Last year I read a lot of ‘EMF’ books. This book was one of them.
Before I set about writing my own book on electrical sensitivity I wanted to make sure that I was as well informed as I could be on EMFs. I read it as part of my research.
[1]I love the foreword to this book. Here’s the potted version: ‘One day in April 1995 I was sat in my favorite Indian restaurant with a work colleague and slap bang in the middle of my meal I came over with a 45 minute grand mal brain seizure. They carted me off to hospital where the neurosurgeon came out with his diagnosis. It’s a brain tumor. But a nasty one….the brain might herniate….I.O.W. I might not make it. After an 11 day hospital stay and 12 hour operation I did make it. When the doctor visited me after the operation I asked him rather bluntly “how did I get this thing?” And he bluntly told me “Perhaps electromagnetic fields.”’
When I first read this I’m thinking ‘I can really relate to this author’. Reading on I realized that the author of the foreword was not the same person as the author of the book. The foreword was written by Lloyd Morgan, Senior Research Fellow of the Environmental Health Trust.
The author of the Force – Living Safely In A World Of Electromagnetic Pollution [1]is Lyn McLean from Sydney, Australian who is webmaster of an EMF awareness website called EMR Australia.
What's In The Force?
When I got my hands on this book for the first time the thing that struck me was the size of it. This is no skimpy little paperback. It’s printed in a fairly big format, but the font size is quite small. So its fairly dense. And there are a lot of pages. 380 in all.
In 13 chapters ‘The Force’ covers a lot of ground. The opening chapter has lots of EMF stories. Then we get on to the more heavy stuff, with a nice, clear explanation of what EMFs are and all the different sources of EMF exposures, powerlines, mobile phones, base stations, broadcast towers, computers etc.
The middle section of the book covers the link between EMFs and various health conditions, like leukemia, brain tumors, Alzheimer’s, allergies, depression etc. And then the last three chapters are about what you can do to minimize your exposures.
What I Liked About This Book
The authors' done her homework. Its a well researched and pretty exhaustive look at EMFs and health. You can pick up and read it without having any prior knowledge of the subject and come away with a pretty clear understanding at the end of it.
Lyn McLean makes it clear where she stands on the EMFs and health issue right at the start of her book. This is no industry puppet speaking here. In the last chapter she also asks the very pertinent question ‘do the benefits outweigh the costs of this technology?’
What I Didn’t Like About This Book
It’s a small thing but it’s a fairly heavy subject and a more user friendly writing style would have made it more readable. But this book is information rich and perhaps that's the price to pay when there is this density of information. So I really don't want to criticize Lyn McLeans book unfairly because any book that brings awareness to this issue has to be commended.
Other Reviews Of The Force
‘One of the most important books I have read in a long time… a tour de force that covers an encyclopedic range of topics.'
Lloyd Morgan, Environmental Health Trust fellow, brain tumour survivor
‘An easily readable account … the personal stories are compelling, and the scientific evidence is presented in a forceful yet understandable manner.'
Dr David Carpenter, Director of the Institute for Health and the Environment
‘A valuable book that details the problem of electromagnetic radiation and what we can do about it.’
Professor Yuri Grigoriev, Head Russian Committee for NonIonising Radiation Protection
Conclusion
Its an honest book. If you’re looking to get up to speed on the subject of EMFs and health and learn how to protect your family then you'll come away a lot, lot wiser having read this book.
The Force – Living Safely In A World Of Electromagnetic Pollution on Amazon [1]