Dirty electricity filters?

I was listening to some random radio station while driving through the ozarks on my way home from Thanksgiving at my family's, and there was this show talking about "dirty" electricity, aka pollution from high frequency electromagnetic fields. And now its got me all paranoid (so very easy to do).

the guest was Dr. Sam Milham (sammilham.com) who recently wrote a book, apparently about his many decades of study on diseases/deaths related to different occupations, where he noticed a connection between cancer and electric work.
It was a long rambling conversation (interrupted by quite a lot of static as the station cut out at every large dip in the road). Most of the time he sounded intelligent, or at least interesting, where he talked about going to different schools that had cancer clusters, and testing the fields or whatever, always finding that the rooms with the highest noise were the ones where the teachers and students were worst affected. teachers would get breast cancer and students would be bouncing out of their seats apparently mass affected by ADHD. But then occasionally he would say something off the wall goofy like a nut-ball from coast to coast(which i just noticed while searching, he apparently was also once a guest of), drawing correlations straight out of his backside (such as inferring that the fact that people who lived in a city died younger at the turn of the century was because of edison setting up his DC power stations.. lol.. what? apparently this "Doctor" never heard of all the other pollutions and diseases that were rampant in the old dirty rotting immigrant packed slums at the time).

but then he and the Host, not sure what her name was at yourownhealthandfitness.org (show link? Epidemiology and Electrosmog apparently you have to pay to listen to the show, not a great sign of quality, but whatever) started pimping these dirty electricity meters and filters from stetzerelectric.com. though they both made a point of saying they werent paid to advertise these, and the doctor even said he bought a different brand from Home Depot(which i can not find, nor figure out exactly how to find, but he crawled under his desk to look up the name of it, i didnt write it down)... apparently when he plugged these things in one of the classrooms with students so hyper the teacher was threatening to quit, they all miraculously calmed down and became angels, till the teacher unplugged them and they all went bonkers again.

its become yet another one of those things that seems like it could possibly maybe might be a little bit worth maybe kinda looking into.. lol, but i have no idea what the hell any of it means.. sooo... yeah?

anyone have any ideas about this stuff, preferably not someone whos being paid to disparage it using cheap "science".

the reason it makes me paranoid is because i can "feel" these frequencies/fields myself... i bought an iPad i cant even use because it gives off this crazy vibe that causes my hand to ache and my chest to hurt.

id like to know a little more about this stuff.

I Know alot about Home Theater. power filters eliminate the static of our "dirty" power. They are commonly used in home theater because they are like air filters for your car, all those micro spikes take a beating on the micro processors in televisions and make your audio sound like crap, if you buy one and use it for a quality entertainment system you will notice more performance and your products will last longer.

Its like when you turn on a vacuum and your lights dim for a second, the whole power grid is bombarded with micro spikes, thus the term "dirty" power. they do make a pretty significant difference.

Hmm, maybe this is the reason we don't hear any radio signals from outer space-they know it has bad effects on everything. I bet they come here and our frequencies screw all their gadgets up at first.

those meters seem fishy.. I will say this from fist hand experience.

A good friend of mine worked as a lineman as well as other titles running the transfer stations for the power grid outside of Los Angeles....

he died of cancer last year...in all the years that I knew him and the stories he told about his friends and their life long exposure to this amount of power several of them died of cancer and he also was worried he would meet the same fate...

I have no doubt these humming transformers effect our body having worked under high tension wires I could feel the static energy especially when the fog rolls in you can really feel it.

heck even faulty wiring in a house can mess with electronics especially Wifi.

reply to post by ConspiraCity


is it like the home theater power strips?

reply to post by samlf3rd


makes you wonder what they use instead. some kind of natural bio-electricity?
maybe thats why theyre always zipping around erratically and occasionally smashing into the ground like at roswell? lol

reply to post by -W1LL


wait... so what seems fishy then?
thats pretty much what they were saying.. its not the electricity its the high frequency "pulses" it gives off

that sucks though.

reply to post by BohemianBrim


srry about that looks like i deleted the first two words in my last post I meant the interview and the sale of the monitors seemed fishy... but dont let that detract from the facts or the study, I agree with the theory.

