amichiel@rodan.acs.syr.edu (Allen J Michielsen) (06/28/90)
In article <12967@cbmvax.commodore.com> grr@cbmvax (George Robbins) writes: >Nonsense. Most "commercial" grade equipment is made to better standards than >consumer equipment. Most of the VDT's in commercial use aren't fly by night, >those are the ones bought for use with cheap clones for home use. Most of >these require UL or similar testing to allow unrestricted retail sale. This is slightly misleading, and the way I said it first was worse. If you intend to sell in the home/consumer market, you MUST meet a different max level of emissions than if you CLAIM that you intend to market in the industrial/business/industry market. However, after meet the whatever intended class certification, you can actually sell to anyone however you want. There is no budget for inforcement/records/etc of this. The same is true of testing. While home TV's are randomly tested to see that they meet specs, there is no budget to check VDT's or ANY industrial classed items. As a matter of fact, the certification has often been done on 'custom' prototypes. There have been several cases (NEC & Hyundai & others) that were tested by independent labs for professional publications. It was discovered that EVERY unit ever manufactured (of that model) exceeded the levels it was rated for, because the certification unit wasn't a production unit. The government regulatory agencies would NEVER have known if the publishers hadn't inquired into it and published. I remember hyundai removed the remaining stock from the US (and destroyed it I bet). Neither ever contacted me (I owned both units and sent in the reg, cards) like the publications claimed they would. None of this is to say that EMF kills. Hiding behind government backed emission levels of anything is a dangerous sport. The politics involved in this country are so great that I would set my personal levels to about 1/10 of the claimed save exposures of ANYthing just to be safe. There are studies (BY reliable labs, etc...) that are STARTING to indicate that EMF can or does have long term and genetic effects. I suspect that in 20 years we will know much more than we do now. Further I suspect that in 100 years they will laugh at us and our stupidity on hundreds of things like this. That is assuming that we last as a race or planet long enough... al
os9john@gkcl.ists.ca (John Beveridge) (06/28/90)
It should be remembered that VDTs and TVs aren't the only devices in use daily
that emit energy. How about two-way radios? Motorola includes a tag with
virtually each and every radio, warning of possible dangers.
Front of Warning Tag [Motorola part # 54D84962K01]
-----------------------------------
IMPORTANT
SAFETY INFORMATION
FOR THE MOBILE RADIO
OPERATOR
radio installer
please leave this tag attached
----------------------------------
The top half of the inside of the tag has the same message as the outside,
minus the instruvtions to the installer.
The bottom half of the inside looks like this.
---------------------------------
* General Safety Information
The United States Department of Labor, through the provisions of the Oc-
cupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (OSHA) has established an elec-
magnetic energy safety standard which applies to the use of this equip-
ment. Proper use of this radio will result in exposure below the OSHA limit.
The following precautions are recommended:
DO NOT operate the transmitter when someone outside the vehicle is
within two feet (0.6 meter) of the antenna
DO NOT operate the transmitter unless all RF connectors are secure and
any open connectors are properly terminated.
---------------------------
It goes on like this for a little bit more. Mentioning blasting caps,m proper
grounds and service being done by qualified persons.
I think, however, that the important thing to notice is that this problem was
suspected as far back as 1970.
Anybody know anything for sure and certain?
.....jb
Who? Me? Never!
-*-
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