Linking Low-Frequency Fields and Neurological Behavior Disorders

The section on on Linking Low-Frequency Fields and Neurological Behavior Disorders is an excerpt from Chapter 8, Man Made Electromagnetic Radiation Fields, of the book "Cross Currents: the Perils of Electrical Pollution" by Robert O. Becker.

Linking Low-Frequency Fields and Neurological Behavior

Another researcher under contract to the New York State Power-Lines Project, Dr. Kurt Salzinger of the Polytechnic University of Brooklyn, exposed rats to 60-Hz fields during fetal development and the first few days of life.  The animals were then raised normally until they were ninety days old.  At that time they were trained in various learning routines, along with a control group of rats that had not been exposed.  Salzinger found that the exposed rats learned more slowly and made more mistakes.  He emphasized that the differences were unmistakable and significant, and that they occurred long after the field exposure.

Along the same lines, Dr. Frank Sulzman of the State University of New York investigated the effects of 60-Hz exposure on biological cycles.  He found that monkeys exposed to thesse fields showed a significant decrease in activity levels, judged by the rate at which the animals pressed a lever to obtain food.  A surprising finding , however, was that this lower activity level persisted for months after exposure was stopped.

Dr. Jonathan Wolpaw of the New York State Department of Health looked at brain functions under similar circumstances.  He measured the levels of neurohormones in the spinal fluid of monkeys that had been exposed to these fields for three weeks.  He found that levels of serotonin and dopamine  were significantly depressed immediately following the exposure, and that only dopamine returned to normal levels.  Serotonin levels remained well below normal levels for several months.

Both dopamine and serotonin are known to be associated with behavioral and psychological mechanisms.  Recently, considerable attention has been directed to the relationship of depressed levels of serotonin to suicide.  

The data on this research were reviewed and discussed in the Lancet (24 October 1987) with researchers concluding that a definite relationship existed.  This provides a mechanism for my finding, in conjunction with Dr. Perry, of a direct relationship between power lines and suicide in England.