ADSL Filters - An Easy Mistake (Links Updated)

High-speed Internet (Broadband) is now routinely provided in the UK over telephone wires to most areas. As a result, adjoining wires in the cable and on telegraph poles pick up the signal by induction or capacitative coupling and carry it to all telephones in the neighborhood. Consequently, all domestic phone sockets in the UK should now be fitted with an Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) Filter to remove these extraneous signals, whether or not broadband service is provided to the property in question.

ADSL filters are not much bigger than a matchbox and are simply plugged in between the telephone and the phone socket but not all ADSL filters are suitable for all phones and the two basic types provide differing levels of protection.Though they look almost identical, the two type are easily confused.  

ADSL Filter Types:

Two-Wire: These provide the best filtering protection but some phones will not ring, even though they will otherwise operate normally.

Three-Wire: These provide less protection because the third (ring) wire usually passes straight through, unfiltered. This type will however ring all types of phones provided all 3 wires have been properly connected in the wall outlet.

How To Tell:

It is not always easy to establish the type by looking. Catalogues and product descriptions usually do not say. An easy way to tell is if only 2 of the little gold contacts are visible in the BT style plug. Some filters are fitted with plugs which have 4 contacts present, though by sight it is not easy to tell whether 2 or 3 of them are connected. 

Another way to tell is if a phone will not ring with an ADSL filter plugged in, then the chances are that the filter is the more effective 2-wire type. Ask your supplier which type they have but many customer service staff are ignorant of this somewhat fine distinction.

More expensive filters may also have a ferrite choke fitted around the wire to the socket (to eliminate higher frequencies) but in many situations, additional benefits may be inconsequential.

Telephones:

To further reduce electrosmog reaching the head, telephones should be of a type which do not have electronics in the handset (the bit normally held to the head). 'Gondola' type phones, with push buttons or displays in their handsets are therefore to be avoided. Likewise, hearing-aid compatible handsets which use induction to connect to the hearing aid. Use of a speakerphone facility eliminates the need to hold the handset to the head.

Speakerphones:

Most speakerphones require a mains transformer which adds to electro-pollution in the vicinity. Some speakerphones are ‘line driven’. That is, they use power provided by the telephone exchange and are thus not favoured by phone companies. Phone catalogues often do not indicate whether models are line-driven, battery powered or mains (transformer) powered, making line-driven speakerphones difficult to obtain.  

End Note: 

Whilst price is not always an adequate reflector of quality, cheap (<£10) or Free ADSL filters may not be very effective at attenuating the EMR accompanying the ADSL signal that can reach the handset. The signals may well be inaudible. 

For the EHS, and all who wish to minimise their EMR exposure, handsfree phones with ADSL filters are helpful.

Click the following link for a very helpful and informative page on Broadband Filters and Speeding Up Your ADSL

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Electro-smog - How Much Is Too Much ?

Once alerted to the threats to health, wellbeing and prospects, it is easy to get into a tail-spin over electrosmog (electro-smog) and the exposure levels to which we are all now subjected. First there is fear of the invisible and the unknown, confusion and ignorance being added to by the differing opinions and spin on the Internet and what little coverage there is in the media. Then, when it all become too much, paralysis, denial or no action at all may be the result. It can all be too overwhelming. 

Power levels are only one metric. They do not take into effect the nature of digital signals and the information carried on their pulsed modulations, any and all of which may be biologically hazardous. Neither do that take account of the compounding effects of multiple EMR sources and chemicals. The recommendations of the Bioinitiative Report are good but interpreting over 600 pages when deciding whether to use the electric cooker (hob/range) or a microwave oven is beyond most people when it comes to feeding the family. (See the Bioinitiative Report page 587 for recommendations).

http://www.bioinitiative.org/freeaccess/report/docs/report.pdf 

But rather like knowing how many million/billion/trillion bacteria exist in a cubic metre of air, knowing precise electrosmog levels is not entirely necessary if one is determined to keep exposure As Low As Reasonably Achievable - ALARA. Later, when peoples tolerance has been all used up and they are forced to flee or turn and face ‘The Electrosmog Dragons’ in their midst, thoughts are liable to spin out of control, whether-or-not-this-is-serious-and-if-so-how-to-best-deal-with-a-new-and-invisible-threat-that-seems-to-be-everywhere….Aghhhhhhh !

