Maxwell's Silver Hammer 287
pulses. Proceeding from Harrier's work on reaction time, they first ascer-
tained that an even weaker electric field, roughly the influence of a light
bulb 10 feet away, changed the firing rate of brain cells in monkeys and
humans // the field was pulsing at brain wave frequencies. Then, working
with radio waves beamed at chick brains kept alive in culture dishes,
they found specific pulse rates that decreased or increased the binding of
calcium ions to the nerve cells. The flow of calcium ions in and out of
neurons controlled the firing rate of impulses in a complex feedback
system. Two "windows" of pulsed radio waves (147 megahertz pulsed at
6 to 10 hertz, and 450 megahertz pulsed at 16 hertz) increased the flow
of calcium from the cells, interfering with impulse transmission.
Unfortunately for conceptual simplicity but fortunately for the test
animals and the rest of us, the pulsed frequencies that work on isolated
brains don't work on whole animals. Adey has publicly expressed his
conviction that pulses for changing calcium flow in intact nervous sys-
tems do exist, however, and he expects that a calcium efflux would in-
terfere with concentration on complex tasks, disrupt sleep patterns, and
change brain function in other ways that can't be predicted yet. This
research obviously points toward "confusion beam" weaponry, so effec-
tive windows may already have been found, but they haven't been re-
ported in the open literature. Be that as it may, Adey's work remains an
important clue to the interaction between EMR and the human CNS at
the brain's most sensitive frequencies. Together with the other findings
just mentioned, it shows that electropollution can trigger profound and
dangerous changes, even if we don't yet know exactly how and when.
Just how dangerous these changes may be was indicated by a study
that Maria Reichmanis, Andy Marino, and I did in 1979, collaborating
with F. Stephen Perry, a doctor near the town of Wolverhampton in
western England. Perry had noticed that people living near overhead
high-voltage lines seemed more prone to depression than others in his
practice. Since ELF electric fields changed norepinephrine levels in rat
brains and since depletion of this neurotransmitter in certain brain areas
was a clinical sign of depression, the connection seemed plausible. We
knew from earlier work that, although electromagnetic field strength fell
off quickly in the immediate vicinity of a power line, the rate of decrease
lessened with distame, so that the field was often well above background
levels over a mile away. Reasoning that suicide was the one unequivocal
and measurable sign of extreme depression, we plotted the addresses of
598
suicides
on maps showing the
location
of power
lines
in
Perry's
locality.
Then we statistically compared this distribution with a set of
addresses chosen at random.
The
suicide addresses were, on the average, closer to the high voltage