Toxins in The Home

Most homes in the United States are cardboard boxes with plastic wrapped around them. They do not breathe, they permit toxic buildups, and they permit harmful electromagnetic fields to permeate throughout the house. ElectroSmog, as it is called, is a major and largely unrecognized contributing cause of illness today. This article will explain why, and make practical suggestions of how to minimize these harmful influences.

Most children in the USA grow up in homes that are toxic and electromagnetically contaminated. We in this country have become a world leader in sacrificing the health of our children and ourselves in order to have the latest conveniences of life that we delude ourselves are harmless. More and more children are developing chronic illnesses early in life. In addition, many adults are developing short term memory loss, depression, lowering of sex drive, insomnia, fatigue, and other symptoms. Of course, diet and other more recognized lifestyle imbalances, as well as emotional difficulties and work/financial stress, all play a role here. However, the effects of electromagnetic fields has been largely unrecognized. Many children and adults have reported improvements in conditions from autism to insomnia and depression after electrosmog is addressed.

Everyone needs a healthy blood-brain barrier. This is a layer of cells that separate the blood vessels from brain tissue. It protects our brains so that the many toxins circulating in the blood do not enter the brain. Most adults with cognitive impairment, memory loss, and other neurological symptoms, regardless of the name of the disease, have impaired blood-brain barriers, and this is the underlying cause of their illness.

With children it is worse, because their blood-brain barrier is not developed until a year and a half old. They are at much greater risk of the effects of mold overgrowth from electromagnetic fields, as well as from the effects of mercury in vaccines. Not coincidentally, symptoms of autism often develop around this time of life.

Today, often by the time people move into new homes, the house is already moldy. Mold spores create neurotoxins, or toxins to the nervous system. Mold, from fungi, generate toxins to protect themselves. Normally, such mold has little effect on humans. We have lived for thousands of years on this planet coexisting with mold. It is only recently that this has become a major problem. Probably the number one contributor is electromagnetic fields in most of our houses. When mold is put next to a cordless phone, it produces neurotoxins thousands of times faster than before. This translates into insomnia, headaches, memory problems, and a host of other symptoms. The power density of EMF’s in our homes today has increased over the last ten years by a figure of 8 million fold. This has huge, and largely ignored, biological effects. We ignore these at our own peril.

It is hard to clean a house with mold. Sometimes it is necessary to move or tear it down and start again. If that is not possible, then take the steps listed below. Do not clean with bleach. To re-do the house it is often necessary to section off and do each wall. The person doing this work can get sick from a five minute exposure and take 20 years to recover.

There is much resistance to address this key mold issue because there are major special interests that do not want to change. To really have healthy homes would mean major changes in how homes are wired, and the kind of materials used in rugs and walls and other parts of homes. There are millions of people employed in businesses today that depend for their jobs on these cheap and illness-generating homes continuing to be built. These workers are also becoming toxic. Their jobs could continue, but in a safer way for all, if the builders began building in healthier ways.

One study has shown that there is a significant increase in the prevalence of headaches among handheld cellphone telephone users with increasing frequency of usage.

In addition, electrosmog reduces melatonin production in the pineal gland. This reduces our deep non-REM sleep, the stage that is necessary for healing and detoxification. Melatonin prevents damage from heavy metals, chemicals, biotoxins from mold, Lyme, viruses, and other chronic infections that are not uncommonly present in the brain.

Is everyone affected by EMF’s?

This depends on the person’s susceptibility genetically, as well as upon the total toxic load of the person. With each successive generation, more children have defective genes that make it more difficult to excrete heavy metals. Heavy metal deposits in the brain and central nervous system act as micro antennae, thereby concentrating EMF radiation into the brain. This is one reason mercury toxicity (dental amalgum, fish, coal burning, vaccines, and many other sources) is such a huge factor in many illnesses. Dental metal restorations increase reception for both radio waves, micro current from cell phone broadcasting towers, and other EMF fields. And if you are sleeping on a metal box springs, or have the head of your bed by an electrical outlet, or the other sources mentioned in this article, then you increase your risk of many illnesses.

There are ways we can help determine how much EMF’s are affecting you. For example, there are very accurate electronic instruments that can detect the presence of these fields in your home, school, or workplace. Though they cannot predict the biological effect on a particular individual, it is safe to assume that with the epidemic of autistic spectrum disorders and ADD, along with adult neurological disorder, these fields are disrupting your neurological, hormonal, and immune functioning.

