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Article: Current events: can EMFs hurt you?(electromagnetic fields)
- Article from:
- Current Events, a Weekly Reader publication
- Article date:
- December 1, 1995
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1995 Weekly Reader Corp. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Can power lines and electric appliances promote brain cancer, leukemia, birth defects, and other diseases? The debate is charged with emotion.
What Are EMFs?
Electromagnetic fields, or EMFs, are electric and magnetic fields produced by electricity. Your CD player, hair dryer, television, and washing machine all use 60-hertz (Hz) alternating current (AC). The direction of the current shifts, or alternates, 60 cycles per second.
Health concerns focus on the magnetic field, measured in units called milligauss (mG). Some common appliances, like can openers and motor-driven alarm clocks, produce strong fields close up, but the field's intensity drops off ...