October 8, 2011.  On October 4, 2011, Health Canada issued a warning for those under the age of 18 to limit their cell phone use. Click here for document.  This warning comes 5 months (May 31, 2011) after the World Health Organization classified radio frequency radiation as a possible human carcinogen and it comes more than a year after cell phone providers issued warnings about the use of cell phones in their user manuals.

If Health Canada truly cared about the health of Canadians, this is what they would do.

1.  They would issue a warning (similar to that Council of Europe) that wireless routers be replaced with wired routers for internet access in schools, at home, and at work. No one should be exposed for hours each day to pulsed microwave radiation generated by Wi-Fi routers.  For places that need to have wireless routers, they should use the patent issued to Swisscom for their “on demand” routers that radiate only when in use.

2.  They would issue an immediate ban on wireless baby monitors that emit radio frequency radiation 24/7  and would insist that only “voice activated” baby monitors be sold in Canada. These are available in Europe. Click here for more information.

3.  They would issue an immediate ban on cordless phones that emit radiation 24/7 and insist that only ECO DECT plus phones (or those that emit radiaton only when in use) be sold in Canada.  These are common in Europe and are now available in North America.

4.  They would ask cell phone providers who have installed cell phone antennas on top of buildings or on the side of buildings to ensure that the radiation does not leak through to the roof or the walls and that nearby buildings are not within the line of radiation.  Shielding on the roof or wall can eliminate exposure to occupants.  This should be done by the cell phone provider.  Levels should not exceed those recommended in Switzerland for “sensitive places.”

5.  They would request independent monitoring of antennas placed on or near school property and they would ensure that levels not exceed those recommended in Switzerland for “sensitive places.”

6.  They would remove the ban on incandescent light bulbs and insist that compact fluorescent light bulbs be designed so they do not emit UV radiation, dirty electricity or radio frequency radiation and that the bulbs are shatter-proof so that the mercury is not released into the environment during accidental breakage.

7.  They would reconsider the deployment of wireless smart meters and determine ways to send the information along wires instead.

8.  They would identify and enforce certain places that remain wireless-free (similar to smoke-free environments).  This is particularly important in public places (schools, hospitals, hotels, restaurants, libraries) and on public transit (buses, trains, airplanes).

9.  They would reduce their exposure  guidelines and base these new guidelines on biological effects rather than just thermal effects.

10.  They would establish health clinics to deal with the growing number of people complaining about electrohypersensitivity and provide educational packages for doctors and other health care professionals.

If Health Canada truly cared about the Health of Canadians, they could be leaders in this field be adopting the recommendations above.

July 6, 2011.  Finally someone measured the mercury content of compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs!

We have been told that these bulbs contain 0.5 mg of mercury and that lower mercury-content bulbs will be produced in the future, yet many bulbs exceed this value as shown in the article below.

Li,Y. and L. Jin.  2011.   Environmental Release of Mercury from Broken Compact Fluorescent Lamps, ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING SCIENCE. 28 (10), 5 pp. Click here for pdf with links and here for abstract.

The total amount of mercury in CFLs ranged from 0.1 to 3.6 mg.

What does this mean?

Let’s look at the water quality guidelines for mercury as a comparison.

The maxiumum concentration of total mercury in drinking water is 1.0 micro gram per litre.  That number is 0.001 mg mercury per litre of water.   Therefore the mercury content of a CFL bulb, at the nominal 0.5 mg per bulb, is  500 time higher than the concentration in a litre of drinking water!

Is there anyone out there who is a watch dog for this product or can CFL manufacturers do anything they want? We don’t allow lead paint on toys from China yet we import light bulbs that contain mercury!  This is not a bright idea for us, for the environment, or for the Chinese workers.  Click here to read ‘Green’ lightbulbs poison workers, Hundreds of factory staff are being made ill by mercury used in bulbs destined for the West.

According to Li and Jin (2011), CFL bulbs continue to release mercury vapor for more than 10 weeks once broken.  ”Total amount of Hg [mercury] vapor relased from a broken CFL can exceed 1.0 mg, which can cause Hg [mercury] levels in a regular room to exceed the safe human exposure limit under poor ventilation conditons.”

Mercury, as long as it is contained within the light bulb is not a problem.  But if the CFL bulb breaks, either in the home or at the dump, the mercury is released into the atmosphere contributing to the global load of mercury.  In the home the neurotoxic mercury can be inhailed by the occupants if a bulb breaks.  Rapid clean-up according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is highly recommended as is proper disposal at a toxic waste site that is equiped to handle these light bulbs.  Click here for EPA recommendations.

The fact that Canada is considering extending the deadline for banning energy inefficinet light bulbs for two more years is a breath of fresh air.

Reducing greenhouse gases is a noble venture but not with products that are poisons to both humans and other life-forms.  Surely our engineers and designers can do better than this!

Nov 10, 2010 – WiFi evolves from radio waves to beams of light.

Smart LED lighting—the use of highly energy-efficient and controllable solid-state light sources both to illuminate a defined space and facilitate optical wireless communication among electronic devices in an office or classroom is now a reality. Professor Thomas Little of Boston University is shipping a new LED-based prototype.

