Dr Andrew Goldsworthy – The Biological Effects of Weak Electromagnetic Fields

Dr Andrew Goldsworthy is a retired lecturer from Imperial College London, which is among the top three UK universities after Oxford and Cambridge and is renowned for its expertise in electrical engineering and health matters. Dr Goldsworthy spent many years studying calcium metabolism in living cells and also how cells, tissues and organisms are affected by electrical and electromagnetic fields. You may find much of what he says both surprising and worrying.

In the attached report (The Biological Effects of Weak Electromagnetic Fields), which we have published the Abstract from below, he explains how weak electromagnetic fields from cell phones, cordless phones and WiFi can have serious effects on our health. These include damage to glands resulting in obesity and related disorders, chronic fatigue, autism, increases in allergies and multiple chemical sensitivities, early dementia, DNA damage, loss of fertility and cancer.

All this happens at levels of radiation that our governments and the cell phone companies tell us are safe because the radiation is too weak to cause significant heating. This is the only criterion that they use to assess safety. In fact, the direct electrical effect on our cells, organs and tissues do far more damage at to us at energy levels that may be hundreds or thousands of times lower than those that cause significant heating. These are termed non-thermal effects and our governments are doing nothing to protect us from them.

ABSTRACT

Secondary effects of obesity include diabetes, gangrene, cardiac problems, renal failure and cancer. Cell phone base station radiation also affects the adrenal glands and stimulates the production of adrenalin and cortisol. Excess adrenalin causes headaches, cardiac arrhythmia, high blood pressure, tremors and an inability to sleep, all of which have been reported by people living close to base stations. The production of cortisol weakens the immune system and could make people living near base stations more susceptible to disease and cancer.

Inward calcium leakage in the neurons of the brain stimulates hyperactivity and makes it less able to concentrate on tasks, resulting in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). When this happens in the brains of unborn babies and young children, it reduces their ability to concentrate on learning social skills and can cause autism. Leakage of the cells of the peripheral nervous system in adults makes them send false signals to the brain, which results in the symptoms of electromagnetic intolerance (aka electromagnetic hypersensitivity). Some forms of electromagnetic intolerance may be due to cell phone damage to the parathyroid gland, which controls the calcium level in the blood and make cell membranes more inclined to leak. Further exposure could the tip them over the edge into full symptoms of electromagnetic intolerance.

Cell phone radiation damages DNA indirectly, either by the leakage of digestive enzymes from lysosomes or the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) from damaged mitochondrial and plasma membranes. The results are similar to those from exposure to gamma rays from a radioactive isotope.

Effects of DNA damage include an increased risk of cancer and a loss of fertility, both of which have been found in epidemiological studies. The effects of cell phone and WiFi radiation have also been determined experimentally using ejaculated semen. The results showed the production of ROS, and a loss of sperm quality and, in some cases DNA fragmentation.

The inward leakage of calcium ions from electromagnetic fields also opens the various tight junction barriers in our bodies that normally protect us from allergens and toxins in the environment and prevent toxic materials in the bloodstream from entering sensitive parts of the body such as the brain. The opening of the blood-brain barrier has been shown to cause the death of neurons and can be expected to result in early dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. The opening of the barrier in our respiratory epithelia by electromagnetic fields has been shown to increase the risk of asthma in children and the opening of the blood-liver barrier may be partially responsible for the current outbreak og liver disease. The opening of other barriers, such as the gut barrier allows foreign materials from the gut to enter the bloodstream, which may also promote allergies and has been linked autoimmune diseases.

Cell membranes also act as electrical insulators for the natural DC electric currents that they use to transmit power. Mitochondrial membranes use the flow of hydrogen ions to couple the oxidation of food to the production of ATP. The outer cell membrane uses the flow of sodium ions to couple the ATP produced to the uptake of nutrients. If either of these leak, or are permanently damaged, both of these processes will be compromised leading to a loss of available energy, which some people believe to be a contributory factor to chronic fatigue syndrome.

The mechanism underlying electromagnetically-induced membrane leakage is that weak ELF currents flowing through tissues preferentially remove structurally important calcium ions, but they have been shown to do so only within certain amplitude windows, above and below which there is little or no effect. This means that there is no simple dose-response curve, which many people find confusing, but a plausible theoretical model is described. The mechanism also explains why certain frequencies especially 16Hz particularly effective.