Customer Reviews

Electromagnetic Fields: A Consumer's Guide to the Issues and How to Protect Ourselves

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I am a research scientist with a background in psychosocial epidemiology who became interested in the impact of electromagnetic waves on physical, mental and emotional health when I was confronted with applications to construct telecommunications towers in our newly adopted home town. My ideas and information from physics courses were both rusty and dated. Moreover, in postgraduate work I had learned enough about environmental impacts on fetal and child development, neurological functioning, and sleep cycle disruption to be concerned. I wanted to efficiently come up to speed on theories about the waves' effects and peer-reviewed data that tested those theories. Ms. Levitt's book provided an extremely comprehensible and yet responsible orientation to the mechanisms by which electromagnetic waves operate, the research on their impact that was available as of its writing, and the political and economic influences of industry and governmental forces. PLEASE have her update it with the inclusion of the research of the last few years. Solid research findings are supporting her arguments at an escalating rate and they deserve to be disseminated. The public health hazards of unmonitored electromagnetic waves (especially in the rapidly proliferating rf frequencies) are real and an educated public is our best protection against their potential damage.

As an author of a book on a related subject (magnetic healing), I know firsthand how challenging it is to write in a user-friendly fashion about the complex subject of electromagnetic fields and their effect on health.

B. Blake Levitt's extraordinary commitment of time and effort has resulted in a work that makes this complex subject easy to understand. Not only has she succeeded in explaining the untoward health effects of EMFs, but she also gives her readers a look into the complex political and commercial forces that have led to our current state of affairs.

Faced with the potential of a cell phone tower being placed directly overhead in my high-rise apartment building, I used Ms. Levitt's book as a study guide and subsequently consulted her for additional background information. I have no doubt that this information was key in holding off the installation of the tower.

This book is a "must read" for anyone concerned about EMFs -- and everyone should be!

As a columnist for the Boston Globe and founder of the Marblehead MA Cancer Prevention Project, I have been fighting the placement of cell phone towers in densely populated residential areas.As a former English major, I needed credibility when speaking of highly technical matters. I didn't want to be dismissed as just another hysterical woman. Reading B. Blake Levitt's book not only enabled me to speak intelligently on this subject, it made me 10 times more of an expert than anyone else in the room, including the salesmen for the telecom industry. Her book is easy to follow, energizing, and constructive and I followed it up by reading more recent articles written by Levitt on the Internet. Our group was so well informed, and able to express ourselves so clearly as a result of reading this book that we prevailed in keeping an additional Sprint tower out of town. Levitt writes for the concerned layperson, and although I avoided the physical sciences in college, I was enthralled by Levitt's explanations because the proliferation of electromagnetic fields never before experienced by humans may turn out to be our next public health disaster. Read this for your grandchildren and future generations.Corporate profit is not the only good.

This is an excellent book for learning about EMF's, and I recommend it to get up to speed on the issue.

That said, I own the 1995 edition, and wanted updated information on the topic. I ordered the 2007 print, thinking that it was a revised version. I was disappointed to receive a book that, with the exception of the 11 page Foreword, was "page by page" identical to the 1995 edition! The 2007 Foreword includes general statements about EMF developments from 1996 on, but there are no footnotes or documentation for this section.

My advice: if you can find one, buy a used 1995 edition instead! If you can't find the 1995 ed., then buy this 2007 print.

B. Blake Levitt makes the scientific and medical aspects of electromagnetic fields easily accessible to those of us who are not scientists or physicians. Most fascinating was her insightful chapter "What Your Doctor Doesn't Know and Why." She also traces persuasive evidence of links between EMFs and 20th century ailments such as chronic fatigue syndrome, Alzheimer's Disease, and cancer. ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELDS distills a vast amount of research alerting us to health dangers. It also offers specific suggestions to reduce the impact of EMFs in our homes, workplaces and communities. Our family has become better-informed consumers by relying on this book. Thank you Ms. Levitt for empowering your readers to gain control over an issue with increasing repercussions in all our lives.

this book is a well-crafted and well-informed, simple and direct introduction to the challenging subject of electromagnetic radiation. It is an important tool for consumers and community activists who want to understand how what we cannot see can and does affect us. The proliferation of "wireless" technology is something that impacts all our lives in many ways; this book is a crucial first step to understanding and questioning these crucial impacts. Charts, illustrations and good, clear writing makes accessible what could be obscure. Thank you B. Blake Levitt!

I heard the author on Dreamland radio and picked up the book. It's fun to read and scared me away from my cellphone. It tells about how cell towers are going up everywhere, how they threaten our health, how "passive" microwaves from cellphones are dangerous, just like passive smoke from cigarettes. Gave me the chills!

I am an MIT engineer (BSME MIT, 1978) and Author of When Technology Fails, and I highly recommend this book. Just like the title says, this is really the no-nonsense guide to evaluating the true hazards of EMF, and what you can do to control your local environment and personal habits to reduce your exposure to potentially dangerous levels of EMF. Written by an award winning nationally acclaimed science journalist, you can trust that the information in this book has been well researched and documented. If you are one of those unfortunate people who have developed Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity Syndrome (EHS), meaning that you feel ill around computers, wireless routers, and other high EMF electronics, then the actions that you will need to take, in order to feel healthy again, will be miles beyond those of the average person, and this book will help you to start on your road to recovery. Highly recommended!

Unfortunately it lacks authority. There are no citations and all we get are phrases such as "scientists are becoming concerned", people believe" and so on. What people think or believe is not important, what matters is empirical research and this author refers to none. It consists entirely of largely unattributed opinion. Every word of it may be true, but it could equally be a collection of imaginative musings. This book was given to me as essential information, but my scientific opinion is that it is superficially interesting but of little use.

Consumers and local planning officials alike will welcome the wealth of information on the science of the wireless revolution available in this very readable summary of electromagnetic radiation and our environment. Before you purchase that new wireless device for yourself or, more importantly, your children, be sure you know how exposure to EMF affects human physiology. If you are a local official confronted with decision making for wireless transmitting facilities, this is the book that will make your decision an informed one. We are making choices as consumers that will require wireless transmitters to be found in every neighborhood and classroom across the country. Know what you are exposing yourself, your family, and your community to if you decide to go "wireless."