In the featured video, Xiren, host of Know How Things Work, interviews Oram Miller, building biology environmental consultant, electromagnetic radiation specialist in Los Angeles, and director of learning and development for the Institute for Building Biology and Ecology (IBE, www.hbelc.org). 

Many of Miller’s clients have electromagnetic sensitivities, but some simply want to have as healthy an environment as possible. In some cases, he’ll assess electromagnetic field (EMF) levels in a home before the client purchases the home or moves into an office space. In addition to writing about the health hazards of EMF on his website, www.createhealthyhomes.com, Miller also lectures on this topic, and has been interviewed a number of times. 

He also co-written a book called “Breathing Walls,”¹ which details design protocols to avoid and eliminate mold and chemical outgassing in new and remodeled homes. 

One key focus of this EMF interview, which is typically overlooked, is the importance of measuring electric fields and not just magnetic fields. Electric fields are sort of the “unknown EMF,” Miller says, but can have just as detrimental an effect on your health as other more well-known EMFs on everybody’s minds today.

Factors That Affect the Health of Your Home

As mentioned in this interview, a wide array of factors affect the health of your home — and you. This includes factors that affect indoor air quality, such as mold, chemical outgassing, radon, asbestos, lead, natural gas, carbon monoxide and more. Then there’s the EMF sources: 

1. AC electric fields at 60 Hz (the “E” component of EMF) from house wiring and corded appliances (especially ungrounded ones; cords that have only two prongs rather than three)
2. AC Magnetic fields at 60 Hz (the “M” component of EMF) from power lines, wiring errors on house wiring, current on grounding paths, and from motors and transformers (“point sources”) 
3. Radio frequencies (RF) from cellphones, smart meters, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth in just about everything these days
4. “Dirty electricity” from transient voltage spikes from 2 to 100 KHz 

Wiring errors, found in up to one-third of homes in the US, along with current on grounding paths such as incoming metal water service supply pipes and TV cables, are common sources of magnetic fields. IBE recommends a knowledgeable electrician and plumber to remediate and correct these problems. 

Likewise, unshielded plastic-jacketed (Romex) wiring is a common source of another type of EMF, called electric fields, which are an unknown source of EMFs in all homes. Unfortunately, many in the EMF community don’t know that electric fields hide within their homes and often don’t look for them when measuring EMFs, Miller says. 

Yet, electric fields have long been one of the most disease causing types of EMFs in homes over the decades (with wireless devices now fast catching up and dirty electricity also being widely present). 

Electric and magnetic fields must be measured separately. Some of the EMF meters in use over the years have not been sensitive enough, measuring only extremely high electric fields that are far above what IBE considers dangerous. New combination EMF meters, fortunately, are now far more sensitive than older models when measuring electric and radio frequency fields.

When it comes to choosing a new home, three primary EMF sources that will cause Miller to tell a client to not purchase the home are:² overhead or underground powerlines with excessively high magnetic fields (because shielding is not effective), a cell phone tower in close proximity, and/or ungrounded nonmetallic Romex circuits, which cause high electric fields and prevent the grounding of computers and appliances. Most other sources of EMFs can be mitigated, including EMFs from wiring errors, electric currents on grounding paths, and RFs from indoor and most outdoor wireless sources. 

Health Effects of EMF Exposure

While skepticism still prevails, there’s extensive — and growing — research showing EMFs are harmful to human health. “There are considerable [biological] changes that occur,” Miller says. For example, research has shown EMFs:³

Create excess oxidative stress EMFs activate voltage gated calcium channels located in the outer membrane of your cells.4,5,6,7,8 Once activated, the VGCCs open up, allowing an abnormal influx of calcium ions into the cell. The excess calcium triggers a chemical cascade that results in the creation of peroxynitrites, extremely potent oxidant stressors believed to be a root cause for many of today’s chronic diseases. Inside your body, peroxynitrites modify tyrosine molecules in proteins to create a new substance, nitrotyrosine and nitration of structural protein.9Changes from nitration are visible in human biopsy of atherosclerosis, myocardial ischemia, inflammatory bowel disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and septic lung disease.10

Open the blood-brain barrier, allowing toxins to enter your brain

Fragment DNA Studies have shown EMFs cause DNA fragmentation. Significant oxidative stress from peroxynitrites may also result in single-strand breaks of DNA.11

Damage mitochondria, and impair proton flow and ATP production The enzyme ATP synthase — which passes currents of protons through a water channel, similar to current passing through a wire — generates energy in the form ATP from ADP, using this flow of protons. Magnetic fields can change the transparency of the water channel to protons, thereby reducing the current. As a result, you get less ATP, which can have system-wide consequences, from promoting chronic disease and infertility to lowering intelligence.

Alter cellular function due to excessive charge In a previous interview, Alasdair Philips, founder of Powerwatch,12explained how EMF exposure alters cellular function by way of excessive charges. Essentially, the cell functions as a gel, held together by electric charge. When the charge becomes excessive due to a massive influx of electrons, the function of the cell is disrupted.

Raise the risk for abnormal cell growth and cancer, including leukemia and cancer of the brain, acoustic nerve, salivary gland, eyes, testes, thyroid and breast As early as 2011, the evidence was strong enough for the International Agency for Research on Cancer, the cancer research arm of the World Health Organization, to declare cellphones a Group 2B “possible carcinogen.”13 Since then, a number of studies have found support for EMF having carcinogenic potential, including two recent government-funded studies.14,15,16

Has neurological effects Studies dating back to the 1950s and ‘60s show the nervous system is the organ most sensitive to EMFs. Some of these studies show massive changes in the structure of neurons, including cell death and synaptic dysfunction. Consequences of chronic EMF exposure to the brain include anxiety, depression, autism and Alzheimer’s disease, which Martin Pall, Ph.D., details in a 2016 paper.17

Contributes to reproductive problems in both sexes For example, prenatal exposure to magnetic fields can nearly triple a pregnant woman’s risk of miscarriage. Several other studies have come to similar conclusions.19,20,21,22,23 In men, studies show EMF radiation from cellphones and laptops reduces sperm motility and viability,24,25 and increases sperm DNA fragmentation.26

Alters your microbiome, turning what might otherwise be beneficial microbes pathogenic. This too can have far-ranging health effects, since we now know your microbiome plays an important role in health.