292
The Body Electric
The only comparable American study is much quoted for its failure to
find consistent health damage in a mere eleven power-line maintenance
workers.
Growth Systems and Immune Response
Given the results presented so far and the dynamics of life's connection
to the earth's field, we can now make several predictions about the
effects of ELF pollution. The most important aspects of the natural elec-
tromagnetic field for the biological timing systems are the lunar circa-
dian rhythm and the micropulsations of 0.1 to 35 hertz. It seems logical
that cells will perceive frequencies close to normal more readily than
those further removed from the norm. Therefore we can postulate that
the ELF band from 35 to 100 hertz would be the most damaging, while
higher frequencies might go more or less unnoticed until the energy
injected into cells became intense or prolonged enough to be significant.
The accumulating evidence supports this idea.
Based on this notion, we can predict two major ELF effects that
would encompass many others. We can expect the abnormal signals to
disrupt biocycles. Such disruption would trigger the generalized stress
response even if the EMR-induced changes in brain neurotransmitters
were only an effect and not a cause of the stress reaction. In addition, the
wrong timing signals would likely throw off the mitotic cycle time of
every cell, interfering with growth processes throughout the body.
Although any number of factors can trigger the adrenocortical stress
reaction, the response itself is always the same. It involves the release
from the adrenal glands of specific hormones, mainly the corticosteroids,
which in turn mobilize the body against invading germs or foreign pro-
teins. Thus the stress response always activates the immune system.
Short exposures to stress aren't necessarily harmful and may even be
healthy. In fact, the Soviet work on microwave stress has disclosed a
brief period of increased immune-system competence at very low inten-
sities (under 10 microwatts). However, when an organism must face a
continual or repeated stress, the response system enters the chronic
phase, during which resistance declines below normal and eventually
becomes exhausted. Several well-known diseases, such as peptic ulcer
and hypertension, result directly from this stage, but the most impor-
tant result is a decrease in the body's ability to fight infection and
cancer.
The trouble
is
that the immune system
is geared to fight
tangible
invaders—bacteria,
viruses,
toxins,
and
misbehaving cells of the
body