Concerned letter sent to National Radiation Laboratory

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Nate01

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Topic # 88668 20-Aug-2011 19:42

This is an e-mail I have just sent to the National Radiation Laboratory.

I don't know if I am posting in the correct forum, but if anyone has any information/help or where I could post this topic in a different forum would be much appreciated.

To whom it may concern,

I am contacting you in regards?to a health and safety concern of mine.

My partner and I have moved into a central Auckland apartment around 12 months ago.

Since then, we have noticed that anything plugged into the electrical sockets in the apartment make a distinct 'buzzing' sound when turned on.

My partner had a very frightening?accident when her GHD hair straightener burnt off a decent amount of her hair. After contacting GHD and them replacing the unit, they said the hair straightner should never make a buzzing sound, which the new one still does.

Even the lights/toaster buzz when turned on.

I feel as if my health has become and ongoing battle, suffering from what seems to be chest infections / colds and flus that the doctor can't fix or explain apart from prescribing me with numerous antibiotics that help in the short term, but I keep getting sick.

On a Target episode a while ago where a family was positioned close to a cellphone tower, and their child was becoming sick on a regular basis until they were able to shield the radiation.

I have been in discussion with the property manager and they have sent in an electrician who agreed there is a buzz noise coming from appliances and recommended we speak to the man who installed the lift services as we live on the top floor and there is a transponder above our unit?

We were addressed by him and he was adiment there was no problem, and that he couldn't hear the noise. I suggested otherwise so he played with some of the settings with the transponder above our apartment?at which stage when it was switched off, the buzz noise stopped completely, until it was turned back on.

Is there anyway or anything we can do to?have our apartment checked to see if all?RF levels are within the normal range?

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Reply # 509641 21-Aug-2011 17:00

Assuming the level of noise you are getting from your appliances is well outside the normal range - at the very least it sounds like you have a severe power quality problem.

The incident with the hair straightener is scary indeed. If something like that that occurred, my uneducated and not to be relied upon guess would be high frequency line harmonics turning the thing into a high frequency induction heater. I'm sure that is possible but it would be very unusual.

Still guessing, I would expect a problem this severe to have some impact on radio and television reception. Any evidence of that?

Waving around an AM radio in different areas of the apartment might be an interesting experiment, especially if you can compare it to other apartments, but there are a hell of a lot of things which will interfere with AM anyway so it may not be useful.

What exactly is a lift transponder btw? It seems to me the most likely source would be a very badly installed and EM compensated lift motor (or motors) feeding back huge levels of frequency and EMF into the power circuit. This does not have to happen, it can be (and should have been) compensated for.

On the health side of things I have no idea what the possible effects would be. However, because there are EMF exposure standards for things as simple and low power as backpack vacuum cleaners, I would be very wary if there is a possibility of being exposed to higher power fields. While i would not want to alarm you, my personal approach would be to get out of there real quick, until I figured out what was going on. I'd also be looking to recover any costs associated with that first of all by negotiation and with with civil action if that failed.

Picking a starting point, I would call your power supplier and ask them to investigate on the basis of a severe power quality problem. Maybe your power account is paid through the building management in which case you will need to get them to call their provider, who will in turn send out their technical people. Any power company would do this when receiving a report of this nature.

Separately, power quality analysers are available for rental, but really I think you'll need someone trained and experienced in these types of problems to make a good analysis. Even so, if it was me, i'd give something like that a go and see what I could record and figure out. My guess is most are not set up to plug straight into a power point but you could ask.

richms

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Reply # 509662 21-Aug-2011 18:37

Buzzing from things with elements will happen when they are dimmed down or running off a nasty non sinewave inverter, on mains there should be a slight hum and no more.

If all appliances are doing it then something bizzare is happening that is making it have a non sinewave supply, perhaps a neutral fault or something that a sparky would find out.

Doubt its the source of your health issues tho, but worth gettign looked at.

Richard rich.ms

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Reply # 509756 22-Aug-2011 01:09

Assuming you are renting and the property manager is not fixing the problem I would simply consider moving somewhere better.

Other than that it is the property managers responsibility to fix this, I would be hounding them daily until they have.

Mooseboy

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Reply # 509983 22-Aug-2011 15:14

Please don't fall into the trap of think that electrical problems and health issues happening at the same time implies any kind of causal relationship.

BurningBeard

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Reply # 510000 22-Aug-2011 16:01

Mooseboy: Please don't fall into the trap of think that electrical problems and health issues happening at the same time implies any kind of causal relationship.

