World day against electromagnetic pollution is celebrated every year on June 24th. In this article, we tell you a little more about what’s behind this date.
On June 24 of each year, various organizations and environmentalists use their voices to raise awareness about the growth of electromagnetic pollution. Lately, we have seen protests from those who seek not to be affected by EMFs in various cities and countries. But, there’s an inevitable risk of being exposed to EMFs, and it’s even necessary since the same magnetic field of the earth surrounds us and provides a function of vital importance for the balance of nature.
But what about artificial electromagnetic fields? Well, those are the real problem, because they create electropollution or electrosmog, which is a phenomenon associated with the proliferation of electrical infrastructures, technological development, and telecommunications networks.
Electromagnetic pollution, EMF pollution, or electrosmog is not a new phenomenon, but it has been growing rapidly in recent years due to technological advances and the rise of wireless connections. However, on a date like this, we want to reiterate that this problem should not be fought by ceasing to use technologies or slowing their progress, but with more effective public and environmental policies, and with greater efforts to create solutions and cleaner technologies.
To better understand the reason behind a date like this, we want to tell you a little more about how electromagnetic pollution has evolved on our planet since we started using electricity.
War of the Currents: An Important Story Behind Electromagnetic Pollution
At the end of the 19th century, when humanity began to know about electricity, Thomas Alva Edison and Nikola Tesla began a kind of competition to be chosen for the distribution of the public electricity supply. This trade battle came up with the “war of the currents“.
Edison already had great recognition for the invention of the light bulb and he decided to use all of his efforts to make his company, General Electric, the pioneer in lighting entire cities with the direct current (DC) system. Nikola Tesla started working at General Electric, but his ideas did not match Edison’s; because he quickly demonstrated the failures of the use of direct current and proposed to change the strategy using alternating current (AC), a system that, thanks to the use of transformers to raise and lower voltages, allow the transmission distances to be extended and make the transfer easier.
Time before Tesla’s arrival at General Electric and after a failed attempt to partner with Edison, George Westinghouse founded Westinghouse Electric, who also wanted to join the competition to bring electricity to every corner of the city.
When Tesla decided to part ways with Edison, he brought his ideas to Westinghouse, who quickly saw the potential and decided to support the alternating current. Edison then used a Westinghouse generator as the power source for the first electric chair in order to prove that this type of energy could kill humans. Although that statement was true, Tesla’s option was the most convenient for electricity distribution at the gates of that industrial revolution, and, as you know, it is still the dominant technology, although it is not the most convenient for this 4th industrial revolution of the hyperconnectivity.
In a conflict like this, which today is a milestone in scientific history, extreme positions were used to demonstrate the harmfulness of electricity. These are not the most suitable examples to show the real damages that electricity causes today, since the true damages are produced by very subtle mechanisms of cellular degeneration that cumulatively happen as an athermic effect that usually goes unnoticed, but there is some truth in the original claims outlined by Edison about alternating current. Today we know it is a proven fact that there really are harmful effects and that alternating current has a greater impact on health.
The evolution of electromagnetic pollution until today
For more than 50 years, electromagnetic pollution was more associated with employees of industrial facilities or power companies, those who made high-voltage connections on power lines. About 140,000 workers have been studied for 30 years in the United States and they have been found to have an increased risk of cancer as a consequence of this exposure. Compared to workers in other types of industries, they are specifically 194% more prone than the average.
On the other hand, during the World War II and the Cold War years, the use of microwave waves in experimental military technology grew and many studies were also conducted to determine the possible health implications. Today, there are a large number of famous reports on this matter that date back to the 1940s. Subsequently, microwave technology began to be used more and more, and today it continues to be used in a massive way throughout the population.
Then, in the 1980s, the first cell phone arrived, ushering in an era with more advanced and widespread electromagnetic pollution; so, as cell phones became more widespread, all this pollution from industrial areas also moved to homes and offices. Today, more and more objects are connected to the internet through the new generations of telecommunications and Wi-Fi, which is a highly polluting signal that’s being increasingly massified. In the same way, every day our technological needs continue to grow and we keep integrating devices into our lives.
But the use of technologies should not be a problem. As specialists in environmental measurements and electromagnetic exposure control, we know for a fact that it is possible to create cleaner technologies, and we firmly believe that we can continue using technologies hand in hand with solutions like our SPIRO® filters. We also reiterate that it is important to work in a consensus to raise awareness about the harmful effects, regulate electrosmog levels and develop technologies that are more friendly to the human body.
Our SPIRO® solutions were designed to filter out the harmful effects of electromagnetic pollution, improving the quality of the environment and protecting our health. The solutions based on the SPIRO® technology are the only EMF protection products capable of filtering electromagnetic pollution without the need to block the normal passage of electromagnetic waves, improving like that the performance of devices and signals as well.
We invite you to visit our products section to learn more about our solutions.