Electrosmog is indeed now everywhere. At presently permitted levels it is toxic for some people and animals, if not everyone, and yes, it can kill you in time one way or another but that is insufficient reason to panic. Mould (mold), bacteria, viruses, yeasts, mildew, germs and pathogens of every shape, size and description abound on the earth and in the air and water, yet we survive.  We have evolved and adapted. We routinely adopt good practices and habits (hygiene) that serve to safeguard us from these ubiquitous invisible threats to our health and our survival.  

It’s the same with the Electrosmog Dragons. We can safely assume that levels of electromagnetic radiation are now higher than some people can tolerate everywhere we go (unless it is to a wilderness and even there, satellites and planes shoot the earth with radar). Especially where people congregate, wireless infrastructure is now in place; mobile/cellular phone signals, wi-fi, WiMax, broadcast DTV and radio - the list is virtually endless and grows every day.

There is not much you can do about avoiding the non-elective wireless stock control system in your favourite supermarket or the anti-collision radar from the cars around you on your journey there, and reducing one’s own elective exposure may not prove sufficient for some, but reducing lifetime exposure cannot hurt.

Wireless is now everywhere and your exposure to it from devices you choose is all that is in your power to control. By becoming familiar with sources you yourself have allowed into your living and working environment; smart-meters, HAN enabled appliances, wireless boiler/thermostat, cordless phone, wireless router and computer, wireless eReader, wireless games console, wireless surround-sound, video/audio repeater and on and on, you will at least be able to make choices.

www.electricforester.co.uk/electricforester/vulnerabilities.html

And why is it important to make choices? 

Because everyone’s lifetime exposure to non-ionising radiation is rising at an unprecedented rate and in forms previously unknown in the history of every living creature on this, our one and only habitable planet.

And that’s not all. The effects of ionising radiation (Nuclear / X-Ray / Cosmic) are very similar and since WWII, Chernobyl and Fukushima, global levels continue to rise uncontrollably. Add the cyclic increase in solar activity we are experiencing today and you can perhaps see why limiting exposure when and where you can might be something to seriously consider. Radiation exposure is cumulative. That means the damage over a lifetime can exceed the body’s ability to repair itself. And we all know where that leads.

Make good choices now, while you can still make a difference in your life and that of those you care about. The truth will out and the unwilling EHS - ElectroHyperSensitive pioneers are reluctantly leading the way, because they no longer have the choices you do.

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Electro-Smog: Addiction & Withdrawal

They say...“Believe only half of what you see and nothing of what you hear.” nevertheless, this recently heard story got me thinking.

A woman, who regularly had headaches after each day working in a heavily electrosmoged office, discovered the way to prevent them was to keep her mobile phone and wi-fi switched on at home. 

Electric Forester has already written about similar rebound effects when people are new to using bed shielding canopies. Reports from users suggest withdrawal effects are possible when they are able to escape the perpetual onslaught of electro-smog, now endemic in most everyday environments.

Intoxication & Addiction:

When a body has been ‘intoxicated’ for some time, it becomes habituated or acclimated and may demand regular top-ups.  It is not unusual for adverse effects to accompany stimulus withdrawal. This should not be surprising as external factors (chemical substances / pathogens / radiation etc.) which require the body to ‘accommodate’ them cause the body to respond with a sophisticated and complex array of counter-measures. If the stimulus suddenly goes away, coping strategies, which have perhaps been developed over time, become excess to requirements and potentially toxic to the body. To neutralise these defensive measures before they themselves turn toxic, the quickest and easiest way is to give them something useful to do and that can be to give them more of the toxin upon which they are targeted. In consequence the cycle of addiction and withdrawal, repeats.

Timing:

If the impact of the toxin were immediately countered by measures whose effects last exactly as long as the toxin, then balance would be maintained, but there is likely to be a delay in the production of counter measures as they ramp-up to respond to the initial assault. There will be a lag so that if the stimulus is withdrawn the antidote level will overshoot and exceed the required level, unless the body has some way of detecting or predicting the changing level of exposure in advance. The sneeze is a case in point. It allows the body to reject the input and buys it time to prepare. For airborne chemicals, the outer sensors in the nose send an immediate message to the brain. By the time a chemical reaches the lungs, the body is already mounting counter-measures. In a similar way, the smell of fresh coffee alerts the body what to expect and gives it, based on similar experiences, an idea of the quantitative level to expect (how hot, strong, sweet etc.) and thus forewarns the body to prepare appropriate actions to handle it.

