Author(s): Sameul Milham, MD, MPH
Publication: Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics
Volume: 32(8):634 – A Letter to the Editor
Publisher: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Inc.
Date: October 2011
Introduction:
In February 2010, while studying a cancer cluster in teachers at a California elementary school, a fourth grade teacher complained that her students were hyper-active and un-teachable. The classroom levels of high frequency voltage transients (dirty electricity) in the radio frequencies (RF) between 4 and 100 kHz, measured in the outlets of her classroom with a Graham/Stetzer Microsurge meter were very high. Dirty electricity is a term coined by the electrical utilities to describe electrical pollution contaminating the 60 Hz electricity on the electrical grid. A cell phone tower on campus a few feet from this classroom and unshielded fluorescent lights both contributed to the electrical pollution in this room. Cell tower transmitters, like most modern electrical equipment, operate on direct current. The electrical current brought to the tower is alternating current which needs to be changed to direct current. This is done by a switching power supply. These devices interrupt the AC current and are the likely source of the dirty electricity.
