.
Hurtado says there are many industry workers who are dangerously over-exposed. “I’ve talked to guys on power crews who have to climb around the antennas and they,ve told me that before a work day is half over, they start feeling really sick.” He adds, “In my mind they are getting cooked.”
Hurtado suspects that, since the early days of the wireless buildout, there has been illegal activity related to public exposure from transmission sites. “I’m pretty sure,” he says, “that some of the carriers are exceeding FCC exposure limits. They can turn the radios and amplifiers up to get a bigger footprint and they don’t care if the alarms go on once the installers are gone.” Regulatory inspectors could identify violators because channels can be spectrum analyzed. “But,” he says, “there is just no one to check and I believe that the public is getting way too much radiation now.”
it’s the ecological fallacy…….
Dr. Carlo was in the recent past involved as expert spokesperson for a multi-level marketing company of EMF “protective” products, so while it does not invalidate his position, it does somewhat erode his credibility has a disinterested party. He has also been publicizing his own EMF+mercury autism theory involving chelation in an EMF free environment.
Environmental EMF projects, collaborative reviews of research and exposure threshholds.
World Health Organization (WHO) International EMF Project
http://www.who.int/peh-emf/en/
Listings of exposure guidelines, framework for harmonization of EMFs.
See Fact sheet N°322
June 2007 (sidebar)
International Commission on Non-ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP)
http://www.icnirp.org/what.htm
Mike, you are so completely FOS. You haven’t a clue about science. You are either making up crap or repeating someone else’s made up crap.
The electromagnetic radiation that most people are most familiar with is visible light. Visible light is between ionizing radiation and microwave radiation.
The largest source of ELF electromagnetic radiation is the Earth’s magnetic field. Because the Earth’s field is about 50 microTesla, if you spin around in one spot you subject yourself to an ELF of 100 microTesla, from +50 to -50 and back again.
One of the best shielding agents for microwaves is aluminum foil. Cover your body with that and the microwaves can’t get through it. Aluminum foil blocks all electromagnetic radiation from UV to visible to infrared to microwaves. It doesn’t block ionizing radiation, but it does block everything else.
So do you cover yourself with aluminum foil? If you don’t, then you are not serious about protecting yourself from electromagnetic radiation.
Is there no “alternative science” or “alternative medicine” idea out there that Mike refuses to espouse?
“Is there no ‘alternative science’ or ‘alternative medicine’ idea out there that Mike refuses to espouse?”
I dunno. Depends on his alternative meditative trances, guessing from what he wrote in a prior post.
Cliff
I guess along with tin foil conspiracy hats they’ll be issuing tin foil belly coverings for pregnant women. Maybe they’ll throw in tin foil sleepers for babies and tin foil (er, um) ‘hats’ for husbands as part of pre-conception planning. I feel a brand identity forming…
I’m personally holding out for mind-controlling aliens from the planet Zorg to be the cause of autism. I want to at least get ahead in development and sales for the anti-Zorgian product market.
Geez.
You are either making up crap or repeating someone else’s made up crap.
——————-
FWIW–It was originally someone else’s crap.
Just something silly, but it seemed to sum up alot,
http://adamant.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/tinfois_2.jpg
a propos Mike-the-Zeolite-guy:
*plonk*
(You young ‘uns probably have never heard that sound: *plonk* is the sound that a good old-fashioned 1970s-vintage ASCII-text Usenet News reader program made (in the mind’s eye — we had to use our imagination!) when you plopped yet another troll’s Usenet address onto your killfile. A killfile was a list of people whose posts your newsreader would simply skip and not show you. And Lovaas thinks he invented “extinction”. Ha.)
And yes, I’m old enough to be given license to repeat myself. The AARP is already sending me membership solicitations
.
Is it true that the incidence of autism is significantly lower in the American Amish population as opposed to the general USA population?
Are there any epidemiological studies concerning the incidence of autism in populations exposed to high levels of EMR vs those populations that are not?
We are all aware of the AIDS epidemic in Africa. Is there an autism epidemic there as well – on the same scale as it is in the U.S.?
Is it really that strange to assume that the human brain, which is composed of nerve cells and fibers that are separated by small spaces (called synapses), through which electro-chemical transmission of impulses pass from one neuron to another; could not possibly be influenced/affected by the ambient EMR, and that the ambient EMR levels are geographically diverse?
Is it likely or not that some human brains are more susceptible than others to the influence of EMR on their electro-chemical transmissions?
Is there some level of ambient EMR at which all human brains will be influenced/affected?
Is there a connection to ADHD, dementia or benign forgetfulness as well?
To dismiss the possibility of EMR as having any etiologic role in autism would be sophomoric and narrow minded. And if true, any attempt to rectify the situation by some meaningful reduction in man-made EMR would be met with stiff resistance and ultimate failure. There are simply too many making too much money to reverse the electro-pollution we are now all subjected to.
The notion that there is a lot less autism among Amish children is a myth in circulation on the internet, and most likely mistaken; here’s a thorough post on Left Brain/Right Brain about the prevalence rate of “low-functioning autism” among the Amish.
If Amish populations are in the same/similar geographic locations with high levels of ambient EMR, then I would expect the incidence to be the same.
Are there geographic locales, such as Central Africa, that have considerably less ambient EMR where epidemiologic studies re: autism have been accomplished? And if so, is the incidence decreased?
Has anyone yet attempted to prevent the development of autism by protecting the developing brain of the fetus/infanwith aluminum foil?
we studied emfs for a freshman engineering writing course back in 97, except the concern back then was cancer…
seemed to have a correlation if you were literally bathed in it (worked on the radar on a ship and spent many many years in it on a daily basis, for example) but the amounts the average American is exposed to are nothing.
Not to mention that if we had no technology we’d still be bathed in the earth’s emf…
“Is it really that strange to assume that the human brain, which is composed of nerve cells and fibers that are separated by small spaces (called synapses), through which electro-chemical transmission of impulses pass from one neuron to another; could not possibly be influenced/affected by the ambient EMR, and that the ambient EMR levels are geographically diverse?” No, it is not at all strange to assume that it could not possibly be influenced in a pathological way by the ambient EMR. The primary reasons have already been given and are easily identified through a simple Web search.
I am currently researching what is out there on this topic. This is my first visit to this webpage and I am hoping to find a great resource here. I am a parent and also very questioning of theories and cures HOWEVER have any of you looking into this topic before posting your comments, there are studies out there and yes it is as new as autism is, the amounts and waves of radiation are changing and different then they have been in the past, just like a medicinal side effect, those wave that are everywhere could possibly effect our biological processes. It sounds spacey but my current readings from many sources and weighing thier evidence & possible crockery still seem that it could be a contributing factor. I dont know that I will ever believe there is any one reason for rise in autism. What I do know is perservatives, radiation & synthetics rarely existed in the past and are prevalent now… I am sure our bodies arent transforming at the same rate as our technology.
@autismangel,
thanks for your comment—-are there any reasons in particular, based on your child’s personal experiences and history, that led you to suspect radiation?