Monday, October 19, 2009

Electromagnetic EMF Shielding Canopies


NB: Electricforester has no association with electrosmogshieldingcanopies or companies of a similar name.
 
Taking steps to reduce total electromagnetic exposure is now normal for many people, especially those who may be ES (ElectroSensitive) and do not want to become EHS (Electromagnetically HyperSensitive). One significant way of helping to achieve this simply and quickly is by investing in a shielding canopy that covers both the bed and its occupant(s) at night. Exposure to electromagnetic pollution - 'Electrosmog', particularly where one sleeps is especially damaging. During the day, the body is set-up for action. During the night, the body is geared for recovery and repair. Many people today experience disturbed sleep and wake up frequently during the night for no apparent reason. Exposure to electrosmog, especially at night, not only disturbs sleep but it appears to interfere with detoxification. Stressed cells are likely to have compromised metabolism and reduced ability to neutralize toxins. The pineal gland is active when light (which is another form of electromagnetic radiation) is absent. It controls production of Melatonin (a powerful anti-oxidant) which is important in the detoxification process. Night time exposure to light, or electrosmog, suppresses Melatonin production. Research into how and why is on-going but you don’t have to be fully conversant with the biochemistry to appreciate your body’s need for a good nights sleep.
Rebound Effects:
When people are able to sleep deeply in the electromagnetically sanitized environment that is created by a shielding bed canopy, their bodies heave a sigh of relief and start to detoxify properly, perhaps for the first time in years. Paradoxically, this can make them feel worse for a few days, until their bodies let go of some of their historic toxic load and re-stabilise. When this happens, the depth and quality of sleep they experience can be surprising and initially even a little frightening. So used have their bodies become to shallow sleep, that when they re-experience the deep satisfying uninterrupted sleep their bodies have craved for so long, it can at first be a bit unsettling. Within a short time however, most people come to love the new peace and tranquillity they experience in their shielded beds.

New Developments:
Domestic electromagnetic shielding canopies are a new innovation, created out of necessity and experience of using them to best effect is still evolving. People who are seriously affected by exposure to electrosmog generally need to achieve immediate respite. During the all-important hours of sleep, increasing ambient levels of radio frequency radiation are now attacking everyone and shielding canopies provide a quick and effective solution. The roll-out of mobile phone networks, digital terrestrial television, home-hubs, cordless phones and new upcoming airborne/satellite systems mean that everyone’s RF exposure is rising and for those who cannot tolerate even today‘s levels, protection at night is likely to become increasingly necessary.
However, initial relief may wane over time and growing experience of the longer-term effects of continually sleeping inside a fully enclosed shielding canopy suggest that some further understanding of their properties is needed. It now appears better not to sleep in a totally enclosed Faraday Cage every night, forever and some temporary cessation appears beneficial, at least for some, even if total protection is reduced.
One does not have to be scientifically or medically orientated to recognize that the balance of both positive and negative ions that exists in outdoor air, is beneficial. It seems reasonable therefore that any disturbance to this natural balance indoors is probably not without some disadvantages.
Air can pass with varying amounts of freedom through electromagnetic shielding fabrics such as Chromax EMF / Daylite, Naturell, Swiss-Shield Evolution, Bobbinet etc. but ions tend to be stopped. It has recently been reported that this can result in a depletion of negative ions and a corresponding increase in positive ions inside the canopy during the course of a night‘s sleep. A good blow-through of the room and canopy each day is probably beneficial for any number of reasons and room ventilation at night may likewise be helpful, though it pays to beware of airborne pollution and the possibility of shifting wind direction while one is asleep.
Ensuring that airborne ions can pass unhindered through a canopy opening allows ion concentrations inside and outside the shielding fabric to normalise to ambient room levels. One way to achieve this without compromising protection entirely is to leave the canopy open at one or both ends or at the sides. About a square foot should suffice but experiment to keep the opening(s) as small as possible - maybe use a hairgrip or clothes peg to lift up the fabric. Whilst this will reduce shielding effectiveness a little, if thick walls or other substantial structures provides some protection, then theirs is possibly the best direction to have open. Hanging a large piece of shielding cloth on a wall opposite may provide some shielding of the opening. Measuring equipment bought or hired can reveal the effectiveness of the shielding and allow suitable adjustment to optimise the configuration. 
Note: Canopy materials may not be effective at shielding against high GigaHertz (8+GHz) satellite radiation, 5G or lower frequency (Long Wave KHz) signals but can still be expected to reduce total (cumulative) EMF exposure . 

Monday, October 12, 2009

Alternatives to Wi-Fi CAT-5/6 - Updated

Electric Forester's Structured Cabling 10/100 LAN Primer

( scroll to the end for solutions) 

This post relates to both CAT-5 and later CAT-6 Local Area Networks (LAN) cables.

