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Post Time: 15/11/2007 13:33:26 |
KeiraN
Total Forum Posts: 16 |
Hello,
I have a few queries, listed in order of importance:
1) Bed/our bedroom- we will be getting a new bed frame with headboard made in wood. I understand that wood is better than metal because it doesn't conduct any EMF's up from the floor, is that right? However, we are thinking of buying a mattress with individually coiled springs in and I'd heard somewhere about this not being a good idea, can you tell me why please? On our current wood framed bed (with Latex foam mattresses) we had good readings in Nov 2000 on our pillows of 16 v/m & 0.00 microtesla. So would metal springs be ok?
2) Sofa bed/guest room - we are also getting one of these. However we're planning (because of it's size and practicalities) to buy one with a metal frame. It won't be used much as a bed but will be as a sofa. Therefore is there anything I can put at the bottom/under the legs to block emf's travelling up them?
3) School cancer / mobile phone mast connections - a story about St Joseph's Catholic Primary school in Chalfont St Peter recently came to light where a boy who'd been to the school died at 21 yrs with a brain tumour. There are 3 other boys also currently affected. Mum blames the masts, which encircle the school site but which are all at least 1/2 a mile away from the school if you look at 'Sitefinder'. Can anyone comment and suggest how I can check whether there are masts nearby but hidden and not on sitefinder?
4) Brick walls - can walls conduct emf's if there are no wires running in them? Sorry about this silly question.
Thank you very much for your help.
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Post Time: 15/11/2007 13:42:27 |
KeiraN
Total Forum Posts: 16 |
Hi,
Having read another mail about masts near schools I'd like to add the school's postcode SL9 8SB. Also, I'd like to add my own post code as our house is about 300m away from 2 of the masts mentioned and I'd appreciate any comments as to whether anyone thinks our house is at risk from them, SL9 8LP.
Many thanks
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Post Time: 16/11/2007 09:28:29 |
Sarahp
Total Forum Posts: 48 |
Hi!
I'll try to address your points in order.
1) Wood is better than metal because metal can re-radiate electric fields from your house wiring (including cabling under floors). Springs in the mattress will be made from metal, and therefore these also are conductive and could re-radiate electric fields, especially if the bed is low to the ground, or placed close to a wall.
You quote "good readings" of 16v/metre on your pillow. I'd actually consider these rather higher than I'd be happy seeing on a pillow. We do say that readings of 15v and below are reasonable, but ideally we'd prefer to see fields of less than 5v, specially on a pillow, as your head spends a lot of time there!
Personally, I am also looking at buying a new mattress for home, and will not be buying one with springs (looking more toward the memory foam type).
2) Again, as metal re-radiates electric fields, and shielding materials generally contain metal, there is a chance that the sofa will re-radiate electric fields from your flooring or cabling within the walls. You could earth the metal frame by using a small length of wire, stripping off the plastic coating at each end, making sure one end is firmly attached to the bed frame, and the other to the metal part of an earth-bonded radiatior or the earthing pin of a plug (which is plugged in, but doesn't need to be switched on). This will mean that any electric fields the metal frame does pick up will be earthed through your house's earth.
3) As sitefinder is not kept up to date any more, really the only way to find out is by visually surveying the area, or using equipment such as an electrosmog detector, A-COM or another microwave measuring device to determine the sources of these. You can make the A-COM or electrosmog detector roughly directional by the use of a metal container (like a biscuit tin). Place the instrument in the tin, and basically the lid is the main direction that the microwave source will be coming from. Point the open end of the tin in different directions, and see where the sound is loudest - that will be the way to check first. It's only a rough measure, but it's a lot easier and cheaper to try than one of the more complex directional monitors (which need a lot of knowledge to operate correctly).
I'd be more concerned to find out if the school had wifi, as that's far more likely to be producing much higher fields than phone masts half a mile away.
4) Unless the brick has metal in it, it won't conduct electrical fields, but brick walls won't STOP microwave fields, electric fields, or magnetic fields that are being produced the other side from coming through the wall. If the wall is damp, it could reradiate electricfields as water can be conductive.
Hope that helps! |
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Post Time: 16/11/2007 11:45:03 |
KeiraN
Total Forum Posts: 16 |
Hi Sarah,
Thank you for your reply, it helped a lot. However:
1)Bed - by 're-rediate' do you mean that the metal springs would just absorb Emf's floating into the air from the floor cabling if the they are within 1 metre of the floor cabling, even if the bed frame is wood and not conducting Emf's up into the bed? Sorry about this woolly question. I hear what you say about the 16v/m. Is there anything we can do to help lessen it perhaps by getting the carpenter who's making the bed frame to make it higher off the ground or make storage drawers for underneith?
