Are Electromagnetic Waves and Radio Wave Hurting Us?
I was in Abia State Nigeria, and it was the first time I was going to experience uninterrupted power supply for 5 days straight. Trust me when I say it looked like a dream because I haven't had this experience before. Now, in developed countries this isn't a big deal, but in countries like Nigeria, electricity is luxury with some states like Ondo State having less than 4 hours supply in a week or certain areas in Ekiti State having 8 hours in a month.
Electricity has become a major part of our civilization, in fact its role cannot be sidelined because almost everything we do has to do with electricity, in when a particular country cannot supply the required power to companies, they shut down and leave those countries. In all of this, can having this electricity pose any negative impact on us? I am not talking about being electrocuted, I am talking about other things, like can too much electricity affect us? so let's dive in.
First, we need to understand what electricity is, and put simply, it is the movement of electric charges generating both electric and magnetic fields that carry energy through space and is referred to as Electromagnetic Radiation. I see that look, like radiation?
Radiation isn't all harmful. It literally just mean giving off, and there are a lot of things that gives off energy around us like the heat radiator giving off heat as in infrared radiation. When it comes to radiation, there are different types of electromagnetic spectrum and hey give off different types of radiation with a lot of them not harmful in anyway while some are harmful and these are radiations with very short wavelengths such as gamma ray, X-rays, and UV lights.
When it comes to most of the electric gadgets and even electric poles, their radiations aren't short wavelength radiation, they are either radio wave, microwave, or electric and magnetic waves. These radiations do not disrupt body molecules and do not forget that we are surrounded by naturally radiating substances including the sun but with technology, we have seen different postulations and theories that has made us wonder if we are safe with the radiations that we have made to become so close to our lives.
In 1979, a study was released where it claimed that living close to power lines was linked to leukemia but since the connection could not be proved, it was discredited and didn't see the light of the day but with humans, the idea persisted that there might be possible danger with such radiations and since then multiple studies have been conducted with everyone coming with conflicting results. This doesn't mean that people haven't come to say that they react to radioactive waves from gadgets and electric poles. Such was seen in the 5G transmitter were people claimed to have headaches, skin reaction, nausea, exhaustion or burning eyes.
Some studies talk about the side of the brain used when pressing phones, and the possibility of brain tumors. Currently, researchers are looking at the long effect of radio waves on the body that might not be visible currently. While researchers are doing this, a lot of the studies are not based on real experiences, they are surrounded on surveys and self reports and with this type of research, the results are unreliable because humans are not reliable as they can be influenced.
Some studies also showed that radio waves can be carcinogenic, and the WHO classified radio frequency field as possibly carcinogenic which means that there are possible hints that it can cause cancer but there are no enough proof to nail it. But if I am to base my response to being scared about the radiation emitted by electric poles and gadgets around us on the articles and researches available, then my response will be not to be scared of any harm from gadgets.
It is believed that most people who mention that weak radiation are harming them are as a result of Nocebo effect or maybe not but for now, there is no robust evidence that electricity or weak radiation have any negative effect on us.
TO READ MORE
https://www.who.int/ionizing_radiation/about/what_is_ir/en/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4804316/
https://www.who.int/peh-emf/meetings/archive/en/keynote3ng.pdf
https://www.epa.gov/radiation/radiation-basics#ioniandnonioni
https://www.who.int/peh-emf/publications/facts/fs322/en/
http://www.bmas.de/SharedDocs/Downloads/DE/PDF-Publikationen/fb400e-elektromagnetische-felder-englisch.pdf?__blob=publicationFile
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-exactly-does-light-tr/
https://www.nwo-i.nl/en/personnel/working-conditions/radiation/non-ionising-radiation/what-are-the-risks-of-non-ionising-radiation/
https://academic.oup.com/aje/article/109/3/273/110012
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3950865/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7361752
https://inis.iaea.org/search/searchsinglerecord.aspx?recordsFor=SingleRecord&RN=24006371
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ijc.27542
https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/radiation/electromagnetic-fields-fact-sheet
https://www.who.int/peh-emf/publications/facts/fs296/en/
https://academic.oup.com/ije/article/39/3/675/631387
https://www.iarc.fr/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/pr200_E.pdf
https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/critique-of-risk-of-brain-tumors-from-wireless-phone-use/
https://web.archive.org/web/20150217215254
https://www.emf-portal.org/de/article/18215
https://www.niehs.nih.gov/news/newsroom/releases/2018/november1/index.cfm
https://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/ntp/htdocs/lt_rpts/tr595_508.pdf
https://www.livescience.com/63996-cellphones-cancer-rats-ntp-study.html
https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements
https://monographs.iarc.fr/list-of-classifications-volumes/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4199025/
https://www.niehs.nih.gov/news/newsroom/releases/2018/november1/index.cfm
https://www.bafu.admin.ch/bafu
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6121031/
https://www.bmj.com/content/332/7546/886.full
There have been a lot of research as well as conspiracy theories by a lots of people on this topic, and I think currently with science researches we can say that using gadgets when it has to do with electromagnetic radiation is not harmful to humans but we should also understand that these gadgets and technologies also have other parts where they can be harmful to our health. Moreover, I believe that overtime, we might find out that some of these researches are funded by companies that want scientist to give the positive sides of the radioactive emissions their product release.
But for now, we can say that science haven't had any grounds to say that electromagnetic emissions are bad, so we can say that they have not effect in the short term and long term.
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