Category 5 cable is typically made of four unshielded twisted copper pairs. The two wires of each pair are designed to carry equal and opposite signals. Any emissions from one wire are counteracted by equal and opposite emissions from the other in the pair. Screened cable and CAT-6 is used in high security or electrically noisy environments or to protect the electromagnetically hypersensitive. The CAT-5 cable feeds CAT-5 sockets around the building that computers and peripherals simply plug into.
Cables have to be installed by someone who knows what they are doing because tight bends and running next to power cables can for example, reduce data transmission speeds. CAT-5 is a mature and well-tried technology and there are many competent installers. The point about CAT-5 is that it is faster than wireless, more secure and safer because the radio waves stay in the wires and are not broadcast. The CAT-5 sockets are wired via a central 'Patch Panel' to a Local Area Network (LAN) switch which acts like a mini telephone exchange, allowing every socket to be connected to every other. You don't need to get bogged down with the detail as this only really needs to be done upon installation and provided everything is labelled properly and a record kept of the connections, its easily managed by someone competent with paper and pencil.
Each computer and peripheral simply plugs into a socket - can be any one, and then users have interconnectivity between computers, printers, projectors etc. Internet access is via a central router that shares the building's Internet connection between those computers that require it at any given time, making best use of available bandwidth. Internet is provided to the building and central router via telephone cable or fibre-optic 'pipe'. Fibre-optics are much faster (Lasers are used to send the data and each colour can carry 157,000 simultaneous phone calls, effectively making the bandwidth unlimited). If you imagine CAT-5 like the water supply to your taps, a fibre optic 'pipe' is like 4-foot water main, so more than you would ever need. Many people think that wireless networks work all by themselves and they don't need anyone to look after them. School computer budgets (as in commercial settings) have to include hardware, software and support otherwise the investment falls into disrepair and become a waste of money. DLANs, which plug into the mains, send radio frequency signals over building electrical wiring. Mains cabling was never designed for this type of use and signals leak out all over the place and dirty electricity throughout the building will be increased. Speeds may also not be what the manufacturers or users would expect. 
As children grow, their total lifetime exposure will inevitably rise. Daily electrosmog levels continue to rise and come from such sources as mobile phones, their masts, broadcast TV and radio stations, satellites, DECT baby monitors and cordless phones, Xbox 360s, BT-Home Hubs, Sky+HD set-top boxes, microwave ovens, wireless boiler thermostats – the list grows daily. Everyone’s world is now awash with man-made pulsed digital microwave radiation so it makes sense not to add to it further in buildings where particularly children spend considerable time.

As well as computers and shared peripherals, you may want some phones! But the phone company won't put phones over structured cabling, and your landlord won't let the phone company run their own wiring round the building.



---------------


Thursday, May 14, 2009

A Risky Lack of Provenance

The Englishman's home was his castle, impenetrable by all without a search warrant or so he thought. That old idea is dead, especially now that we are in the digital age. The air you breathe, the water you drink, the gas or oil you burn and of course, the electricity you use are all supplied by outside parties you trust and who should be accountable. We've mostly got along with analogue AM and FM radio and television broadcasts. Only now are concerns about these older technologies surfacing conveniently just as we 'go digital'.
How many of us, I wonder, remember the excitement of listening to one's first radio, perhaps a crystal set in the quiet under the bedclothes. Unheard of and unheard by the iPod Generation, these were radios that operated without batteries and the earpice produced its sound solely by the radio frequency energy that had been broadcast from transmitters many miles away. That's an indication of how much man-made power there was in the ether 50 years ago. Think what it must be like now.

Here's a list of just some of the many sources of wireless signals that are now allowed unhindered into our homes and over which we have no legal or constitutional recourse.

Amateur Radio Transmissions
Bluetooth Devices
Broadband
CB Radios
Central Locking
Cordless Computer Mice & Keyboards
DECT/Cordless phones
Games Consoles
Garage Openers
Home Hubs & Satellite+ Boxes
Microwave Intruder Alarm Sensors
Microwave Ovens
Mobile Phone Masts
Mobile Phones
Oil & Gas Level Sensors
Plasma TVs
Power Line Networking
Satellite Systems
Smart Meters
Video & Audio repeaters
Weather Stations
WiFi, WLAN, WiMAX
Wireless Alarm Systems
Wireless Baby Monitors
Wireless Central Heating Thermostats
Wireless Digital Photo Frames
Wireless Headphones
Wireless Multi-Media & Home Cinemas
Wireless Networking Routers
Wireless Printers
Wireless Security Cameras
Wireless Speakers
Wireless Toys

The list is endless and being added to every day. We're not talking here about your own devices, they are in addition to these that reside outside your home. Your home is under day and night Electrosmog attack whether you love the convenience and capabilities of wireless or not. People are drowning under this torrent. Who will be next? Who cares? Clearly the Health Protection Agency, The Government, the Power and Wireless Industries don't and the insurance industry won't have anything to do with it. How about the NHS and our overworked doctors and surgeons? After all, it is they who must pick up the pieces, though it will be us who ultimately pay the price.
Everything tangible you allow into your home has to have provenance if you are to trust that it is safe to let in. Wireless signals come in at will, you probably know not from where and - are they dangerous? Who's to say? in the ever increasing frequency of their arrival, after a lifetime's exposure, for children and those as yet unborn?
Whatever your opinion, theyr'e coming in anyway!

