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         MindNet Journal - Vol. 1, No. 49
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         V E R I C O M M / MindNet         "Quid veritas est?"
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    EMF, ELF AND COLD WAR NUCLEAR GUINEA PIGS

    By Jim Martin

    January 1994

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

    We're ALL Test Subjects...

       As I sit in front of my two-page computer screen display I am
    bathed in electromagnetic fields measuring 15 milligauss. It has
    become common knowledge that video display terminals (VDTs) emit
    harmful electromagnetic fields, but it is less well known that
    there are much stronger sources of these fields in and around
    the places we visit each day. Electricity is so omnipresent in
    our society that it quite discomfiting to imagine that this
    ocean of electromagnetic fields may harm our health.
       In his book, _Currents of Death_, (Simon & Shuster, NY, 1989)
    author Paul Brodeur consolidates recent research into the
    long-term effects of continuous exposure to high-power
    electromagnetic fields. He also discusses the antagonism of
    utility companies, the electronics industry and the military
    towards such research, eerily reminiscent of the suppression of
    evidence that low-level exposure to nuclear radiation was more
    perilous than previously believed during the 1950s. Yet the
    issue remains: there is an identifiable and not-yet-understood
    link between long-term exposure to these fields and serious
    health problems.
       For instance, in 1974 a researcher in Colorado named Nancy
    Wertheimer tried to discover common factors in children who had
    died of leukemia by obtaining their addresses from the Colorado
    Bureau of Vital Statistics. Without looking for any one factor
    in particular, she noticed that many of these houses were
    located along the trunk lines stepping down from power line
    transformers. Leukemia rates dropped off sharply in houses
    further removed from the main trunk lines. Digging into the
    issue further, she discovered that workers in occupations which
    exposed them to continuously high electromagnetic fields had
    developed cancer at a significantly higher rate than the rest
    of the population.
       An orthopedic surgeon with the US Veteran's Administration,
    Dr. Robert O. Becker also became convinced of the health
    hazards associated with electromagnetic fields. He had been
    investigating the effects of minute electrical currents on
    wound-healing in salamanders. (Animal lovers may want to turn
    their heads at this point.) After amputating one of their limbs,
    Becker found that the salamanders were able to regenerate that
    limbs when stimulated by tiny electrical impulses. Pursuing this
    research, he found that electrical stimulation speeded up the
    rate of healing seriously broken bones in humans. While his
    research was met with derision because current medical orthodoxy
    has no explanation for such small electric impulses having any
    biological effects, today we see the embodiment of this research
    every Sunday on televised NFL games; if you see, on the
    sidelines, an injured player hobbling on crutches that have a
    strange-looking black box attached to them, you are seeing a
    healing technique developed by Dr. Becker. Players call it
    "getting stimmed." Becker had strong evidence of the biological
    effect of electromagnetism, both beneficial and malignant, from
    his research with salamanders. He was concerned about long-term
    exposure, but when he spoke out he was removed from his position
    with the Veteran's Administration. His discussion of this
    freezing-out is in his excellent book _The Body Electric:
    Electromagnetism and the Foundation of Life_ (with Gary Selden,
    William & Morrow Co., NY 1985). It is a useful discussion for
    anyone who wants to understand how medical research functions
    today. Ideas inconsistent with medical orthodoxy and
    corporate/government interests are quickly killed by cutting of
    grant money.

