Martin Blank - Overpowered: The Dangers of Electromagnetic Radiation (EMF) and What You Can Do about It

For years now, this book has been a dream of mine. Its transformation from dream to reality was made possible only through invaluable support from my family and colleagues.

Ill start with my family who played a unique, multifaceted role. My wife, Marion, is a psychologist who specializes in learning disabilities. She has long written for the general public, and just published a book on autism titled Spectacular Bond. Since she believes that an informed public is essential to real progress on any significant issue, she kept insisting that the results of my work have clear implications for public health and that I should move from the ivory tower of academia to the real world. Gradually, her message took hold, and I knew that this book had to be written.

My son, Jonathan, is a polymath whose array of talents steadily amazes me. He himself is an outstanding writer. He loves finding new and interesting ideas and then getting those ideas out to the public. This led us to numerous discussions in which he steadily helped me craft different versions of the outline until we reached one that captured the message. He has been integral to the project every step of the way, coming up with solutions for every issue that came upincluding introducing me to my literary manager, Peter Miller, and via Peter to my publisher, Dan Simon of Seven Stories Press.

My younger son, R, is a technologist. He is young enough to have grown up with a computer in the home as far back as he can remember, and he learned his first programming language in kindergarten. In keeping with the family tradition, R is also a writer. As I began to discuss the content of the book with him, he repeatedly helped me to reshape the ideas in ways that I had not envisioned. His suggestions had a major influence on the final product, and I am greatly indebted to him for his important role in this effort, as well as for his original diagram of the EM spectrum that shows how pervasive EMR is in our environment today.

Peter Miller, my literary manager, is an indefatigable individual with a never-ending supply of energy and enthusiasm. It is only through his support that this book came to fruition.

Dan Simon of Seven Stories has been outstanding in supporting this work as well, and he has been involved in the process at every stage. My editor at Seven Stories, Crystal Yakacki, and Elizabeth DeLong, who is in charge of production, have been a pleasure to work with, and their guidance has played a key role in the final expression that the ideas have taken.

I would also like to thank many professional colleagues for their helpful discussions over the years and especially for their suggestions in writing this book. Among these, I am pleased to mention Frank Barnes, Carl Blackman, David Carpenter, Kerry Crofton, Devra Davis, Anne Louise Gittelman, Magda Havas, Henry Lai, Blake Levitt, Abe Liboff, Bruce McLeod, Lloyd Morgan, Joel Moskowitz, Ray Neutra, Sharon Noble, Camilla Rees, Cindy Sage, Betty Sisken, and Howard Wachtel.

While focused on the writing, I feel I must thank Paul Brodeur, one of the great science reporters of our time, who was ever alert to the attempts to push new scientific discoveries ahead of our understanding the full risks associated with their development and use. Brodeur was one of the first to publicize the EMR issue, writing a three-part series in the New Yorker in 1989, detailing the studies showing increases in cancer associated with exposure to power lines, video display terminals, and radar microwaves. Among his many other accomplishments is the work he did in 1986 to draw attention to the depletion of the ozone layer from chlorofluorocarbon gases in aerosol sprays, and in 1989 he stressed the importance of Rachel Carsons message about the overuse of dangerous pesticides in her trailblazing book Silent Spring. It is unfortunate that his professional papers were not archived by the New York Public Library as originally planned.

And on behalf of those of us who have followed the EMR issue regularly for many years, let me add a special thanks to Louis Slesin, the founder and editor of Microwave News. This publication has been a consistent and reliable reporter on both the science and politics of EMR, and as far as we can tell, Slesin does this almost single-handedly.

Scientific research is a cooperative enterprise, and I have had the good fortune to have collaborated over several decades with many gifted colleagues. Three of the most central have been Dr. John S. Britten, Dr. Lily M. Soo, and Professor Reba M. Goodman. A pioneer in showing that EMR could activate DNA and stimulate protein synthesis in cells, Goodman was especially influential. Our discussions started many years ago and our collaboration resulted in more than 40 scientific papers along with many more abstracts of presentations at conferences and meetings. Without her involvement, none of this would have come to be. I am also grateful to Professor Andrew Marks, chairman of the Department of Physiology and Cellular Biophysics at Columbia University for his unflagging support of my work.

I shall conclude with a final note of thanks to another member of my familymy nephew Matthew Robison. While I was still searching for a title, Matt suggested overpowered at a family get-together. It clicked!

If I have forgotten anyone, please forgive me. It could very well be due to the effect of many years exposure to electromagnetic radiation.

OVERPOWERED

Copyright 2014 by Martin Blank, PhD

A Seven Stories Press First Edition

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including mechanical, electric, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Blank, Martin, 1933

Overpowered : the dangers of electromagnetic radiation and what you can do about it / Dr. Martin Blank, PhD. -- A Seven Stories Press first edition.

pages cm

ISBN 978-1-60980-509-8 (hardback)

1. Electromagnetic waves--Health aspects--Standards. 2. Electromagnetic fields--Safety measures. 3. Cell phones--Health aspects. 4. Nonionizing radiation-- Safety measures--Standards. I. Title.

RA569.3.B58 2014

539.2--dc23

2013024601

Printed in the United States

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

At various gatherings, when I am inevitably asked what I do for a living, an interesting sequence often ensues. I am working on the biological effects of cell phones, WiFi, and related devices, I reply. That is followed by a slightly anxious, So, are they dangerous? After I say that there is a considerable body of evidence showing significant risk, the conversation usually endsoften with a statement such as, Well theres no way I am giving up my cell phone.

These experiences have shown me that in writing this book, I face a bit of an uphill battle. While people are on edge about the health issues, they are also on edge about the possibility of having to give up the amazing technologies that have become so much a part of their lives. Allow me to put you at ease right from the start: There is no need for us to abandon the devices of the electronic age.