BANE OR BOON

We have really unleashed the waves on ourselves. Waves to the left of us, waves to the right of us, volley and thunder. It all began with the high tension wires carrying the life-spring of electricity. The galvanometer principle is a well-documented fact so there can be no argument that the magnetic waves surrounding the cables is having an effect on the life around it. Circumstantial evidence abounds and proves clearly that living organisms are upset biologically by it. Planning the layout of the towers should incorporate this fact or when planning housing colonies. But nobody does. The powers that be refuse to give it legal sanction for the simple reason it creates too many attendant administrative, legal liability and financial compensation problems. Cancerous growths have been reported significantly in people living near these high voltage transmission lines. The matter serves best by being swept under the carpet and assiduously kept there. Institutions are very adept at obfuscating the issue by passing the buck under the umbrella of scientific enquiries and reports. When nothing else works, it is fudged further by wrapping it up in legal wrangles.

We brought the magnetic field effect into our homes with the TV and now the computer screens and heavy load products like the compressor in fridges and ACs. But enough is not enough. Then we went one step further with the microwave oven. In our quest for speed in everything we found the perfect instrument to facilitate our lifestyles. The huge industry spends fortunes to promote and sell the product but very little in explaining how it works and its consequences. The microwave-cooking oven depends on a very strong microwave magnetron to cook. The waves vibrate the water in the cells to a frequency that it heats and overheats as needed and cooking results. There is definite proof that it also destroys the cell structure in the process. So the resultant food value of the cooked dish is questionable.

The question that bothers me is of the effect it will have on the cells of the humans near it. The human cell structure is the same as that of the food being cooked. We are water most of it. So, if the microwave can burst the cell in the potato, will it not have some effect on the user standing by? It is said and accepted by the industry that its direct effects go up to at least one-meter distance.


Everyone from the customer, manufacturer and seller prefer to ignore this scenario. The customer is afraid that if banned he will not know how to continue existing without the products and for the manufacturers they are the highest selling consumer durable products. We are prepared to live with these small hazards but not the inconveniences. After all who has seen the direct link of using these products and cancer, which may develop 20 years later?

Not that many interested and concerned people are not doing their little bit to educate and warn but these people are seen as trouble makers.


This much happiness was obviously not enough for the human race. We then needed to connect ourselves and be in touch. Very fine intentions indeed. The ubiquitous telephone of the Graham Bell era was too simple. We needed to be instantly and all the time in touch. Every thought and every word needs to be communicated here and now. So we developed the cell phone. Cell phone sales touched 625 million by the 2004 year-end.

There is no-nonsense research being conducted on the health hazards of the cell phone and the results are worrying. There is definite need to be scared. Radiation from cell phones is by no means negligible. The entire system has flooded the environment with microwaves bombarding us at all times. It begins with the transmission towers and ends in the hand of the users of the phones. The cell phones users report tumors being formed in the area of the ear. Added to it are psychological effects like distraction, memory loss and fatigue. All these create potential preludes to motorcar accidents and depressive states, which are increasing day by day. This is not taking into consideration the incalculable harm to our psyche and the psychological price paid as stress for the irritations induced from being available to all and sundry at the press of a button. The islands of calm aloofness have disappeared from our lives. The legal liability of the phone industry prevents it to enter into a cooperative effort to solve this mushrooming problem and therefore they blind themselves and do not recognize it.

Wireless connectivity comes at a price. The heavy cabling all around us was already bad. But this new trend towards wireless homes and offices is to my horror a step down to perdition. As individuals are we concerned? Is it not the industry’s responsibility to take the righteous path and tell the public when a technology is not good for them and even go to the extent to refuse to promote it?

I do not wish to sound alarming but we surely should begin to ponder over the simple matter when we see that an estimated 330 million people worldwide today are suffering from increasing incidence of cancer, respiratory ailments, stress disorders, birth defects and reproductory problems both in the male and female. All of which can be traced to technological advances in every domain of our lives. Instead of using them in moderation to better our lives, we have let them overshadow and take-over our lives for the worse.