       Since there is no practical way to shield one's self from an
    electromagnetic field, the only protection possible is to limit
    one's exposure. For people in many occupations, however, this is
    impossible. For instance, clerks at check-out stands are bathed
    in a high-power energy field measuring over 200 milligauss that
    emanates from the laser bar-code reader at waist-level. The
    distinction between safe and dangerous levels of exposure have
    not yet been determined, but epidemiologist David Savitz
    published a study 1986 that replicated Nancy Wertheimer's study
    in Colorado and found that children living near transmission
    lines and subjected to exposures of only 2.5 milligauss
    developed cancer at a rate 40% greater than other children.
    Despite evidence such as this, many power companies have set
    "safe" standards of emissions from transformers and power lines
    at 100 milligauss. Even at that high level of "safety" the
    check-out clerks at our supermarkets are exposed to twice the
    acceptable dose, for eight hours a day.
       When I approached a woman at the local supermarket to measure
    the emissions from her check-out stand, her face registered
    shock when the field meter I was using leapt off-scale. "So
    that's why I'm always so nervous," she said.
       Since we have no organ to sense changes in our
    electromagnetic environment, it is often hard to notice
    over-exposure. Signs include nausea, blurred vision, a metallic
    taste in the mouth, and headaches. Electric blankets should be
    used under no circumstances, since they emit 13-15 milligauss.
       Both the symptoms and the diseases associated with exposure
    to magnetic fields are consistent with the late Dr. Wilhelm
    Reich's research into cancer. He identified something he called
    "oranur sickness" which, like radiation poisoning, was
    experienced as a metallic taste in the mouth, headaches, nausea
    and blurred vision. One of the hallmarks of this oranur sickness
    is that each organism reacts in its own way to it, as it attacks
    the "weak point" in a biological system. For instance, one might
    come down with an especially acute attack of asthma without
    thinking any but "oh, there's that old asthma again" without
    noticing what triggered it. It is this feature of oranur
    sickness that complicates the epidemiology of magnetic fields.
    Since symptoms and health breakdowns vary from person to person,
    orthodox scientists can dismiss any common factor especially
    subtle ones such as low-level exposure to radiation, toxic
    chemicals, and electromagnetic fields. Thus, when I interviewed
    residents of Dunsmuir, CA, who have been recently exposed to
    toxic fumes resulting from a train derailment into the nearby
    Sacramento River, they reported being told by medical workers at
    the local hospital that their symptoms were "all in their
    heads."
       However, levels of electromagnetic radiation in our
    environment can be measured if not directly sensed. Using a
    small Trifield meter (available from Natural Energy Works,
    POB 864, El Cerrito, CA 94530) which measures magnetic field,
    electric field, and radio/microwave field strength in the
    ambient atmosphere, I took readings around Fort Bragg and
    Mendocino at the common stops along a typical day's business.
    I was surprised that in some locations, readings were far lower
    than expected, such as those next to the transformer located
    next to the Mendocino Elementary School, while other locations
    had far higher readings than I would have expected, such at the
    bank teller's window. Here are some sample readings. Safe,
    background levels of magnetic fields that are consistent with
    the earth's normal emissions are around 0.5 to 1.0 milligauss
    (MG). Borderline readings occur at 1.0 to 3.0 MG, and high
    levels begin at 3.0 MG. (Readings are in milligauss.)

    Automobile:             driver's seat:.... 7
    	  :             passenger seat:... 4
    	  :             back seat:........ 2
    Main St., Ft. Bragg:...................... 0.5
    Macintosh Plus VDT:....................... 15
    Automatic stamp machine at post office:... 8
    Automatic Teller Machine:................. 8
    Arcade Video Game:........................ 100
    Xerox Machine:............................ 100
    Safeway refrigerated isle:................ 8
    Harvest Market meat case:................. 75
    Harvest Market fish case:................. 4
    Bar Code Reader at check-out:............. 200
    Big River Substation (elementary school):. 0.5-7

       These random measurements clearly show that it is virtually
    impossible for any of us to remove ourselves from an ongoing,
    uncontrolled experiment to test the limits of safe exposure of
    EMF. The parallels between this situation, where "informed
    consent" is a meaningless slogan, can be readily found in the
    new disclosures surrounding Cold War radiation testing. It might
    be useful, at this point, to revisit those days, when a "voice
    in the wilderness" spoke out against "safe" levels of nuclear
    radiation: Wilhelm Reich.
       What, in the final analysis, brought the wrath of the U. S.
    government down upon Wilhelm Reich, M.D.?
       Space does not allow a full discussion of Reich's biography,
    but those interested won't find a better place to start than
    with Myron Sharaf's _Fury on Earth_. There were many dangerous
    aspects to Reich's work, from advocating children's sexual
    rights, or his thorough analysis of the patriarchal family in
    fascism and its roots in the emotional character structures of
    everyday people, and even his invention of the orgone
    accumulator(1). In my view, Wilhelm Reich was imprisoned because
    he stumbled onto frightening facts about nuclear radiation
    during the early 1950s, a critical point in that newly developed
    industry.
       Simply put, Reich found that there is _no shielding possible_
    against the biological effects of nuclear radiation. On January
    5, 1951, in what was called the Oranur Experiment, Reich placed
    a minute sample (1 milligram) of radium inside a powerful orgone
    accumulator. Reich's shocking report, which can be found in the
    now out-of-print _Selected Writings_, details how radiation
    sickness is a function of the organism's response to the
    invasive insult, and not a direct result of the radiation
    poisoning itself. Thus different people may be more susceptible
    to very minute doses(2), while others may feel no noticeable
    effects; each person's reaction is different according to their
    own emotional and biological structure.