Another thing about our current bed is they are 2 single Hulsta motorised beds pushed together and housed in a wooden frame. We took the motors off ages ago when we learnt that they radiated high emf's but there are still metal bars running the width of the bases in 2 sections that the motors were attached to, which we've strung up to under the slats so that they're not sitting on the floor. For our new bed we intend to keep the Hulsta slatted bed base singles (no motors) and house them in the new wood frame we're having made with new mattresses (probably memory foam now!). The question here is could these metal bars be increasing the emf readings on our pillows?
As our house emf readings were done in 2000 before we had a new kitchen fitted under our bedroom I intend to hire a metre to take fresh readings.
2)Sofa - by shielding materials I was meaning could we put leg rests/coasters under each leg to stop the Emf's being conducted up the frame, or is the situation like the one above where by if you're sitting within the 1 metre drop off range then you're going to get hit by emf's anyway? Another question is though wouldn't the wooden flooring and carpet protect you from some of the emf's coming off the underfloor cabling, as you are supposed to be able to use building materials etc to shield from the electirc bit of emf's anyway, aren't you? Hope I'm making sense here? If this is a sofa that I could be sitting on for a couple of hours a day, wouild it be worth buying in a wooden frame even if the bed base will be in metal (that part of which I could earth)?
3) Yes I'll do that.
4) Underfloor heating - is there a safe version of this using water in pipes?
Thank you very much for your help.
Keira
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Post Time: 16/11/2007 14:33:15 |
alasdairP
Total Forum Posts: 173 |
Hi Keira
Some more information/feedback for you.
1/. Bed springs. They are fine as regards power-frequency fields, but can resonate at RF/microwave frequencies and produce 'pools' of increased RF all over the bed. More serious, as far as I am concerned, is that the springs usually end up magnetised in their manufacture (accidently, due to the high fields used in the manufacturing processes). This means that you are lying on lots of magnets which can produce large field gradients over short distances - like very bad geomagnetic/geopathic stress. There is increasing concern about this. Metal (steel or iron) bed frames can also do this but to a smaller extent as the metal is further away from your body than the springs you lie on. On the mattress, the fields distortions can be several times larger than the Earth's magnetic field (which is about about 50 microtesla static field in the UK). I would not purchase a metal spring mattress now, though we have one that I demagnetised and it has a 50cm thick mattress pad on top that keeps us slightly further away from the springs. 16V/m doesn't sound too bad, but it would probably drop rapidly if you moved the bed a few inches away from the wall.
2/. Sofa bed. I wouldn't worry about this if it is only for occasional bed use. Sitting on it is no worse that sitting in a car, train or bus. We have to do these things. I wouldn't bother to Earth it. I believe that by far rthe most imprtnat pace to have low-EMF is the bedroom - where you spend at least 7 hours each night and where you body carries out most of its internal repair and growth work.
3/. I think the St Joseph's School story is probably nothing to do with the local masts. I plotted them all out (theoretically, not measured) for a TV news programme and suggested that they dropped the story. The cancers were spread in age of the person and type and I believe that the mast signals are lower than in many, many, parts of the country and schools where there is now cancer cluster question. It would be interesting to investigate it fully, but having done such work for CHILDREN with LEUKAEMIA (I arranged a major conference on the causes of child cancer, held in Westminster in 2004 www.leukaemiaconference.org), I really think that this was just a poorly research tabloid newspaper scare story.
4/. Piped water underfloor heating works well and has no EMF problems. You can get special low EMF screened underfloor electric heating cable that produces very low levels of EMF - can be useful in bathrooms. Electric space heating is VERY energy inefficient and electricity in the UK is only about 36% efficient from raw material/energy to electricity use, so it should only be used where there is no practical alternative.
5/. Damp walls can conduct electricity and emit electric fields. So can foil-backed plasterboard walls where the foil is not earthed (and it isn't by 99.99% of builders). If an unscreened electric cable runs across it, then it can pick up and re-radiate electric fields. EMFields now sells a much cheaper EMF meter (ELF 3030, £70.50 I think) which might be better for you than hiring a PRO meter. It is very good value and then you have it for all time.
I hope this helps.
Alasdair
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Post Time: 20/11/2007 21:40:04 |
KeiraN
Total Forum Posts: 16 |
Thank you very much for your reply, it has helped me to arrive at a few decisions. If I remember I'll let you know what the readings on our pillows are once I've pulled the bed away from the wall but need to probably buy a meter first. Again thanks for all your help, Keira
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