There is currently a video circulating about those curly flourescent light bulbs, the energy efficient saviors of the planet. Well, apparently they give off electro-magnetic radiation. Yes, I’ll pause for the shock and horror to pass and the question, ‘what the heck is electro-magnetic radiation?’ to pop into the conversation. Well, I can’t explain it very well other than to plug in the definition from the Britanncia Concise Dictionary:
“Energy propagated through free space or through a material medium in the form of electromagnetic waves. Examples include radio waves, infrared radiation, visible light, ultraviolet radiation, X rays, and gamma rays. Electromagnetic radiation exhibits wavelike properties such as reflection, refraction, diffraction, and interference, but also exhibits particlelike properties in that its energy occurs in discrete packets, or quanta. Though all types of electromagnetic radiation travel at the same speed, they vary in frequency and wavelength, and interact with matter differently. A vacuum is the only perfectly transparent medium; all others absorb some frequencies of electromagnetic radiation.”
Breaking that down it means if it runs on electricity, it gives off electromagnetic radiation.
Remember the warnings about microwave ovens affecting pacemakers? Or last year’s menace of cell phones causing brain tumuors? In those cases as well as your mother saying you are sitting to close to the television, the culprit is electromagnetic radiation and what is now known as the EMF — add “Field” to EM and you’ve got a new stick to herd a fearful public into that hell-bound basket.
There may well be problems with the energy efficient light bulb but this sort of fear mongering is not the way to deal with it. Showing a meter leap from 61 to 815 tells me nothing unless I know what the meter actually measures, what the units mean in terms of relative volume (1,000 milliliters vs 1,000 decaliters makes a big difference if it’s in your basement) and what is the total amount I may safely be exposed to over a given period of time.
There is 1 baseline given: the only device operating in the entire house is the fridge but what if the reporter gets a hankering for a little microwave popcorn? Or her producer calls on her cell phone. Turn on the radio, television and maybe play a round or two of Wii tennis. Now, what are the EMF readings, what device contributed to the biggest jump and how do those readings compare to what is given off by that coiled serpent humming under a lampshade?
The laptop I’m working on may well give off 3 times that amount of EMF…I’m not saying it does, I’m just saying it might.
So, what does this have to do with Diabetes? Well, there was a single researcher on this clip talking about a single study of one individual who had diabetes whose blood sugars were adversely affected by sitting in a room where a curly light bulb was turned on…Yeah. I’m not even going to start on this one because I should hope to hell you have enough sense to be asking the questions yourself before running around the room brandishing a pitchfork at every light bulb you can find.
When my daughter was diagnosed as having Type 1, we were subjected to a variety of well meant advice about vitamins that would reverse this disease. We were also asked what we had done to cause our daughter’s pancreas to crap out. And more than a few folk, not knowing the difference between Type 1, Type 2 and, well, a light bulb, suggested we’d given her too much candy…
So, when someone tries to tell you what you should or shouldn’t be doing to make your family member better; has just read a book about a breakthrough YOUR DOCTOR DOESN’T WANT YOU TO KNOW or knows a chiropractor who can stimulate your child’s pancreas through manipulation, take a deep breath and go for a walk in the fresh air. Just remember to wear sunglasses and a hat ’cause you don’t want to get skin damage from all that electromagnetic energy the sun gives off.
