DIRTY ELECTRICITY
SUMMARY:
Dirty electricity is the term used to describe spikes and surges of electromagnetic energy traveling on power lines and house wiring at higher frequencies than the normal 60 Hertz AC electricity. It is created by CFL light bulbs, modern electronics and voltage convertors and multi-speed motors in energy efficient appliances. It is also created by smart meters. It can radiate out of the wiring into rooms. It has similar health effects to microwave radiation, including Fatigue, Sleep Issues, Digestive Issues, Memory Problems, Headaches, Heart Arrhythmia, Mood Swings, Asthma and Fertility Issues and possibly more.
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DETAILS:
The term "Dirty Electricity" was first used by Dr. Samuel Milham in his 2010 book Dirty Electricity: Electrification and the diseases of Civilization." The phenomenon had been around for over 100 years, but brought to common knowledge by Dr. Milham as an epidemiologist studying disease clusters and looking for a cause for clusters of childhood leukemia.
Building Biology uses the more informative term Microsurge Electrical Pollution (MEP), and defines it as VLF (very low frequency) electromagnetic energy in, or radiating from electrical wiring that is above the 60 Hz waveform of "clean" electricity. It does not have precise frequency bandwidth but is generally considered most important between 10KHz and 100KHz. Professional level meters may measure a much wider frequency range. The Greenwave EMI Dirty Electricity meter measures a very large bandwidth and provides an internally calculated level in millivolts. It can be used to show the before and after result of mitigation techniques using multiple Greenwave plug-in filters. More information is available by clicking on the meter image. As an EMF Consultant I would advise anyone considering the use of such filters to first have a home analysis done to make sure there are no existing wiring errors that could interfere with the effectiveness of the filters.
A certified EMF specialist might use such a meter and also an oscilloscope with frequency spectrum analysis capabilities to get additional information. The image below shows an anomaly centered around 5 MHz, much higher than the normally investigated range for Microsurge Electrical Pollution. This was created by NetGear powerline adapters; one plugged in at the router, and one at a location to serve a printer that was on, but not printing. This allows homeowners to turn off WiFi and send network data over all existing house wiring, so a receiving adapter can be plugged in anywhere to create an Ethernet connection. The bottom trace shows the noise on the 60Hz waveform of the electrical mains in the house, in millivots, for 160 milliseconds, or about 10 alternating current cycles. A better solution to avoid WiFi would be to use MoCa (Multimedia over Coaxial Cable) adapters, that send internet data over existing TV cables, that are shielded. But this limits the usable locations compared to the powerline adapters.
WHERE DOES IT COME FROM?
Microsurge Electrical Pollution (MEP) is created by anything that interferes with the original sinewave of the 60 Hz power coming to your house. When the AC power is converted to DC (direct current) power (rectified) the process involves interrupting the current flow with much more rapid changes in voltage than the 60Hz sinewave. This creates interference at much higher frequencies in the wiring of the house. This energy also radiates into the living space.
Modern appliances have digital controls that operate on DC power so they all have a rectifier circuit to convert the AC to DC. This unregulated DC voltage is then regulated by what is called a Switch Mode Power Supply that uses Pulse-Width Modulation to create the needed DC voltage level for the load to be powered. These are much more efficient than the old linear regulators, and are of course used in Energy Star appliances. It is these high frequency pulses that create the MEP with strong emissions up to 10 times the switching speed. The engineer designers of these SMPS add circuitry to filter the voltage transients - but not to protect people – to protect the electronics powered by the SMPS!
Just about every modern convenience you use will create MEP. Your laptop, smart TV, video game system, audio systems, chargers for battery powered devices, anything with a plug-in transformer box will all add to the MEP in your house. Modern dimmer switches also use pulse width modulation to change the average brightness of a light bulb, and are common sources of MEP.