“We now have a working system that’s robust enough to send to others to experiment with,” said Little, co-principal investigator and associate director of the NSF Smart Lighting Engineering Research Center, a program involving BU, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) and the University of New Mexico.

Designed for indoor applications such as illuminating a room and transmitting data among laptops, printers, PDAs, thermostats and other devices, LED-based smart lighting could deliver enhanced electronic communication capabilities at a reduced economic and environmental cost. Requiring far less energy than conventional lighting technologies, such as incandescent or compact fluorescent bulbs, and can integrate ubiquitous communication platforms, such as Wi-Fi.

Much more compact, user-friendly and sophisticated than its predecessors, the current prototype, called Smart Light 1 (SL1), consists of a three-by-six-inch board comprised of two sections—one containing an array of nine high-brightness, white LEDs that transmit data to other transceivers, and the other with an array of three photodiodes that receive data. By keying the light on and off at a very high speed to create a pulsed signal, each SL1 board propagates data to laptops and other electronic devices, and is simply connected using a USB cable.

Toward a Commercial-Grade System

“The prototype demonstrates the viability of using modulated LED light at a useful data rate,” said Little. “The next step is to make the system completely self-contained, embedding all functionality within the bulb.” At that stage, each board will serve as an Internet and data communication access point for any electronic device within range, and thus enable multiple devices to communicate with one another. These include high definition video streaming devises like the iPad.

“The goal is to enable any light to be a wireless optical access point, and to do this requires costs comparable to conventional lighting devices,” he said. “Future work in the Smart Lighting ERC will drive towards higher data rates and lower integration costs.”

The Heinrich Hertz institute has developed a system that will transmit signals at 500 Mbits per second.

At the University of California, they have created the Center for Ubiquitos Communication By Light. The mission of the UC-Light center is to enable wireless communications by embedding signals into the light emitted by next-generation LEDs in systems for illumination, traffic control, advertising, and other purposes.  Imagine a world in the future where street lighting becomes wireless transmission antenna – sending digital signals back and forth from your light on your front porch.

A US company called LVX is developing a system for internet communications but while the US moves onwards towards research – Japan is already commercially using the technology. Watch the video below.

One major advantage of using light rather than radio waves for data transmission is that exposure to light radiation is limited as light does not travel through walls. However, before we give this technology the “thumbs up” it is essential that these “smart” LED bulbs not generate dirty electricity and that the pulsing frequencies have no biological effects on epileptics and others who are sensitive to light “flicker”.  So far the safest way to transmit data is along cables and while light may be safer than microwaves, the biological and health effects of pulsing light need to be tested before they are allowed in the workplace.

IR – Infrared Wireless LED is invisible to the eye and is already widely used for high speed data transfer for point to point communications where fibre optics is not possible. Free Space Optics (FSO) is a canadian technology that enables the optical transmission of data, voice and video through the air. It is a wireless broadband technology, which requires clear line-of-sight (LOS) between a pair of FSO transceivers. FSO is an alternative to Microwave or Radio Frequency systems.  This technology is not new – it was not widely adopted because of it’s drawbacks – if it snows or if the condition is foggy – the transmission suffers. For this reason RF radio waves are the choice of wireless providers…… But for indoors like a school classroom, LED has great potential.

November 2009.

Prevention magazine has created a video about the dangers of Compact Florescent Bulbs. What is notable about this video is that they don’t mention the dangers of ultraviolet radiation or mercury but instead focus on the radio frequencies that they emit. Some scientists believe that the bandwidth of the radio waves from CFL bulbs are potentially dangerous to the human body because the frequencies are biologically active.

September 2008.

Epilepsy 360 decrees: In the News Magazine — CFLs, dirty electricity and epilepsy.

While lighting authorities assure CFLs to be safe to use in homes, people with epilepsy, migraines and Multiple Sclerosis (MS) are raising concerns about experiencing discomfort when using them. A variety of reasons have been postulated, such as flicker rate, mercury vapor or the radio wave frequencies produced by CFLs. However, very little research is available to confirm these effects and influence governments to reconsider their course of action at present.

Click here to view an electronic brochure in pdf that details the effects of CFL bulbs.

July 2009.

By 2012 consumers will be unable to buy energy inefficient incandescent light bulbs in most countries. Currently the only product available that is both energy efficient and inexpensive are compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs and these bulbs are making people sick. Some develop skin rashes, others become tired or have difficulty concentrating and some develop aches and pains. Those who suffer from migraines, epilepsy, lupus, and sensitive skin are most at risk. The video below introduces you to the dark side of these curlie light bulbs.

But all is not lost. Research on energy efficient bulbs is currently underway and the LED (light emitting diodes) may be a much better solution if the light quality can be improved and the cost can be reduced. Not only do they not emit toxic radiation, they don’t contain toxic mercury and are not a health hazard if accidentally broken.

To learn more go to: CFL- Get the Facts.

January 2009.

Global TV is a national broadcast network in Canada. They approached me for information about the new compact fluorescent light bulbs, what they emit and their effects on the human body. The entire episode, in 4 parts, is provided below.