Bedroom electronics may kill you slowly
Sep 06, 2005
BEDROOM stimulation? Who wouldn’t love it? Only that you need to be sure those sparks are coming from your partner and not from a love affair with technological gadgetry.
By Hilary Bainemigisha
BEDROOM stimulation? Who wouldn’t love it? Only that you need to be sure those sparks are coming from your partner and not from a love affair with technological gadgetry.
Many bedrooms are becoming an arena of electronics. An average learned person is likely to have a TV, CD player, digital clock, two mobile phones, computer and perhaps printer, scanner and fax machine in the safety of a bedroom.
The problem
But it does come with a price. And the bad news is that the price is so high. It is fatal.
“Jamming a bedroom with electronic gadgets exposes you to accumulated radiation that may affect you and your offspring,†said Dr. Joseph Turyabahika of Kampala Medical Chambers on Buganda Road. “All electronic appliances emit electromagnetic interference and according to theories in quantum physics, these electrical charges fill our air and can affect our health.â€
And when we sleep in a closed bedroom, we expose ourselves to this radiation for around eight hours a day.
Electromagnetic waves are a subset of radiation, whose cocktail is responsible for poor sleep, cancer, declining sexual power and possible impotence — it is that serious.
“These pieces of electronic equipment, particularly the TV and computer screen give off high levels of electromagnetic energy even long after they have been turned off,†said Turyabahika.
“You are literally jamming up your air with electronic waves,†he adds.
Engineer Nicholas Ssemujju, the principal electric engineer at Uganda Television, confirmed that every frequency, even as low as 50 hertz produced by a normal electricity bulb, can produce electromagnetism. “What reaches the body is not a function of how much power, but power and distance from you.
“But most modern gadgets undergo radiation scrutiny,†he said.
“Actually, since the 1970s, X-rays from TV were made too low to be a public hazard. TV rays, for example, cannot penetrate the tube and enter a person. But there may always be some spill out. That is why you are required to be at a distance of 10 times the screen size from a TV that is on,†Ssemujju said.
This means if a TV is 14 inch, the safest watching distance is 14 X 10 = 140 inches (around four metres).
Radiation
“The problem with radiation is the continuous exposure and time of effect. An accumulated dose becomes dangerous because you don’t feel anything till it is too late,†Ssemujju adds.
According to Dr. Rose Byanyima, a radiation specialist, radiation can alter the physical and chemical structure and the genetic composition of the tissue and organ cells.
“In most cases, such effects as cancer will manifest long after the radiation exposure. Where radiation therapy is applied, as in treating some cancers (radiotherapy), it is given in divided doses to minimise the side effects,†Byanyima says.
But she says you can never run away from radiation. “We are surrounded by natural radioactivity in the earth and by cosmic rays from outer space.
This is called background radiation and cannot be controlled. Man-made radiation, however, can and must be controlled.â€
Byanyima adds that most home appliances don’t pose a big risk because the suppliers take serious measures to ensure acceptable standards.
Turyabahika says the problem comes when these appliances are left in power when switched off. “That primary current in appliances, the number of appliances, especially those active throughout the night like mobile phones and digital clock produce a jam of electromagnetism. And if you are a person who sleeps with any metallic object on you like watches, rings, and necklaces, these attract the radiation to penetrate your body in that specific place.â€
Remedy
Decongest the bedroom of electronics if you can. Keep only those, which you must have. However, zero is the best number of electronic equipment to have in your bedroom.
Keep the remaining electronics as far away from the bed as possible.
Turn off the electricity before sleeping right from the socket.
Cover your TV and computer screens with a cloth before you sleep.
Put as many plants in the bedroom as possible. At least, a medium-to-large-size plant in your room for every piece of electrical equipment. Plants absorb most electrical current.
Digital alarm clocks emit a high amount of electro magnetic interference and should not be kept close to your head position. Put them on the other side of your room or switch to a non-digital clock.
Switch off mobile phones or keep them far away from the bed.
Stop sleeping with metallic objects like jewellery.
If you can, change to flat screen technology for a TV and computer screen. This liquid crystal display has limited radiation because of the principle it uses.
BEDROOM stimulation? Who wouldn’t love it? Only that you need to be sure those sparks are coming from your partner and not from a love affair with technological gadgetry.
Many bedrooms are becoming an arena of electronics. An average learned person is likely to have a TV, CD player, digital clock, two mobile phones, computer and perhaps printer, scanner and fax machine in the safety of a bedroom.
The problem
But it does come with a price. And the bad news is that the price is so high. It is fatal.
“Jamming a bedroom with electronic gadgets exposes you to accumulated radiation that may affect you and your offspring,†said Dr. Joseph Turyabahika of Kampala Medical Chambers on Buganda Road. “All electronic appliances emit electromagnetic interference and according to theories in quantum physics, these electrical charges fill our air and can affect our health.â€
And when we sleep in a closed bedroom, we expose ourselves to this radiation for around eight hours a day.
Electromagnetic waves are a subset of radiation, whose cocktail is responsible for poor sleep, cancer, declining sexual power and possible impotence — it is that serious.
“These pieces of electronic equipment, particularly the TV and computer screen give off high levels of electromagnetic energy even long after they have been turned off,†said Turyabahika.
“You are literally jamming up your air with electronic waves,†he adds.
Engineer Nicholas Ssemujju, the principal electric engineer at Uganda Television, confirmed that every frequency, even as low as 50 hertz produced by a normal electricity bulb, can produce electromagnetism. “What reaches the body is not a function of how much power, but power and distance from you.
“But most modern gadgets undergo radiation scrutiny,†he said.
“Actually, since the 1970s, X-rays from TV were made too low to be a public hazard. TV rays, for example, cannot penetrate the tube and enter a person. But there may always be some spill out. That is why you are required to be at a distance of 10 times the screen size from a TV that is on,†Ssemujju said.
This means if a TV is 14 inch, the safest watching distance is 14 X 10 = 140 inches (around four metres).
Radiation
“The problem with radiation is the continuous exposure and time of effect. An accumulated dose becomes dangerous because you don’t feel anything till it is too late,†Ssemujju adds.
According to Dr. Rose Byanyima, a radiation specialist, radiation can alter the physical and chemical structure and the genetic composition of the tissue and organ cells.
“In most cases, such effects as cancer will manifest long after the radiation exposure. Where radiation therapy is applied, as in treating some cancers (radiotherapy), it is given in divided doses to minimise the side effects,†Byanyima says.
But she says you can never run away from radiation. “We are surrounded by natural radioactivity in the earth and by cosmic rays from outer space.
This is called background radiation and cannot be controlled. Man-made radiation, however, can and must be controlled.â€
Byanyima adds that most home appliances don’t pose a big risk because the suppliers take serious measures to ensure acceptable standards.
Turyabahika says the problem comes when these appliances are left in power when switched off. “That primary current in appliances, the number of appliances, especially those active throughout the night like mobile phones and digital clock produce a jam of electromagnetism. And if you are a person who sleeps with any metallic object on you like watches, rings, and necklaces, these attract the radiation to penetrate your body in that specific place.â€
Remedy