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Are Electromagnetic Fields Making Me Ill?

How Electricity and Magnetism Affect Our Health

  • Book
  • © 2022

Overview

Authors:
  1. Bradley J. Roth

    1. Department of Physics, Oakland University, Rochester, USA

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  • Evaluates many controversial claims and separates fact from fiction

  • Elucidates newsworthy topics, such as the Havana Syndrome and potential 5G cell phone hazards

  • Designed for general readers, but will also appeal to life science students and professionals

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Table of contents (10 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xi
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  2. Introduction

    • Bradley J. Roth
    Pages 1-2

  3. Can Magnets Cure All Your Ills?

    • Bradley J. Roth
    Pages 3-19

  4. Can a 9-Volt Battery Make You Smarter?

    • Bradley J. Roth
    Pages 21-36

  5. Do Power Lines Cause Cancer?

    • Bradley J. Roth
    Pages 37-50

  6. Will Electrical Stimulation Help Your Aching Back?

    • Bradley J. Roth
    Pages 51-65

  7. Is Your Cell Phone Killing You?

    • Bradley J. Roth
    Pages 67-83

  8. Did 5G Cell Phone Radiation Cause Covid-19?

    • Bradley J. Roth
    Pages 85-94

  9. Did Cuba Attack America with Microwaves?

    • Bradley J. Roth
    Pages 95-103

  10. Is That Airport Security Scanner Dangerous?

    • Bradley J. Roth
    Pages 105-109

  11. Conclusion

    • Bradley J. Roth
    Pages 111-112

  12. Back Matter

    Pages 113-122
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Keywords

About this book

Electricity and Magnetism (E&M) underlies many lifesaving medical devices, such as magnetic resonance imaging scanners, neural stimulators, and heart pacemakers. But E&M also attracts its share of bogus health claims, such as biomagnetic therapy. How do you separate the good from the bad? Sometimes it’s not easy: experiments are prone to artifacts, theories are limited by assumptions, and clinical trials can result in ambiguities. In this book, the author separates the wheat from the chaff, showing which applications of E&M are bogus and which are not. This book takes the reader on a tour through a range of fascinating phenomena, from effects that are constant in time at one extreme, such as transcranial direct current stimulation of the brain, to the millimeter-wave whole-body scanners which are familiar to frequent flyers at the other. Along the way, the author looks in depth at the dispute about power line magnetic fields and leukemia, a case study in what can go wrong when dubious claims inflame unjustified fears. The debate about cell phones and brain cancer still rages today, particularly for the microwave frequencies encountered with new 5G technology. Recently, the so-called Havana Syndrome has been attributed to microwave weapons, but the underlying biophysics of such weapons is unclear. For all these encounters with electricity and magnetism, the author, an eminent biophysicist, uses science and evidence to sort out fact from fantasy. This book is aimed at general readers who want to make sense of the mysterious and often controversial ways in which E&M interacts with the human body. It is also ideal for students and professionals in bioscience and health-related fields who want to learn more without getting overwhelmed by theory.

Reviews

“This book is an essential reference that would be a great addition to every skeptic’s bookshelf. It summarizes the evidence about the health effects of electromagnetism and provides ammunition for debunking pseudoscientific rumors. It’s short, inexpensive, well-written, and full of interesting facts. I was particularly intrigued to learn that an electric eel has its own Twitter account.” (Harriet Hall, Science-Based Medicine, sciencebasedmedicine.org, June 14, 2022)

Authors and Affiliations

  • Department of Physics, Oakland University, Rochester, USA

    Bradley J. Roth

About the author

Bradley J. Roth was a Professor in the Physics Department at Oakland University, Michigan, for 22 years before his retirement in 2020. He received his degree from the University of Kansas before getting his MS and PhD from Vanderbilt University. He conducted research as part of the Biomedical Engineering and Instrumentation Program at the US National Institutes of Health, Maryland, after which he returned to Vanderbilt as the Robert T. Lagemann Assistant Professor of Living State Physics before joining the faculty at Oakland University. He is a co-author of the textbook Intermediate Physics for Medicine and Biology, now in its 5th edition (Springer, 2015), and was elected as a fellow of the American Physical Society Division of Biological Physics in 2006 for his theoretical and numerical studies of bioelectric and biomagnetic phenomena, especially for his contributions to the bidomain model of the heart.

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