       It will be recalled that there was little understanding of
    the biological effects of radiation in the 1950s. Many people
    remember that soldiers were sent directly into test sites
    shortly after the dust cleared from nuclear explosions. They
    wore no protection and were merely dusted off afterwards. At
    this writing (January, 1994) the U.S. Department of Energy has
    released many documents about the true nature of America's
    nuclear heritage. Dept. Secretary Hazel O'Leary has offered full
    disclosure about the years of chronic abuse of an unwitting
    population of human guinea pigs by the scientific establishment
    and the  military. So far, reports have focused on the more
    insane and fascistic injection of human beings with plutonium
    without informed consent. Less has been reported about the facts
    that first came out: that throughout the forties and fifties the
    military dropped radioactive dust over vast areas of the Western
    States. To put this into perspective, the military essentially
    turned each of us into a huge cohort of experimental subjects in
    an on-going test of the biological effects of radiation
    poisoning. President Clinton has distanced himself from Dept. of
    Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary, who authorized the release of
    new information, characterizing her forthcoming posture as "very
    emotional".
       There is little public understanding today of the true nature
    of Reich's research. However, the military, as of 1948, was
    fully advised of his findings. Indeed, the AEC provided Reich
    with the radium samples he used in the Oranur Experiment.
       When Reich first discovered the specifically biological
    energy he called orgone, he waited before publishing until he
    verified the phenomena under a variety of experimental
    protocols. One such experiment, "TO-T", measured the temperature
    difference between an orgone box (constructed with alternating
    layers of metal and wood which create an enclosed field of
    concentrated orgone), and a similarly constructed box that
    lacked the metal lining, but had the same capacity for
    insulation. An orgone box is generally warmer than the outside
    temperature, and the temperature difference decreases as the
    atmosphere contracts before a storm.
       Albert Einstein was one person who found the question
    intriguing enough to invite Reich to his home to demonstrate the
    effect. Reich had written him a cautious letter in the hopes
    that this "Father of the Atom Bomb" would recognize that the
    experiments proved an exception to the Second Law of
    Thermodynamics, the law of entropy, which requires that equal
    volumes tend to equalize in temperature.
       Reich traveled to Princeton with several devices with which
    to demonstrate the orgone energy. He described his long session
    with Einstein as a meeting of minds. Einstein observed the
    phenomena, and said, "If this is true, it would be a bombshell
    for Physics." Einstein met once again with Reich and then
    suddenly dropped the matter. Einstein's biographers have
    painted this meeting in a ridiculous light, saying it was an
    example of Einstein's eccentricity. Perhaps, but their exchange
    of letters, which Reich published later, belies this
    assumption.(3)
       This is important to remember: whatever the validity of
    Reich's conclusions, _the phenomena he observed_, which alone
    stand in stark contrast to any high school physics text, _was in
    fact real, corroborated and sustained against objections_.
       The  FDA launched a multi-million dollar investigation of the
    orgone accumulator, declared it a fraud, and set about bringing
    criminal proceedings against Reich. Reich's FBI files reveal a
    blistering blizzard of letters directed towards getting rid of
    Reich from doctors in the AMA, ministers of Christian youth
    crusades, and one from the Atomic Energy Commission advising the
    FDA what "a thorn in the side" Reich had been.
       Reich never sold more than 500 copies a year of any one of
    his self-published books while he was alive. That an obscure,
    new line of research posed such a threat to the medical
    establishment is on its face inconceivable. Reich had first made
    contact with the Atomic Energy Commission on April 30, 1948, to
    discuss unusually high Geiger counter readings in connection
    with his orgonomic research. It would still be three years
    before Reich embarked on the Oranur Project, a controlled
    experiment dealing directly with the biological effects of
