EMFs and Health

In the early 1970s Dr. Robert O. Becker, as a result of his research on the biological role of internal electricity, warned in Technology Review that electromagnetic pollution was real and widespread. Soon he and his colleague Andrew Marino were invited to testify in a New York State hearing on the safety of high-voltage overhead power lines. The evidence they presented there opened a debate about electromagnetic fields (EMFs) and health that has raged ever since, concerning chronic human exposure to a variety of technologies including TV and radio towers, microwave transmitters, power lines, and most recently cell phones. In his autobiography Going Somewhere Marino recounts this contentious 40-year history from the intimate perspective of a key participant, concluding that EMFs, which invariably cause changes in brain waves, can ultimately affect the immune system and lead to a wide variety of disease states. The evidence that Marino reviews in this lively, no-holds-barred book, including Becker’s basic research and his own closely focused experiments on animals, provoked the power industry and the US Department of Energy to fund fraudulent EMF research and the US military to conceal research results that confirmed Becker and Marino’s conclusions. Ever since the hearing in New York State, the dangers of EMFs have consistently been denied by corporations and government institutions using or regulating electromagnetic energy. One of the major themes of Going Somewhere is the clash between science and politics, especially the detrimental effect of research where experimental design and dissemination of results are controlled by corporate and government interests.