13 Dec EMF and body voltage in your bedroom
At this point there is over 40 years of research and scientific observation by Building Biologists and doctors in Germany and the US. This work has shown that man-made electromagnetic radiation pollution in the home has significant implications for people who are ill and not responding to treatment and on seemingly healthy individuals.
When inspections were made of homes at the request of doctors, the Building Biologists found that 90% of the time the trail led to the sleeping area and that 90% of the time the major pollutant in the sleeping area was the excessive man-made AC electric fields and radio frequency (RF) radiation primarily from devices in the home, but sometimes from sources outside the home.Wireless Communications and Health.
When these pollutants were reduced or eliminated most patients responded to treatment and recovered. For patients with well spouses, the spouses often reported that they saw beneficial changes in soundness of sleep and how they felt during the day. Our work associates high electric fields and high RF radiation with sleep disturbance, increased allergy response, muscle pain, heart palpitations, day time tiredness, day time irritability and childhood bed wetting to name a few.
This should not be surprising. Man-made electromagnetic fields are wholly unnatural and did not exist in the human environment until the late 1800’s. More recently, research focused on electric fields and cancer. Before this, the focus was exclusively on AC magnetic fields. AC electric fields were found to be more strongly associated with cancer risk than magnetic fields. (Ontario Hydro Worker Study, 1996)
Electricity powering our homes produces both alternating magnetic and alternating electric fields. These together are termed AC electromagnetic fields or EMF. Magnetic fields are present when current flows to power appliances and lights. More often then not, magnetic fields are not a problem in the bedroom. However, Electric fields are present at all times and are emitted by the electrical cables in the walls ceiling and floors. Additionally, wires to electric devices (appliances, lamps, etc.) give off electric fields as well. Such fields cannot be directly sensed by most people, hence, measurements must be made.
We can conveniently measure electric field exposure by using an electric field meter or via a surrogate measurement. The surrogate measurement is the AC voltage produced on a person’s body in bed by the electric field. This is called Body Voltage (BV). BV is measured using a voltmeter. A meter kit is available for about $130 from Safe Living Technologies. See Body Voltage Kit or Electric Field meter at https://gustenviro.com/emf-meters/
The Institute for Building Biology has standards for rating your sleeping situation as to the level of biological concern. These standards have been developed from 25 years of experience.
In most cases, we find that certain non-essential circuits must be turn off ONLY at night when you are sleeping. Normally these circuits are not the ones powering refrigerators, freezers or heating and air conditioning. Typically, the circuits with the greatest effect are the ones powering the outlets in the bedroom and any outlets in other rooms having common walls as well as circuits that are in the floor or above the ceiling.
We also find that field shielding material often helps to further reduce fields particularly in second-floor sleeping areas where there are power cables in the floor. This requires more professional help, so please consult with a Building Biologist.
Level of Concern for Bedroom Electric Fields
Meter Display None Slight Strong Extreme
BV Reading, Volts Under 0.010 V 0.010 to 0.1 0.1 to 1.0 Over 1.0
BV Reading, milliVolts Under 10 mV 10 to 100 100 to 1000 Over 1000
Electric Field, Floating Under 0.3 V/m 0.3 to 1.5 1.5 to 10 Over 10