Originally posted by BohemianBrim
id like to know a little more about this stuff.

I consider myself an expert on this topic.

I'll try to give you some simple points and if they aren't clear feel to ask questions and I can elaborate.

EQUIPMENT CONCERNS:
*Dirty power is real. How bad the problem is varies from area to area. If you lived near an industrial complex with lots of big machines powering up and down you could get spikes from those activities for example.
*Dirty power is much more likely to have an effect on equipment than on humans.
*Buying a filter for dirty power for equipment may be a good idea, if the power is dirty enough.
*The comment about high end home theater might be one example.
*I use a UPS (uninterruptible power supply) with filters to protect my computer equipment from dirty power.

BIOLOGICAL CONCERNS:
*Dirty power is not particularly a concern for biology like humans any more than regular power is.
*Having said that, dirty power filters to promote your personal health are probably a scam.
*But this doesn't mean electromagnetic radiation is harmless, it's just that the extra noise in dirty power is probably harmless to humans.
*An example of electromagnetic radiation that has come under scrutiny is from one device you mentioned, the cell phone.
*Read the cell phone manual carefully and it probably advises you not to hold the phone directly against your head, but rather some distance away. The reason is, pressing the phone against your head exposes you to excessive levels of EM radiation.
*Hold the phone at least an inch away from your head or at least the amount specified in your cell phone owner's manual which varies by phone but usually isn't more than 1 inch. Or you can use a corded headset like I do, then the phone is 2 feet away from my head, I can wear it on my belt.
*While holding a cell phone next to your head may have risks, normal household power probably doesn't have many biological risks, at least not from EM radiation.
*However transmission lines which use much higher voltage, up to say half a million volts, can have far stronger EM fields. So workers who operate on these lines may face additional risks, though these risks are not well characterized or well understood.

The last one is a but fuzzy, but you probably don't want to live too close to a high tension power line until more clear research is done. Here's something to read in the meantime:

How Far Should You Live From High-Voltage Power Lines?

According to Harvard Health Publications, determinations on how far a home should be from high-voltage power lines have proved difficult for researchers to estimate due to all of the possible health outcomes involved and other unknown contributing factors. Possible health outcomes involve testing for all the potential disorders that can result from exposure to EMFs. Also, power line fluctuations throughout the day make it difficult to pinpoint a distance range when determining exposure levels and potential risk.

That's probably enough to wet your whistle, I hope that helps. I'm pretty confident that that's reasonably accurate for the most part, but like anything it's subject to continuing research.

reply to post by Arbitrageur


Just to add a little to your informative reply, those reading this should note that the "inverse square" law applies. Put simply, double the distance = quarter the signal/field etc strength. The cellphone example is a good one. If holding it right up to your ear is about an inch from your brain, holding it a mere inch away from your ear means your brain only receives 1/4 the intensity of EMR.

Also remember that the frequencies emitted by "dirty" power (often harmonics "reflected" back from high switching rate semiconductors) are not at all extravagant, likely lower than your cell phone and the amplitude is related to how much power these devices consume. Not much for your computer, DVD player etc. Typically they have a ferromagnetic bead as a filter either internally or externally (that cylindrical lump in your power supply cable). Different story for H.V. power lines but remember it drops rapidly with distance.

As for Edison and his D.C., these people need to refer to basic electrical principles. Frequency relates to rate of change so D.C. power is 0Hz since it is direct and not alternating.

Sounds to me more along the Lines of Stray Voltage. but that's only my two cents. I've dealt with stray voltage for years, tracking its source down and fixing the problem in many barns and homes. But there is EM and RF radiation factors as well.