Prius EMF Radiation and Toyota's bold face

Back to an earlier discussion: Another EMF Question in Gen 3 - Please Help!!! | Page 4 | PriusChat

There is a link in that thread to a presentation at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco. Audio is available.

Dr. Sam Milham briefly spoke about his book "Dirty Electricity: Electrification and the Diseases of Civilization". Long before we were worried about EMF and cell phones, there were generators and other power grid equipment that was electrically dirty. His analysis is that electrification was associated with negative health effects.

Frankly, I'm a lot more concerned about the radiation from Fukushima garbage that's starting to arrive on the California coast. It's probably more dangerous than EMF from cars, cell phones, or the power grid. Maybe we'll know in 20 or 30 years...

 

Don't do this at home...

 

I agree, way too expensive. I prefer using common household items like sticking a screwdriver in a 110ac outlet.

 

Absent solid new evidence, I have a very hard time believing that dirty electrification has worse negative health effects than:
* combustion home lighting sources (candles, whale oil / kerosene / acetylene lamps);
* wood- and oil-fired cookstoves;
* refrigeration with old fashioned ice boxes requiring frequent delivery of new ice blocks;
* non-electric means of rapid communication (horses, cars, smoke signals, semaphores, doing without).

I won't argue that electricity has no adverse effects. But compared to the previous non-electric alternatives, I'll take electricity in an instant.

 

Is there a point somewhere in your post?

In your answer, please include some discussion of the attenuation factors of the displayed open mesh shielding at the frequencies carried by those cables. Power spectral density measurements outside that shielding would be very helpful.

 

Having been the recipient of a full blown kick from a cranky ex-racehorse, electricity is more fun. My son used to stand and touch a leaf or blade of grass to the hot wire and laugh each time he got zapped. Horses are sensitive to electricity... might have to have my Thoroughbred do a "scan" on the Prius for me and see with what she comes up with.

After blowing one of my knees out the physical therapist hooked me up to a TENS unit and another patient and I started testing our thresholds. The PT shook his head and called me a "stim junkie." A family member's dog is the same way... she will stand where she actually is getting zapped by her collar for the invisible fence, twitching. Might have to do some "Lab work" in the Prius.. ;-)

 

More exciting if one's feet are wet while making the connection....

 

Hundreds of people die in Prii every year. Of course they aren't safe.

 

You should try that in the UK with 240 volts.

 

Mi

So, if millions of people die outside of Prii each year, does that make my Prius safer?

 

umm, no. Not sure that I gave cause to infer that it would.

 

Because everyone eventually dies somewhere while doing something, safety of any product is a relative concept. Is risk of death from an injury incurred while in a Prius higher than the same measure in a standard reference car. You could also compare risk of death from an injury incurred in a Prius on a road or highway, in contrast with the same measure outside of a Prius on a road or highway. The validity for each of these contrasts could be improved by including person-time denominators and adjustment for age, traffic patterns, alcohol intoxication, and numerous other confounding factors. Although I don't have data necessary to test any of these these hypotheses, I believe that Prius would rank, at least, as safe as most of the comparison scenarios. Your statement that "Hundreds of people die in Prii every year. Of course they aren't safe" is as nonsensical as a comparison of whether more people die in a Prius than the number that die in hospital beds.

 

I think the fatality rate for the Prius is 1/2 that of the average car, but I blame that on Prius owners, not on the car.

 

I think perhaps you are reading way more into my statement than I intended. There was a comment that Prii have something which might not in that person's opinion be safe. I was making the obvious but mostly overlooked observation that cars in general and the Prius in particular are deadly devices. And I hoped that that context would be kept in mind for discussions about risks.

 

Yes; you are correct. I was drawing a literal interpretation of your statement and am still confused. Aren't you saying that the Prius is deadlier than other cars in your statement "... cars in general and the Prius in particular are deadly devices ..."? I agree that cars are responsible for slightly more than 30,000 deaths among Americans each year, but am not aware of evidence that Prius is deadlier than other cars, or even deadlier than horses ridden the same amount of person-time. I'm actually inclined to believe that the reverse is more likely because of what I believe to be the characteristics of Prius drivers, compared to drivers of other cars (e.g.; if Prius tends to be driven less aggressively (for fuel efficiency), more likely to have mature drivers (less likely to have teen-age drivers because of cost and cool-factor), less likely to have drunk drivers, etc.). You could argue that the fuel efficiency of Prius means they may tend to be driven more miles than a "typical" car, but I am considering injuries or deaths per person-time at risk, so this is not a factor. Regardless, I appreciate your correction of my literal interpretation, your perspective (that I may have misinterpreted) and contribution to this, and other, discussions.

 

OMG!!! All those Prius drivers getting fried by the EMF - ahhhhhhhhhhhh!

DBCassidy

 

Given that my former horse bucked me off and broke my back in two spots in November 2011 and took a direct hit this past August when I got kicked by the cranky Thoroughbred (and had a bruise that measured ten by eight inches - luckily got kicked where Mother Nature "padded me well" so nothing broken this go around), I will take my chances in my car, electricity and all.

Then again, I used to live on top of a hill that got struck by lightning often and fencing was electric on insulated T-posts. I was definitely the poster child for what not to do in a thunderstorm.

 

Then, there is the fun test a neurologist does to check "nerve conduction" to see how well one's nerves carry electrical impulses. The verdict - I got a bum deal on my "wiring..."

Someday I so have to have that heart to heart conversation with God when I meet Him and ask him if the lemon law applied in my case... diabetes, asthma, worn out knees and elbows and neuropathy? WTH? I so did not come with the extended warranty...

 

I'm not a Doctor or work in the medical field. However I know that a pinching sensation can be an early warning system of something else like good luck so buy a Lottery Ticket.

 

Pictures please - without pictures, it didn't happen.