    radiation poisoning. In between, Reich kept the AEC completely
    informed of his research via meetings, letters and phone calls,
    as he grew closer and closer to an essential national security
    issue (i.e., keeping the public in the dark about the real
    danger associated with radioactivity), while simply trying to
    figure out why he was getting such unusually high readings on
    his Geiger counters.
       In re-reading his original documentation, I was impressed
    with Reich's ability to distinguish between observed facts,
    corroborated by others; new theories drawn from and supported by
    these facts; and finally speculation based upon insufficient
    evidence. Of utmost importance in his research method was an
    awareness of the attitude of the observer, basic trust in one's
    own perceptions and observations. Although he alerted them when
    his Geiger counters told him something was amiss, he did not
    trust the response offered by the AEC: don't worry, everything
    is fine. In this as in other matters he seems to have been
    virtually alone.
       Reich's intent for the Oranur Experiment was to investigate
    the treatment of radiation sickness with the orgone accumulator.
    For years, he had success in treating terminal "lost-cause"
    cancer patients with the medical device although he never
    claimed having found a cure, as the FDA would charge. Since
    it was well known that radiation sickness could lead to
    leukemia, Reich planned to investigate the matter at his
    laboratory in Rangeley, Maine.
       As Oranur research progressed, it was decided to test the
    effect of orgone-charged radium on lab mice in comparison to
    untreated radium. In preparation for this, a sample of radium
    was placed in a 20-layer accumulator. After five hours, Reich
    subjectively noticed a change in the atmosphere, which he
    described as heavy and oppressive. This subjective change was
    verified when Geiger counters in the room went off-scale.
    Workers in the area suffered all the classic symptoms of
    radiation poisoning. They had discovered the Oranur Effect.
       When the radium sample was removed from the accumulator,
    it was placed in a steel-and-concrete safe away from living
    quarters. Yet the noxious effects, as well as abnormally high
    Geiger readings persisted in the accumulator and the room in
    which it was situated. It was as if the atmospheric orgone had
    "run amok", as Reich put it, concluding that the placement of
    the radium inside the accumulator had set off an atmospheric
    chain-reaction which persisted long after it had been removed.
    The next morning, the mice were dying even though they were in
    an adjacent room, and Reich awoke with a full-body tan in the
    dead of a Maine winter.
       Reich would subsequently state that "it is the organismic
    OR [orgone] energy within living bodies which continues to
    react to the NR [nuclear radiation] material for months and
    even years." In checking background counts around the safe in
    which the orgone-charged radium had been disposed, he discovered
    a more disturbing phenomena: that the steel and concrete
    enclosure itself comprised an orgone accumulator and that the
    Oranur effect was still evident. It's hard to discount Reich's
    documentation of all this, given the complete records and
    corroboration of his coworkers. He found a persistent,
    overcharged atmosphere continuing long after the experiment had
    been concluded. _The New York Times_ (2/3/51) reported that
    there were unusually high background radiation levels recorded
    from Rochester, New York to Canada during the last week of
    January.
       There was a bright side. Both the experimental mice that had
    survived and the workers involved with the project exhibited
    full recovery and more: they were far better able to withstand
    the effects of radiation in subsequent work. Reich had found
    what he was looking for. There were positive indications that
    Reich had found a method of _immunizing against the effects of
    radiation_.
       By then, the FDA was mounting its case against Reich, aimed
    first at silencing him on the question of orgone energy. He had
    been ordered by the FDA and federal courts to cease distribution
    of the orgone accumulator. When an assistant, Dr. Michael
    Silvert, transported the devices across state lines, he and
    Reich were charged with the violation of the court injunction.
    Unbelievably, the 59 year-old scientist, researcher, and teacher
    was sentenced to two years in prison and, as with many people
    his age, this proved to be a death sentence.