Dependence:

If the body has been fending off attacks for a long time, sudden cessation of the protagonist can produce an intensification of alertness. It is as if the senses believe the threat is still present, so it becomes hypersensitive in a attempt to detect it. Only after the body is satisfied that the threat really has gone away, does it allow its defences to stand down and return to a more normal level.

Too Quiet To Sleep:

City dwellers can find it difficult to sleep in the still of the countryside, their bodies having become accustomed to the constant stimulus of the metropolis. There are well accepted physiological reasons for this. If the trillions of cells which make up a human body never get the chance to relax properly, they build up a toxic burden. When they are finally able to process their backlog, suddenly a whole variety of previously sequestered toxins have to be simultaneously dealt with. This is likely to be something the body will resist until it is sure it will have the capability and time to complete the necessary reactions.

A Change Is As Good As A Rest:

A new environment contains different ‘stimulants’, which in turn demand alternative counter-measures and provides the body with the chance to rebuild reserves.

Is it time for a holiday from Electro-smog?

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Where Would We All Be Without Electricity?

Where would we all be if it were not for the hard work of the electricity companies? The answer is clear. We would all be in a very sorry state, our lives and prospects immeasurably diminished. For some however, the EHS, their lives have been and continue to be both improved and blighted by electromagnetism.

The electrical power industries surely would not want their linesman's lives jeopardised any more than they have to be. It may be in their best interests to encourage research into the how and why of Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity - EHS. By selecting-out job applicants who may be predisposed to succumb to EHS they will not only be doing applicants a service but will be acting responsibly and with due diligence. They will also not be squandering their training and safety budgets on workers who may ultimately be unable to perform the dangerous roles for which they have been prepared. Of course there are occupational hazards involved in the work of electricity supply, generation and distribution. That in itself should not cause those involved concern as it is self-evident that there are risks associated with electromagnetism, as indeed there are around most of the powerful industrial forces that now enhance our lives.

But, can running high-voltage cables over people's houses still be justified in a fair and decent society, where treating others as one would wish to be treated is something to which we can all aspire?

Criticism of Distribution Network Operators may not be entirely fair as a lot of the infrastructure is a legacy of times past when questioning the adequacy of electricity safeguards was considered unpatriotic. The less obvious dangers were glossed-over then. Today, undue influence on policies and the media ensure the effects are just as invisible. So too is the suffering of those living with the consequences and it will remain invisible as long as denial and ignorance prevail in society.

Incredibly, new houses are still being built under power lines, a practice the Government continues to allow as it prevaricates year after year, allowing risks to perpetuate, generation after generation.

Where, in all of this, are the people we elected to represent us? Where is the honour and integrity amongst civil servants and industry members whose safeguards, we the people, demand adequately protect workers and all members of British society?

Are those struck down by EHS just so much collateral damage? Are the injustices they endure merely so much water to be callously shrugged off the backs of those who supposedly took on the role of society’s protectors?

You may feel this issue does not affect you or anyone you care about. Sufferers of EHS have had this functional impairment bestowed upon them slowly, over time or suddenly, overnight. To-date there is no certain remedy for EHS except avoidance of all things electrical. Be cautious if you dismiss the suffering of the EHS out-of-hand. In the future, you too could find yourself an unwilling pioneer and come to realise for better or worse, there is no way back to the life you know now.

EMR / Electro-Smog Hygiene

Adopting a few simple practices aimed at living more safely with electro-smog does not need to be onerous. As better understanding evolves, investing in a little EMR precaution today may pay dividends in the future.

No Need To Be Afraid:

Can you imagine how scary it must have been back in the 19^th century when people first learned that they lived in a soup of pathogens, bacteria, moulds and viruses which they could not see and which had the potential to make them very ill or kill them? Of course many germs can and always could kill people but it usually required their immune systems to have been compromised first. From the emerging understanding that followed, people learned good hygiene and how to incorporate sanitation into their lives. Many generations have since come to terms with and learned to coexist with these little killers and now we expect cleanliness to be a normal part of everyday life.

A Very Short History of Hygiene:

Brushing one's teeth was not common practice in Europe until the end of the 17^th century. Washing hands between patients did not gain acceptance amongst doctors until the late 1860’s. The benefits, indeed the importance of these things are now taken for granted and rarely given a second thought by most people as we have learned to simply incorporate good practice into our daily routines.

