NOTES FROM THE EDITOR

There is a great variability and tolerance to environmental elements within members of the human race, depending upon gender, genetics, health, geographical location, and cultural and personal belief systems, to mention a few complexities! Over the years, a lot of medical and psychological application-range knowledge has been gathered which fits the majority of human psycho-physiological problems, producing the “average person profile”.

But what about those persons we are finding who do not fit the “profile”? These would be individuals of extraordinary sensitivities, often body and sensory oriented, or intuitive, who may be admired, imitated, ignored, suppressed or judged as “handicapped”, depending on how they use their “gifts”, and how their health is affected. The increasing number of people (primarily women) who are hypersensitive to chemical and EMF factors — which are often associated with fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue, are giving us important clues.

These are clues about how and where we are affecting our indoor and outdoor environments in ways which may be hazardous to our long-term health. These people by birth, accident, or discipline are examples of the incredible range and sensitivity we see every day in other living creatures (if we but open our eyes and minds!). With modern technology, medical care, communication, and information collection and dissemination systems, we can now learn more about these individuals. They can be assisted with their personal problems and talents, and the incredible ranges of their body, brain, mind, spirit, and environmental interaction factors determined. Also, as we uncover more useful data at the “creative edge” in the study of these life processes, certain medical and psychological anomalies, formerly classified as superstitious nonsense, are becoming “new cures or discoveries”, with new words replacing the older unacceptable terminologies.

I’ve watched bioelectromagnetics emerge over the past 45 years, and have always felt that many answers to “unexplained phenomena” awaited more sensitive instruments to measure the electric and magnetic fields associated with living systems. As an aerospace engineer involved in extending the limits of the possible, I’ve been able to follow the medical applications of space research spin-off and watch the “impossible” and “nonsensical” become useful and applicable during my work from 1982-1986, at Martin Marietta Manned Space Systems in New Orleans, I jointly developed an electrostatic cooling (ESC) process (and patent) to improve aluminum welds on the Space Shuttle external fuel tank.

The last 6 months of statistical weld tests required my all-day presence next to the high voltage and current welding equipment and high voltage ESC system. Shortly after project completion (early 1987) I started having acute attacks of hives (urticaria) any time I ate beef, mutton, or pork. This protein intolerance to red meat products, now outgrown (it took 10 years), was a minor malady at the present time, with very little effect on my lifestyle.

However, this personal experience, with what I perceive as effects of very strong EMFs over a relatively short period of time, attracted my attention to the area of human electrosensitivity to low-level EMF’s as a potential long-term health issue that requires further exploration. There appear to be trends in animal and primate research over the years which indicate that continual long-term EMF exposure to individually-specific pulse rates, intensities and waveforms, may produce hypersensitive reactions in some people.

Persons already hypoallergenic to many chemicals claim that electrical and EMF transients from power lines, home appliances, electrical wiring, office equipment and switches are additional irritating stress factors to avoid. We now have the tools and are starting the research into “inner space”. It is an exciting era of developing our understanding of the holistic nature of our human body, brain, mind, spirit and environmental interactions. Shall we extend the limits of the possible?
                                                     -- James B. Beal, Editor