Detoxifying the home

CEBU, Philippines — The home environment is vital for our health and wellbeing, but did you know that most houses are rife with dangerous levels of electromagnetic radiation? David Goding investigates.

But even a healthy body boosted periodically by a detoxification ritual cannot possibly stand for long amid a toxic environment. The streets today are gasping from vehicular fumes. The surroundings, too, are suffused with industrial smoke from various factories.

People are only too glad to come home at the end of each day, whether at school or at work, to come back to the safety of their homes. The stress from the busy day dissipates as they transition to a night in the slow lane. And yet, the night is the busiest time at home, as lights and appliances are flicked on and wireless technologies bounce from living room to home offices to bedrooms.

As the house residents settle in for a quiet evening, they’re actually surrounded by a buzz of electromagnetic radiation. Patrick van der Burght, from Geovital Academy, an organization that carries out detailed home assessments aimed at minimizing electronic pollution and in-house radiation, says, “There are so many things wrong with our homes.” He cites that simple walk through the living room, the kitchen, the home office, the bedroom easily exposes people to low-level radiation.

“These are radiation exposure levels that are often far below the supposed safe limit,” van der Burght adds, “and yet, even at these lower levels, these can have serious health effects.” He explains that even the “wiring inside walls with nothing plugged in produces electric fields, which we find coursing through 90 percent of people while they’re lying on their bed.” According to van der Burght, accumulative exposure can have serious health risks, affecting fertility and the unborn baby, compromising the immune system, depleting energy levels and impeding recovery from illness, including cancer.

There have been ongoing arguments regarding the potential health risks from electromagnetic radiation. It might still take some time before the truth of the matter becomes clear. In the meantime, says van der Burght, “You don’t need to be paranoid about it.” He suggests certain steps that can be taken in order to minimize, if not eliminate, the risks:

Light. It’s often the first thing people turn on when they get home and the last thing they turn off before going to sleep at night. Some homes have dozens of lights, many of which emit harmful radiation if people are around them for a certain length of time.

“Energy saver globes – especially the fluorescent types with the coiled element – produce both low frequency and high frequency radiation,” says van der Burght. “The low frequency is not too much of an issue unless you’ve got it in a reading light right next to you, but the high frequency can travel quite a distance, is absorbed by the body, and is hard to get away from.”

Van der Burght recommends old fashioned globes or non-dimmable LED lights. “Dimmer switches are almost always bad news,” says van der Burght. “As soon as you ‘squeeze’ power, you start to get more radiation being produced. When you turn them on they produce an electromagnetic field that starts from the switch, buzzes around that cable to the light and if that light is on the other side of the living room, you can have the whole living room exposed to an electromagnetic field.”

Appliances. Van der Burght suggests keeping at some distance away from the microwave oven when it’s on. “If you have to use it, press the start button and run away like you’ve just thrown a hand grenade. Keep children out of the kitchen when it is on and certainly never watch your food cooking.”

Other appliances produce radiation but one is not likely to be standing next to them long enough to be overly concerned. “A dryer or rangehood or washing machine or dishwasher produce radiation but you don’t tend to stand in front of it for half an hour,” says van der Burght.

The common electrical item that many people are exposed to for hours every night is the clock radio. “I recommend replacing the clock radio, which is always drawing a current, with a battery-operated alarm clock,” advises van der Burght. “You really don’t want any electrical equipment active in your bedroom [while you sleep].”

Wireless gadgets. Wireless technology neatens things up by eliminating all the wires that clutter your space, but it comes at a price. According to van der Burght, high frequency radiation can come from wi-fi systems in your house and your neighbor’s house, cordless phones, mobile phones, Bluetooth, baby monitors all that communication-related stuff that needs to travel a distance.

He adds, though, that not all new technology is inherently bad. “New flat-screen monitors and TVs are typically very good when it comes to radiation,” he says. “They don’t emit much at all in contrast to the old-fashioned tube TV, which produced an enormous field of radiation.”

The bedroom is probably the most important area to clean up. The first thing to avoid is keeping a mobile phone by the bed, and definitely while it’s charging. Says van de Burght, “It sends out signals that your body doesn’t understand. At the very least it stresses the body and causes exhaustion and fatigue.”

The other option is for one to invest in a shielding pouch for the mobile phone, to block high-frequency signals.

There is probably no escaping from electromagnetic fields in this day and age of high technology. From overhead or underground power cables running up and down the street to every bit of appliance that people bring into their homes to do house chores for them to giant antennas that send and receive electronic signals, all of these things that make modern life convenient and exciting have a price to them. People can learn to live with these – safely, by taking appropriate precautions. It doesn’t help to panic and fell helpless. (Reference: www.naturalhealthmag.com.au)