       The rest of the story is now known. It's estimated that it
    will cost $200 billion to clean up after the nuclear testing of
    the Cold War. But are we all participating in a new experiment
    to establish safe levels of electromagnetic fields?

    Chronology of Radiation and Biowarfare Testing Disclosures
    Through 6/1/94

    1942-1946
    Dr. Joseph G. Hamilton at University of California
    Hospital in San Francisco proposes a radioactive aerosol as a
    military weapon. Tests lethal-dose exposure on terminal
    patients. One of the "terminal patients" had been misdiagnosed;
    he only had an ulcer. (L.A. Times 2/8/94)

    1945
    Miami, FL; radioactive needles placed in Army private's
    nostrils.

    Vanderbilt University Medical Center; 751 late-term
    pregnant women given radioactive water 30 times background
    radiation at a free clinic. (L.A. Times 2/8/94)

    1948-1952
    12 "battlefield radiation" tests conducted over
    Tennessee and Utah. Air Force drops radioactive cluster bombs
    dispersing as much as 15,000 curies in open-air fallout tests.
    (L.A. Times 12/16/94)

    1950
    San Francisco: ships spray city with bacteria from offshore.
    (NYT 2/25/94)

    1951
    Virginia: Aspergillus fumagatus, a lethal bacteria, released
    upon workers, mainly black, at Norfolk Naval Supply Center.
    (L.A. Times 2/8/94)

    1953
    Nationwide test: 235 newborns and infants injected with
    radioactive iodide. In Memphis, 6 of 7 newborns selected were
    black. No one kept track of the subjects, who are now 39 or 40
    years old. (St. Louis Post Dispatch 12/25/93)

    1954
    Marshall Islands: Navy moves its ships and personnel when it
    learns of a wind change prior to above-ground testing. Fails to
    relocate native islanders as well.

    1956-1986
    Chico, CA: 140 tons of hot shit (radioactive dog feces)
    accumulates at DOE facility (aka UC Davis Laboratory for
    Energy-Related Health Research, also  known as the "Beagle Club"
    by former workers) near UC Davis, where 1,200 beagles were fed,
    injected with, and exposed to radiation, including tritium. One
    worker has claimed that the sewage system has at times
    overflowed into Putah Creek, near Lake Berryessa.
    (L.A. Times 2/8/94)

    1957
    Eskimos in N. Alaska, few of whom spoke English at the time,
    were given an apple and an orange for their participation in
    Army tests to inject them with radioactive iodine.
    (L.A. Times 2/8/94)

    British smuggle radioactive debris in a diplomatic pouch
    on regular commercial airline.

    1963-1990
    34 underground nuclear tests in the U.S. release
    radiation into the atmosphere.

    1966
    Massachusetts: Retarded children at the Fernald School in
    Waltham given low-dose radiation in their cereal.

    1953-1965
    1500 military personnel given LSD by US Army Chemical
    Corps.

    1968
    Nerve Gas agent kills 6,000 sheep in Utah. (NYT 2/25/94)

    1973
    Prisoners in Oregon and Washington agree to have their
    testicles dipped in radioactive water for $5.00 a week.

    1993
    Russia, Arzamas-16; elite Vympel (Pennant) commando units
    stage a "terrorist attack" and quickly seize nuclear bomb
    factory, to test security at Soviet Military facilities.
    Vympel also thwarted an attempt to steal fissionable material
    from a plant in the Urals. However, when Vympel refused
    President Boris Yeltsin's order to storm the parliament house
    in October, 1992, they refused and talked the opposition out
    instead, which was seen as a capitulation. Yeltsin
    transferred Vympel under the control of the Interior Ministry,
    whereupon the majority of commandos resigned their commissions.

    1994
    Rep. Lane Evans (D-Ill.) asked the White House to
    investigate any radiation testing that may have been done on US
    troops during the Gulf War.

    Chernobyl nuclear power station declared unsafe by the
    International Atomic Energy Association. Officials now admit
    that thousands died in the blast, and the subsequent
    clean-up takes up 12% of the Ukranian national budget.
    (Reuters 3/31/94)

    To date:
    An estimated cost of $200 billion to clean up after the
    nuclear research of the Cold War, nationwide.

    30 deaths from Hanta viruses, long a focus of military
    biowarfare researchers.

    There remains no independent scientific or ethical review
    of human testing conducted by military and intelligence
    researchers.

    The Department of Energy funds 175 human test studies
    involving 725,000 people. (AP 4/5/94) The Nuclear Regulatory
    Commission reports that it licenses as many as 200 of the
    largest medical institutions in the country to conduct human
    research. (AP 2/3/94)

    Notes:

    (1) For a full discussion of current experimental evidence
    concerning the operation of the orgone accumulator and its
    beneficial use in healing see The Orgone Accumulator Handbook,
    by James DeMeo, PhD., Natural Energy Works, POB 864, El Cerrito,
    CA 95430

    (2) A former worker at the San Onofre Power Plant sues
    over a rare form of leukemia 1/94. Since she had never
    been exposed to levels of radiation deemed "unsafe" by the
    Department of Energy, and having a cancer which has been
    positively linked to radioactive exposure, the issue the court
    must decide is whether any level of exposure can be deemed
    "safe."

    (3) Reich, W. The Einstein Affair. Orgone Institute Press,
    Maine, 1953.

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