Indeedy.

I've seen a few cases where people have ascribed all sorts of sickness to celltowers, wifi etc and complained about symptoms BEFORE the said devices were even actually turned on.

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Reply # 510004 22-Aug-2011 16:04

Um... you're talking about an electrical issue, but have sent a letter to a government department concerned with radiation. I suspect they'll just return your letter saying "wrong department". This is an issue to raise with a property manager. Like people have said, get onto your property manager daily until it's fixed.

I really doubt an electricity problem is affecting your health. If you think it is, then move.

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gzt

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Reply # 510039 22-Aug-2011 16:54

timmmay: Um... you're talking about an electrical issue, but have sent a letter to a government department concerned with radiation.

Regardless of the rest of it, the OP's question to the NRL is about RF measurement. The NRL will probably answer that part.

There are definitely exposure standards for RF/EMR & EMF which the NRL administers and advises on.

Even so, the scientific evidence for health effects is very thin. Most of the standards in this area are simply precautionary: http://www.nrl.moh.govt.nz/publications/emfbooklet.pdf

tonyhughes

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Reply # 510056 22-Aug-2011 17:17

I can't believe someone would attribute their health issues to their rented apartment in this manner and not move.

One thing:

Just move.
And see a specialist.

Okay, so two things:

Just move.
And see a specialist.
And change GP.

Okay, some things for you to consider...

Nate01

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Wannabe Geek

Reply # 510091 22-Aug-2011 18:42

Thank you to all the people that have given positive feedback / information.

As for people like 'tonyhughes' - if you don't have relevant advice, please don't reply to this thread :)

- Unfortunately we own the apartment so it's not as simple as 3 easy steps to move out.

If you have read the letter - as seen on Target the RF levels in a house was causing a family health issues. This has been the case with me ever since I have moved in, therefore I would have to assume it has some relation unless it is a complete coincidence.

I haven't noticed any quality issues with TV / radio in the apartment.

I will wait to hear back from the Ministry of Health, and then contact power company and see where that leads.

The building manager isn’t much help with this and tends to just forward the problem onto the property management team which of course don't want to get involved. Long story short I think it's easiest if I find out what / if there is a problem, then seek legal advice if further action would be required in terms of compensation.

I was simply putting my feelers out to see if anyone had had the same situation or had heard of anything similar that I could relate to.

Thanks

Spyware

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Reply # 510136 22-Aug-2011 20:31

If you have read the letter - as seen on Target the RF levels in a house was causing a family health issues. This has been the case with me ever since I have moved in, therefore I would have to assume it has some relation unless it is a complete coincidence.
Thanks

The Target program is merely about people who think, falsely, that there is such a connection between RF levels and ill health. I'm not sure how this implies that you should think in the same odd way.

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timmmay

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Reply # 510138 22-Aug-2011 20:35

Have you had an electrician in to check it? I don't know anything about house electrics, maybe it's something really simple like a lack of earth.

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Mooseboy

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Reply # 510146 22-Aug-2011 20:50

Nate01:
If you have read the letter - as seen on Target the RF levels in a house was causing a family health issues. This has been the case with me ever since I have moved in, therefore I would have to assume it has some relation unless it is a complete coincidence.

Never assume - by your logic it's equally likely that the electrical issues are being caused by the health issues.

blurt

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Wannabe Geek

Reply # 510147 22-Aug-2011 20:51

The NRL administer the Radiation Protection Act, which excludes all forms of non-ionising radiation including RF and EMF etc. However the concentration of experts means they are able to advise the government on matters to do with non-ionising radiation too.

The NRL will offer to measure the EMF levels in your apartment and produce an accredited report for a fee. It is worth noting however that it costs nothing for you to call the Mark Dirksen who is a health physicist at the Auckland office or Martin Gledhill in Christchurch for a chat.

Spyware is correct, there is no link between EMF exposure and ill health, the research overwhelmingly backs this up. In addition, there is no plausible biological mechanism known for cellular damage to occur.

richms

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Reply # 510148 22-Aug-2011 20:53

However there will be plenty of things in a new apartment offgassing who the hell knows what which have a real connection to health issues. Carpets have glues in them etc - you know, the "new car" smell etc.

Richard rich.ms

blurt

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Reply # 510150 22-Aug-2011 20:56

richms: However there will be plenty of things in a new apartment offgassing who the hell knows what which have a real connection to health issues. Carpets have glues in them etc - you know, the "new car" smell etc.

Not to mention mould issues as many apartments have moisture problems.

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