Velcheva O.I., English language advisor. В статті розглянуто вплив електромагнітного випромінювання від побутових електроприладів на здоров’я людини та наведено рекомендації щодо ряду запобіжних дій

В статті розглянуто вплив електромагнітного випромінювання від побутових електроприладів на здоров’я людини та наведено рекомендації щодо ряду запобіжних дій щодо зменшення та усунення негативного впливу електромагнітного випромінювання.

There is an opinion that household appliances make people lives easier. But is it really true? We use a lot of thing in our everyday life even not to think about the health risks and how safe they are for us.

The modern technologies used today emit electromagnetic radiation that affect human health and change the environment. This problem is of a great concern both scientists and engineers. A lot of researches were conducted and the results of them sometimes were inconsistent.

Hall Joe, the founder of Clarus Systems in San Clemente California, considers that “electromagnetic radiation has two components: a weak electrical field and a strong magnetic field. The electrical field, for example from your computer, goes out maybe one or two inches. This shows up as static, or positive ions, and attracts dust to your screen. Actually, both the electric and magnetic fields are full of random sub-particles, but the stronger field, the magnetic field travels at right angles to the magnetic field and goes out typically 10 or 20 times as far. The magnetic field affects us more strongly, and passes through virtually all materials; it goes through things like lead very easily. So if you have a screen in front of your computer to protect yourself from radiation, it's not protecting you at all from the magnetic field even though it may be called an "anti-rad" screen, but only from the electrical field”.[1]

An electromagnetic field is set up by all household appliances, so if we are near these appliances (cellular phones, microwave ovens, computers etc) we are exposed to electromagnetic waves which are harmful for our health. It is proved that “all living systems are based on electromagnetic energy and it means that every cell in human’s body is generating an electromagnetic field”.[1] It also should pay attention to neurons, the cells of nervous system, interact to each other due to their inner electromagnetic radiation, when impulses are sent to the brain. But outside radiation, e.g. from a computer monitor, change their activity. There is another negative factor of electromagnetic radiation: absorption of electromagnetic radiation can lead to heating of tissues and in turn it influences on metabolic process and cells division. All these process will result in various disease (cancer, leukemia, blood disorders, cataracts, birth defects) and dysfunction of different organs.

Electromagnetic fields both from industrial plants and household appliances created new environment for people. People’s health is greatly influenced by as high power lines as electric clock put near bed. People never think about the fact that electric clock next to their heads could be emitting a magnetic field of 5 to 10mG- the EMF equivalent of an electric power line. When we switch on the light we should know that fluorescent lights create a higher level of EMFs than incandescent bulbs because a typical fluorescent tube may have a reading of 160 to 200 mG at 1 inch away. It is unexpectedly but even hair dryers can be dangerous that’s why “experts recommend hair dryers not be used on children, because fields that strong can damage rapidly developing brain and young nervous systems”.[2]

Television and computer are the most popular household appliances that influence on human’s life, because time that human spends in front of the screen of TV or computer monitor is too much. So long-term and regular follow up the blinking image on the screen leads to nervous and bodily fatigue of organism and can injure it. Overwork and radiation from the screen were the main reasons why the strict time limits were applied in many highly developed countries. To lessen the harm from the monitor the quality of it is constantly improved. Unfortunately, working with monitor is as harmful as smoking. People who spend about four hours in front of TV every day shorten their lives more than a quarter. So meaningless waste of time leads to disorientation of people in real life.

Speaking about children it should pay attention to the fact that they are more sensitive to radiation from TV and computer. But their enthusiasm of watching TV programs or playing computer games result in poor sight, fatigue and communication problems with age-mates.

There are some rules for reducing radiation namely: replace the old monitor for new one with minimum level of exposure (e.g. LCD monitor), air a room more often and don’t put a computer near a bed.

Microwave ovens are designed to use microwaves which provide thermal energy, creating heat in moist food or tissue placed in the oven. The latest models of microwave ovens are highly protected by special housing in a case and gasket around the oven’s door, so it makes them quite safe, but it is noticed that radiation leakage can create an unsafe condition. Microwave ovens should be used no more than five years because the protection system for RF radiation becomes weaker. [4]

Special attention should be paid to the object that nobody can imagine his or her life without it -cell phone. People use cell phones for business, or formal, and informal communication, searching the Internet, listening to music and watching films. But recent time more and more people start to think of harmful influence of these gadgets, studying the specific researches on this topic. Cell phones emit double electromagnetic radiation: from antenna and a phone body that make them especially dangerous. Using cell phones we keep them very close to a head even don’t think that radiation penetrates up to 3 cm into our brains. Everyone notices that cell phones heat and in turn it results in heating of biological tissue, that’s why we should limit the use of cell phones and speak through the headphones instead of holding cell phones near ear. If people want to have good sleep they don’t have to put cell phones near bed. All these advices given below help to be healthy as long as possible. [5]

In conclusion we should say that electrical appliances differ greatly in the strength of fields they generate.[3] It means that the greater distance from the appliances the less influence both electric and magnetic field of them. Ali Zamanian and Cy Hardiman consider that “ no evidence exists regarding any harmful effects resulting from exposure to typical levels of RF and EMF radiation. However, everyone should be aware that exposure to such radiation may not be completely safe at certain power levels and frequencies. It is always a good idea to avoid unnecessary radiation exposure whenever possible. EMR exposure at the highest frequencies (X-Rays, Gamma rays) is a source of serious biological damage”.[4]