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Multiple Environmental Sensitivities - MES - WHAT YOU CAN DO NOW

If your home-life is in terminal decline, it is important to put the brakes on. I have generally found that “Brake first - before even thinking about swerving” has been a strategy that on occasion has served me well. That way you will be moving towards disaster slower and have more time to think and take appropriate avoiding action. In practical terms for the MES (sufferers of Electro Sensitive - ES / Electromagnetic HyperSensitivity - EHS, Multiple Chemical Sensitivity -MCS, Myalgic Encephalomyelitis / Chronic Fatigue - ME/CFS, Post-Viral Fatigue Syndrome - PVFS) that probably means either of two strategies: Leave your home or maximise the protection it affords you. Leaving ones home is not done lightly and is frequently a matter of last resort so we’ll come back to that strategy after we’ve looked at alternatives.
1. Minimise all electromagnetic and chemical exposure you ask your body to deal with. That means things like hair driers, electric toothbrushes, electric blankets, radiant heaters and so on. The list is endless and being added to all the time so stop using anything with either a plug on it or a battery in it or if fragranced. If you absolutely must, then minimise the time you are exposed to such things and maximise your separation distance. E.g. put the washing machine on then move away at least a couple of meters (the strong magnetic fields they produce pass easily through walls and floors) or go for a walk.

2. Turn off circuits at the Consumer Unit (Fuse-box), especially heating, while you sleep. Use a hot water bottle or a triangular  whiskey bottle in a sock that does not outgas and a woolly hat if that‘s more comfortable (You are in a battle for your home, it is not about looking good!). If you must, leave the fridge/freezer circuits enabled. Learn to do without some modern conveniences or find non-electrical / manual alternatives.

3. Ask neighbours to turn off their offending devices, especially at night while you are trying to sleep and while your body is trying to repair the damage of the day. These may be Wi-Fi routers / hubs, printers or other wireless enabled computer devices. It could be a Wii or xBox360 or other games console or it might be a DECT phone, Home Hub or Sky+HD box. Plasma TV‘s and Freeview / Satellite systems too adversely affect some people. Whatever it is that’s causing your exposure tolerance to be exceeded, even if they won‘t turn it off during the day, maybe if you bought them a time clock it could at least be off during the small hours. If it’s a DECT phone and they cannot be convinced to give up the cordless convenience buy them a Siemens Eco-DECT Plus (make sure it the model that silences the radio emissions from the base station when not in use) and exchange it with them for their existing one.

4. Sleep in another room. Sleep away from phones and phone cables, whether or not you have broadband. Reducing your night time exposure by sleeping in a room with lower electromagnetic radiation is of paramount importance. How will you know which room to choose? Distance is a clue or buy an Electrosmog Detector or other more sensitive microwave radiation detector. They are not cheap, but then neither is good health. Don’t forget magnetic fields. The Electrosensor is a cheap and largely adequate magnetic field strength meter.

5. Invest in shielding fabric and make your own tent or bed canopy. If that’s too difficult, single layer pre-made shielding bed canopies are available but you may need two layers so making your own may be the best option. If you have children, don’t forget them too. Unlike shielding paint, fabrics can be taken with you when you move.

Some of this costs money but do not panic because that will not help you defend your home. The assaults inflicted on you by  your neighbours should not be underestimated whether they are intentional or not. Neither should they be compounded by your own ignorance or lack of attention, so it is important for you to find out as much as you can about common everyday sources of man-made electromagnetic radiation (Electrosmog) and minimise your exposure. For reasons that are not yet entirely clear, this situation, this battle has been brought to your door. Like rising flood water, its not enough to deal with some of it. You need to be creative and radical if you are to deal with all of it and safeguard yourself until society recognises the plight of the MES. Whether you have a technical background or not, for you to successfully beat this dragon, you will need to know as much about it and its effects as you possibly can. Research is continuing and understanding the causes, effects and biological mechanisms is developing all the time. Many good people are searching for answers even while Government, Regulators and Industry continue to deny the reality of what is happing to people across our society. In the meantime, minimise your exposure.

If all you can do is run, then invest now in shielding materials and relationships with people who are at least sympathetic and might be supportive. Only when your life is restored to some sort of normality can you afford to divert your energies to those who do not yet understand MES and who you might have left behind.
-----

Friday, March 6, 2009

Electrosmog - What Is It and Why Should You Be Concerned?