Jam Today, Electro-Smog Tomorrow:

If you spill jam on the floor you would normally just clean it up. You understand jam and its properties and you know how to deal with it and keep it in its place (on the toast). EMR is a bit like jam. It's amazing and does some magic things, but in the wrong places it's bad! Unlike jam, EMR is pretty much bad any time it is near us. Like the bacteria and mould that swirl in the air all around us, EMR is invisible, tasteless, silent and you can't feel it. Well at least most people can't feel it, but some, the EHS can, and do.

Handling The Invisible:

How do we deal with something as miniscule and invisible as bacteria? It is quite easy. We assume it is everywhere and especially on any surface we have not just cleaned. So when your toast and jam lands face down on the floor, you assume it to be contaminated and throw it away. It's the same with EMR. If it has a plug on it or a battery in it you can assume it is giving out some EMR, at levels and frequencies which may be toxic. 

How Close is Too Close?:

In domestic settings it is usual that 1.5 - 2.0 metres away from an operating electrical device is far enough to be precautionary. But what about appliances like a boiler near the kitchen sink? If it is not possible to achieve the distance, then turn the device off. In the case of the boiler, if you can do neither then perhaps you would be better off buying a dishwasher or using water from a hot water tank. If you really cannot do anything about your exposure, then measuring to find hotspots or define zones-of-influence can indicate safer distances.

What about laptops and other devices typically used close to the body? 
A laptop on the lap is like playing with broken glass. You might get away with it but it is plain stupid. As with glass, you may not notice the sharp little shards penetrating your skin until later. They are so hard to get out we know its better not to take the chance of them getting in, in the first place. The multiple types of electro-smog that come out of laptop computers impact everything around them, just like broken glass. Far better to use one on a table and then only for a limited time. 

Demonstrating the levels and types of electro-smog that come out of many hand-held devices convinces most people of the wisdom of not putting them close to their bodies. 
If you are, at some point in the future, like the EHS today, reluctantly obliged to accept the consequences of perhaps a reckless or uninformed attitude to the biological effects of virtually constant immersion in EMR, it may be too late.

Responsibility for the choices you make now, and the hazards you accept into your life in the future, are yours because nobody else has any idea of your electro-smog exposure. If history is anything to go by, as with Asbestos, Thalidomide, Lead and a host of other previously-thought-to-be-safe substances, electro-smog may turn out to be the single most significant factor in the Diseases of the Modern Age; Cancer, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Leukaemia, Heart Disease and debilitating conditions such as ME, headaches, tinnitus, poor sleep, cataracts, obesity and depression to name but a few.  

It is not so much that electro-smog is believed to ‘cause’ these ailments, it is perhaps more likely that electro-smog may compromise the body’s natural abilities to deal with them.

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Do You Feel The Cold?

Being electromagnetically hypersensitive (EHS) is like suffering with the cold. Not a must-put-on-a-cotton-sweater kind of cold but the intolerable six-layers-and-a-hat-and-gloves-indoors kind of cold. When the cold is that overwhelming everything else has to be put on hold while the imperatives of keeping body and soul together are dealt with. When survival itself is at stake there is nothing left to progress one’s life. That must come later, if ever at all. The shakes, mental confusion, inattention, distress, worry, clumsiness and many other effects of EHS are shared with sensitivity to extreme cold. 

The effects of microwave radiation on those who have become sensitised to it can be very similar to hyperthermia. Unlike strategies for dealing with unremitting cold such as turning up the heating or putting on extra clothes, nothing offers relief from microwave radiation in the wider environment. The surrounding temperature may be the same for everyone but some are less able to tolerate the cold and for them it becomes an attack. Similarly some people feel microwave radiation more than others. Based largely on their own first-hand experience, The EHS Canaries have over the last decade or so been trying to alert the world to what for them at least are the devastating effects of microwave radiation at presently permitted exposure levels.

Such is the strength of attraction between people (especially the young) and wireless gadgets that few have been able to hear these warning cries and even less have been prepared to act on them. Until people have exceeded their lifetime tolerance and become sensitised themselves they may well think this is all “a-storm-in-a-teacup”. Until then the signs that they are spending their valuable lifetime tolerance may go unnoticed.

The message cannot be clearer:  


Everyone is now engulfed in man-made digital microwave radiation of a type that has never existed before. At current exposure levels it makes people sick - as yet, apparently not everyone. Are you or your loved ones in danger?

