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  • Everyone's got a cell phone, compact fluorescent lights are the norm, and we cook our dinners

  • in the microwave every night.

  • Or at least I do.

  • Could all these electromagnetic waves whipping around be harmful?

  • Hi everyone, Julian here for DNews.

  • A recent article by Ed Cumming in the Guardian describes a tiny hamlet in West Virginia with

  • an array of massive radio telescopes looming over it.

  • Telescopes like this are extremely sensitive; this year in Australia what was originally

  • thought to be a major breakthrough in the search for life was actually just bursts of

  • radiation emitted when someone was opening the microwave in the break room before the

  • timer went off.

  • So in order to pick up radio waves from the edges of the universe clearly, the town has

  • to be an electromagnetic dead zone.

  • That means no cell signals or radio, and if you have wifi in your home, occasionally some

  • nice men and women from the telescope will come 'round and ask you to turn it off.

  • While this sounds like my own personal version of hell, to others it's a safe haven.

  • Not from the barrage of facebook and twitter, which I totally get and by the way you can

  • follow me @JHug00, but from the electromagnetic waves themselves.

  • Diane Schou is one of the people seeking peace in Green Bank because she claims she's electrosensitive.

  • Schou says she moved there after she started getting severe headaches, blurred vision,

  • and skin rashes.

  • She describes her symptoms as radiation sickness and attributed it to a US Cellular tower by

  • her home, but she's also sensitive to fluorescent lights and electric fences.

  • She's not alone either, and since she moved to Green Bank, 40 other electrosensitive people

  • have joined her.

  • But is it real?

  • Can the invisible little waves that constantly surround us have an effect on our bodies?

  • Science says probs not.

  • First consider Schou's own account.

  • She says she was sensitive only to US Cellular towers, and specifically said she didn't

  • react to AT&T.

  • The problem with that is US Cellular uses frequencies around 850 MHz and 1900 MHz, and

  • so does AT&T, so right away her claim is looking suspect.

  • She also likens her symptoms to radiation sickness but there's a problem there too.

  • Just becauseelectromagnetic radiationhas the word radiation in it, doesn't mean

  • it's going to cause radiation sickness.

  • Radio and microwaves have less energy than visible light, and substantially less energy

  • than x-rays or gamma rays.

  • These higher energy waves, along with particles emitted from from nuclear radiation, can damage

  • tissue and cause radiation sickness by stripping electrons off atoms.

  • Microwaves?

  • Not so much.

  • Most people who report electromagnetic sensitivity also have a wide and varying range of symptoms,

  • which makes their case harder to substantiate.

  • There's also the fact that Schou says she's sensitive to fluorescent lights.

  • Fluorescents do emit more UVB radiation than incandescents but UV radiation is at wavelengths

  • that are orders of magnitude smaller than radio or microwaves.

  • They're on the other side of the spectrum as visible light.

  • So why isn't visible light also irritating?

  • Plus the falloff of radiation from compact fluorescent lights, or CFLs, is so steep that

  • at just 4 feet away it's equivalent to background radiation.

  • CFLs are different than incandescents because they flicker, and you might guess the flickering

  • from fluorescent lights is giving Schou headaches.

  • But that's unlikely because modern fluorescent bulbs flicker at 10,000 to 40,000 cycles per

  • second, and that is way too fast for the human eye to see.

  • Studies have looked into the claim of Electrosensitivity too, and they haven't turned up any concrete

  • evidence it's a thing either.

  • A double blind study from 2006 observed 60 self-reported sensitive people as well as

  • 60 non-sensitive control participants.

  • They were exposed to a 900 MHz pulsing signal, a non-pulsing signal, and a condition with

  • no signal present.

  • The sensitive subjects reported symptoms when a signal was present 60% of the time.

  • They reported symptoms when a signal wasn't present 63% of the time.

  • Soooo

  • Doesn't seem like they can really tell.

  • That's not to say the symptoms aren't real.

  • But the cause is probably not electromagnetic frequencies, it's the belief that it's

  • electromagnetic frequencies.

  • It could be another case of the placebo effect's evil twin, the nocebo effect.

  • So despite the abundance of invisible waves carrying phone calls and dirty snapchats past

  • you in the air, it looks like you're going to be A-OK, so long as you think you're

  • going to be OK.

  • If you're not terrified of radiation, good news, you can also use it to wirelessly charge

  • your phone.

  • Yay less wires and more radiation!

  • Trace explains how it work here.

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B1 中級

WiFiにアレルギーが出ることはあるのか? (Can You Be Allergic to WiFi?)

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    Flora Hu に公開 2021 年 01 月 14 日
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