Are you unwell for a reason doctors are unable to diagnose? Are you suffering sleeping problems? Is your concentration less than you expect? Are you having trouble conceiving? Are you more stressed/less tolerant than you used to be? Then maybe what's troubling you is the amount of Electrosmog (e-smog) to which you are now exposed.

Like sunlight, electrosmog is a form of electromagnetic radiation. Just like sunlight, we now know we must manage our exposure if we are to remain well and live a long and happy life. Perhaps like sunlight, a little is not bad for us but get too much exposure and maybe our bodies will start to malfunction. Radiation has long been known to effect genetics and reproduction. The study of epi-genetics is now suggesting that effects may not appear for a few generations. What we are exposed to now could have profound and irreversible effects on our children, grand children or generations even further in the future. Man-made electromagnetic radiation has increased enormously over the last decade and in consequence, the amount of electrosmog that we are all exposed to in our lifetimes is increasing every day. Independent research is now revealing the likely biological and physiological mechanisms by which our bodies are affected. Even though mankind only has limited experience of the health effects of digital microwave radiation, more and more people are saying when the reports from the field are pointing to a serious problem for at least some people, we dare not wait for absolute proof.

Exposure to electromagnetism can produce transient symptoms, ones from which people recover after a few hours or days, or it can produce no symptoms at all. Exposures at levels too low to alert the immune system are likely to go unrecognised by the conscious mind. Severe over-exposure can have immediate and lasting effects.

You might well ask "Aren't there regulations to protect us?" and indeed there are. However they were formulated long before the digital age and rely entirely on heating effects. The ICNIRP guidelines refered to by Governments and trade bodies around the world look only at gross power levels (and ignore other important aspects of electromagnetic radiation such as frequency, waveform, pulsing etc.). They are massively lenient by the standards that people who have become electromagnetically hypersensitive (the EHS Canaries) must adhere to if they are to survive in the modern world.

What we know now is that the cells of the body are able to pick up digitally-pulsed microwaves signals that penetrate the body and this causes them to behave abnormally. Cells behaving abnormally are only one step away from Cancer and is a mechanism that can account for many of the varied and debilitating symptoms now being reported. Cumulative electromagnetic exposure over a person's lifetime, much like sunlight, can have profound effects.

It makes sense to manage your lifetime dose, especially until more is known about the risks.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Want To Move But Obliged To Stay?

The current climate of economic uncertainty is paralysing people. Caught between falling house prices and the needs of growing families, many people are deciding to rent or to stay put. Making better use of the space you already have makes good green sense, and ‘better the devil you know‘ as they say. But staying put may not be without its own perils. How well do you actually know the place where you and your loved-ones are living? Knowing relies on sufficient information and the quality of its interpretation through knowledge and experience. If your senses don’t alert you, chances are you will just carry on, blissfully unaware of the potential spectres with which you are cohabiting.

Electromagnetism, or more accurately, Electrosmog or as it is known, e-smog is the uncontrolled fallout from society’s use of wireless and other electric and electronic technologies. It is all around us - at ever increasing levels. E-smog, just like other forms of pollution, makes some people unwell. To many it may be an irrelevance but to those who are particularly vulnerable, its invisible and silently sinister influence can be devastating. To the young, the frail, the weak and the infirm, e-smog can sound their death-knell, and sooner rather than later. Many modern illnesses, of which the public are regrettably all too aware - Cancer, Alzheimer’s & Parkinson’s Disease, Motor Neurone Disease, Leukaemia and many others that medical science seems unable to provide the causes to are being increasingly linked to exposure to e-smog. Importantly, loss of sleep quality, whilst perhaps not being a truly medical condition in its own right can nonetheless have a devastating impact on people’s lives.


So before you decide to convert the loft or the cabin at the end of the garden into extra living space for your growing family, make sure you fully understand the implications of what you are about to do. Loft and attic conversions, which are frequently inhabited by the youngest members of the family, can expose people to far higher levels of microwave radio radiation than levels experienced nearer the ground, by those surrounded by somewhat better shielding bricks and mortar.

Loft and attic conversions are often above the surrounding roofline and usually made of lightweight wooden structures. Youngsters whose bedrooms are up there are likely to receive the highest daily Electrosmog dose of any family member. Give them a mobile or cordless phone and a wireless laptop computer or games console and their exposure ratchets up a couple more notches. If their school also has a wireless network, chances are there will be few moments in any day when they are not being bombarded by a significant amount of life-threatening Electrosmog.

Electrosmog, just like sunlight is now understood to be cumulative over a person’s lifetime. In other words, you can only take so much of it during your life before it comes back to bite you.

Have you exceeded your safe lifetime dose yet?