Basking in the summer sun, it is easy to forget that winter’s bone-chilling cold is only a few short months away.

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The Dangers of Mobile Phone Use - Particularly In Rural Areas

Mobile phones employ intelligent power management to limit the amount of radiation they produce during a call. That is to say they reduce their transmitted signal strength during a call to conserve battery life and minimise the amount of pulsed digital microwave radiation that goes into the user. Normally about 70% of the radiated energy is absorbed by the user, so distancing oneself from one's mobile phone significantly reduces exposure, especially from the near-field radiation that extends about 15 cm from the in-built antenna. Use of the phone's loudspeaker capability, a shielding pouch or using an external antenna significantly reduces the radiation absorbed by the user.

In rural areas the nearest applicable base station can be 15 or more Kilometres away. That means the phone has to work at maximum power in order for the call not to be dropped. When you hold your mobile phone to your head, the distance from the phone to your brain is about 15mm. Compare this to the distance to the mast at say 15 Kilometres (15,000 metres). At a million to 1, no wonder then that the radiation would rather go into your head and brain, which is mostly water and fat, rather than through the less conductive atmosphere all the way to the mast.  The same mobile phone power management dynamics apply in multi-story car parks, buildings clad with foil shielding in their insulation, buildings glazed in energy efficient glass, elevators and similar places where signals have difficulty penetrating.

For the first few seconds after pressing 'send' or 'off-hook' when a call is made or received,  mobile phones use a separate data channel to communicate with masts in range to connect the call most efficiently and at an audio quality level that is acceptable. The data channel operates at full power and it is this primarily that transmits during the call setup. Once the call is connected, only then does the dynamic power management become effective. So if you must hold a mobile phone to your head, waiting those few seconds before holding the microwave transmitter to your head makes a big difference to the amount of signal your head and brain have to soak up. As we all know, the head not only contains the brain but also a lot of other useful though, for many, somewhat mysterious stuff that is nevertheless essential to quality of life. Two of these structures which everyone can see are the eyes. That is, everyone who has not suffered cataracts or other form of vision degeneration and loss of vision. The eyes are particularly high in water content.

What would your prospects be if you lost your mental faculties? What would your prospects be if you lost your ability to see? Close your eyes for just a second or two and think about the risks you are taking regularly holding a mobile phone to your head. From noticing some initial visual disturbance to total cataracts can take less than a year even if you are not especially exposed. How would you feel today knowing you may have seen the spring, a blue sky or your child's face for the last time? The size and placement of the eyes in your skull result in microwaves from a mobile phone held to your temples being ducted by the bones of the cranium preferentially to the eyes. Add to that the eye's propensity to absorb electromagnetic radiation (that's what light is) then the risk to the eyes should be of much greater concern to mobile phone users. 

You could say mobile phone users appear to have been kept in the dark over risks to their eyesight.

Simply encouraging the debate over mobile phone and wireless safety to concentrate on cancer risks ignores the many other adverse consequences to which the world's 4.5 billion mobile phone users are potentially exposing themselves each day.

'Problem Children' - Abused By Electrosmog?

A few years ago I was playing with my young godson when I got an all too familiar whack in the head from a nearby mobile phone, central locking or maybe a wireless mouse in the house next door. As I reeled I was not sure of the precise device but I knew it was a burst of microwave radiation that had assaulted me. What made this particularly attack memorable was that my godson, who was about 18 months old at the time, put his hand up to his temples and got that far-away-pained-look I get, as illustrated here by my little 'traumatised tiger', at precisely the same moment I felt the impact.
This attack out of nowhere distressed us both. I at least knew what it was about. It was apparently not out of the ordinary for my godson either as judging by his expression it had clearly happened to him before. The implications of this incident are frighteningly clear. He too was electro hypersensitive at that stage in his development but he could not tell me what was happening to him somewhere inside his head as he had not yet learned to talk. His eyes said that for which he had no words "I know what just hit me also attacked you. I don't know what it is. It just happens."
I wonder how many parents would see similar pain written across the faces of their young ones if they only knew what to look for? How might any child behave when subjected to similar invisible silent apparently random attacks that they don't deserve, they cannot describe and which go unnoticed by the grown-ups who are supposed to protect them? It is not a very great leap of the imagnination to think that what may present as 'behavioural problems' could be driven by a vulnerable child's fundamental need for safety and protection.