Main sources:

The main sources of pathogenic radiation (radiation that contributes to illness) are:

• Electric household appliances (razors and hairdryers)
  There is a statistically increase in melanomas and skin cancers in those using electric razors.
• Fluorescent lighting. There are increased efforts to have more homes lighted this way, in order to save money. It is better for our finances yet worse for our health. The wiring with fluorescent lights are separated in such a way that it generates huge electromagnetic fields, and these affect the brain and neuron development.
• Lamp or alarm clock on night stand
• Electric wiring in the home: In a typical bedroom, there is a wire all around the room inside the wall about 1 foot up from the floor. This creates a magnetic field in the room. The growing nervous system especially in young child is thousands of times more sensitive to these fields. We are also sensitive because of the accumulated toxins over life.
• Nearby powerlines
• Laptop computers
• Microwave radiation from cell base station, which affect the blood brain barrier in a 1. 6 mile radius. This applies to almost all living locations now in the USA. This is a reason to purchaseprotective devices listed below. Other microwave radiation to brain is
  from wireless internet, blue tooth technology, and some home
  alarm systems.
• Cell phones, and even worse the new blue tooth phones, which have
  been shown to lower testosterone in men and lead to sterile women.

Suggestions

1. Move
   
2. Look into purchasing a “demand switch” or disconnect fuse for every
   outlet in child’s bedroom walls
   
3. Use only Corded phones from home, or disconnect cordless phones
   at bedtime. It will soon be impossible to purchase corded phones
   so do so now. Also avoid all cell phones, and if need to use one, use
   a distant earpiece like from RF Safe
   
4. No wireless internet. In two years, there will only be wireless TV. This will increase the field strength
   
5. Inspect neighborhood for cellphone microwave emitters
   See web site: www. antennnaesearch.com
   
6. Create a safe sleeping location. It is during sleep that children especially, and also adults, need to be protected from the effects of EMF’s. During evening and nite wemake the hormones and neurotransmitters that help us weather the effects of aging in this culture, and which help us stay emotionally balanced. The effects of electrosmog during sleep cannot be underestimated. Purchase what is called a mosquito net from BioTools (www.biotoolsforwellness.com) to deflect incoming microwaves
   
7. Keep it completely dark at night in bedroom
   
8. If possible, shut off all fuses but the refrigerator when sleep
   Keep a battery-powered clock and flashlight at bedside
   
9. Remove all carpeting from the home, and replace with wood floors.
   Purchase an Austin Air Filter in the meantime, to clear the air as
   well as possible of mold spores especially. Regular air purifiers
   most often do not have the small enough filters to remove the fine
   particles in the air that carry mold spores and viruses. IQAir is
   another good brand
   
10. Use a metalized grounding sheets under regular bed sheet with grounding wire either in the earth (best) or attached to a metal water pipe
    
11. At the office, use metallized paint or conductive silica paint on walls
    
12. Unclutter the bedroom
    
13. Use melatonin at bedtime, best to use sublingual or transdermal so
    that it is best able to get to the brain
    
14. No wrist watch, no metal jewelry, no metal belt buckles
    
15. Work on a lifelong metal detox program
    
16. Metal-free dentistry
    
17. Avoid new cars (phlalates outgassing, and EMF’s, especially in the
    hybrid cars that are good ecologically and worse biologically for us
    
18. Avoid any fluoride, either in water or toothpaste or pills. Fluoride
    worsens the effects of mercury in the nervous system
    
19. Shield the walls from microwave radiations by using graphite paint
    inside the home. It is a conductive paint
    
20. Purchase the mosquito net material that is used in making a bed
    canopy that protects from microwave radiation from cell phone
    towers and FM radio stations near, and also make curtains with nets
    
21. Remove shoes when walk into house, to decrease fine particle spread
    
22. If you have not corrected your home environment for electromagnetic field effects in the ways listed here, it is best not to start a garden near the house, but rather just a lawn
    
23. Avoid cotton unless it is organic. Because of current laws, cotton is
    the most pesticide-laden material
    
24. Vacuum with a good vacuum cleaner. This removes dust mites by
    90%. Milfest makes a good vacuum cleaner for this
    
25. Put pillows in fluff cycle of dryer weekly
    
26. Ask your heating and cooling people to clean the ducts often. Ask for Mitsubishi ductless air-conditioning. It is expensive but worth it
    
27. No night lights in child’s room. Nighlights can destroy vision in child
    
28. In homes with children with autism who are hypersensitive to sounds,put rubber washers under refrigerators to decrease noise. To us, thesounds of refrigerators are minor and go unnoticed. To such a child, or adult, the same sounds are very very irritating.

How We Can Help

1. Educational Packets such as these
   
2. Home inspections for locations of EMF’s and mold
   We check for molds, EMF’s, and areas of insufficient ventilation.
   This can involve also working with an indoor air quality specialist,
   and taking mold cultures (www.moldlabintl.com). We may call in a
   trained expert in Building Biology
   
3. Health evaluations for effects of these illness-generating factors
   This includes such areas as urine tests for solvent residues, blood
   tests for active infections in the nervous system, and suggested
   treatment programs
   
4. Products that will help you counter the harmful effects of EMF’s and
   building-generated harmful microorganisms.

* Article written by Robert Zieve, MD, drawing from information derived from the writings of Dietrich Klinghardt, MD, Ph.D.