It was a pretty good job Alan Karr had one recent afternoon. He got to work outdoors and climb to the top of a nice treehouse.
He did it to help the people of Bolingbrook and to collect data he needs in his electrical engineering studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Scientists and the public alike want the kind of information Karr and his fellow students are collecting around the Chicago area: data about electromagnetic fields from power lines.
”Everyone wants to know the answers to the big questions,” Karr said as he set up two monitoring devices at the top of the treehouse. His testing team had been invited by the parents of children who often play there.
”Is it dangerous?” people ask. ”Are these numbers high or low? Does this field endanger the people around it?”
The public has sought answers for more than a decade, since studies first began to suggest health hazards associated with the electromagnetic fields, or EMFs, created by high-voltage lines and household appliances.
Current research is trying to examine physiological changes that might be caused by the fields.
There is a sense of urgency in neighborhoods and schools all over the country as residents try to figure out what-if anything-they should do to protect themselves.
What is missing in many cases is information about EMFs in general and about specific places of concern.
That is where the UIC team hopes to shed some light, according to the lab supervisor overseeing the testing by the school`s chapter of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers.
”What we don`t want to do is generate fear . . . when there is no proven connection with health concerns,” said Bill Bates, of UIC`s department of electrical engineering and computer science. ”In a lot of cases, it quells fears just to know more.”
Taking measurements at homes in Chicago and suburbs over the last three years, the students have gathered what university spokesmen say is a significant collection of data for analysis.
Using a probe hooked up to a monitor, a student tester can determine the approximate strength of the field and, roughly, its shape as emitted from the source. Standing under a power line, for example, the tester can find how far from the wire its circular field reaches.
”We try to use common sense,” Karr said as he scoped the Bolingbrook home for sites to record measurements. ”Your (electrical) service is attached to the house right here . . . I could take a measurement right here, but nobody spends any time with their head stuck in that corner.”
Instead, he set up the toaster-size monitor in places such as the treehouse and the gate, at the lounge chairs by the back door and next to the microwave oven and alarm clocks inside. He then recorded the measurements to add to the team`s database and to show to the homeowners who invited him.
Testing agencies perform similar services. So do utility companies, according to Commonwealth Edison Co. spokesman Gary Wald.
In Bolingbrook, concerned parents are calling for closure of an elementary school near Commonwealth Edison lines instead of one across town that is scheduled to close. One mother said she plans to teach her child at home rather than send him to a school she believes is risky.
A group of residents have set up a task force to find out more about the issue. Eric and Debbie Kallback have been collecting information about EMFs and about their family`s specific situation since the local version of the controversy arose this year.
At first frightened, they have now concluded that the risk to their family is not yet worth a full-scale panic.
”I`m not going to panic because of one person who says it`s dangerous,” Eric Kallback said. ”We have reams of studies we`ve collected since we got on this, and every one of these . . . is inconclusive. So at this point, we don`t feel that it`s worth it to promote fear in the neighborhood without any conclusive science evidence.”
With Bates and student testers available to pass on published studies and reports and to direct them to other sources of information, the Kallbacks said, they have been able to deal with the issue.
The team has not told task force members that the situation is safe or unsafe, Bates said.
”People really have three options,” Bates said. ”They can do nothing, they can take out all the electrical wiring in their homes or they can try to educate themselves.”
At this point, university scientists suggest only that people ”minimize unecessary exposure” to EMFs.
The students have gathered data that may be valuable to scientists in the future.
The more immediate result, Karr said, seems to be that testing sometimes calms fear and equips people to make choices.
”I don`t assume any conventions that are not yet established,” or advise people what action to take, Karr said.
”But they do seem to appreciate an interested person.”