CFL light bulbs were a huge mistake made by the government in their attempt to reduce power consumption with more efficient lighting devices than the traditional incandescent bulb. The light is produced using Mercury vapor, so the bulbs are a toxic waste hazard. Estimates are that over 80% of them are not disposed of properly. And if one breaks in your house, you need to quickly follow the proper toxic waste clean-up procedure, but almost nobody does! The light emitted includes dangerous ultraviolet frequencies that are supposed to be filtered by the coating on the bulb inner surface. But the curved tubes may develop small cracks that let dangerous unfiltered UV C light escape. And the bulb base contains a small circuit that converts the power to DC and then into high frequency pulses that create significant MEP.
Both powerline communication and wireless communication smart meters create multiple sources of MEP, into the GHz range. This radio frequency radiation is carried by power lines in the house acting as antennas.
IS IT DANGEROUS?
There are many studies that link MEP to a large range of health issues. These are basically the same as the symptoms of exposure to other forms of Electromagnetic Radiation. This includes Fatigue, Sleep Issues, Digestive Issues, Memory Problems, Headaches, Heart Arrhythmia, Mood Swings, Asthma and Fertility Issues.
Building Biology EMF Specialists report that it is not unusual for people to feel reduced symptoms and improvement in their health soon after the the MEP sources in the house have been eliminated, sometimes even before the consultant leaves.
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This study - Havas, Magda, and Angela Olstad,Power quality affects teacher well-being and student behavior in three Minnesota Schools,Science of the Total Environment,402.2,2008,157-162 had the following conclusions:
Poor power quality (dirty electricity) may be hindering or interfering with students in their education and also the performance of teachers. The study found improvement in well-being, behavior and performance related to the improvement in the power quality. They further postulated that based on these results, the portion of population electrically sensitive may be much larger than the 3% recognized, and maybe as high as 60%.
They did a repeated study at 3 Minnesota schools that focused on people with diabetes and sclerosis. The study found that the symptoms diminished when these people were under reduced EMF from the classroom. Another conclusion that the study revealed was that the blood sugar level was lowered in both types of diabetes, and less insulin was required in type 1 diabetes in a relatively clean power environment.
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In the book cited in the first paragraph here, Dr. Milham makes a strong argument, backed by studies and extensive research, that there is a link between dirty electricity and leukemia, ALS, ADHD, autism, brain tumors, breast cancer, memory loss, depression and other "germless" diseases.
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While each of these conditions may have multiple causes all contributing to the result, there is enough evidence to follow the Precautionary Principle. It is defined as follows: When human activities may lead to morally unacceptable harm that is scientifically plausible but uncertain, actions shall be taken to avoid or diminish that harm.
WHAT CAN YOU DO ABOUT IT?
Microsurge Electrical Pollution is a complex subject, and its detection and mitigation is best left to trained experts in all the related knowledge. The most simple thing to do is get rid of the things that cause it, but of course that is also the most difficult because those things are the source of the modern, convenient life everyone desires.
Step one should be to properly dispose of every CFL bulb in your house. But what do you replace them with? LED bulbs also use power conversion circuits. The MEP created in most cases is much lower than CFL bulbs, but it also varies significantly between manufacturers. And there are no regulations, so manufacturers do not list the statistics that are relevant to health conscious people. There are considerations beyond MEP as well. The spectrum of light frequencies a bulb produces is also important. Old tungsten filament incandescent bulbs create light closest to natural evening sunlight. Since lighting color becomes most important in the evening, a warm white LED is the best choice, since you do not want daylight bulbs after dark. Light biased toward the blue range interferes with the vital Melatonin cycle of all humans, and the protection of the Pineal gland.
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Another fairly easy choice would be to remove dimmer switches and replace them with standard switches. Having a bright overhead light and other table and floor lamps is a good compromise. The amount of MEP on your house wiring is determined also by the number of contributing devices that are drawing power. So don't turn on everything at the same time! If your oven, dishwasher, clothes washer and dryer have electronic control panels, they will all be creating MEP. Your computer and printer will also be part of the problem. The contributors outside of your house - your neighbors solar panel inverter for example, or dirty power from the utility itself, are much more problematic.
To do an effective clean-up of MEP, you will most likely need multiple plug-in filters as discussed above. There are also vendors selling whole house MEP filters that can be installed by a licensed electrician at the breaker panel. They are priced at over $1,000.
