A powerful radio signal that may be affecting human health has been monitored in several Eugene locations and in the air 3,000 feet above the city, the Eugene-Register Guard reported in a copyrighted article Sunday.
The newspaper said the source of the radio signal is unknown.
Public agencies, dogged for the past two months by industrial hygienist Marshall Van Ert of the University of Oregon, have begun their own study to verify the existence of the radio signal and the health problems that Van Ert uncovered. A state Health Division physicist who completed a night radio monitoring Friday confirmed the existence of the signal.
Health officials cautioned that evidence to date indicates no cause for public alarm.
"We're trying to determine if there's any direct correlation between the radio frequency and the biological effects," said Kay Prince, a health physicist from the state Health Division's radiation control section. "We know both things exist. Now we've got to find out if they're tied together, if one is causing the other."
Prince said the data which the health division is attempting to assemble will serve as evidence to bring radio frequency specialists from the Environmental Protection Agency into the investigation. She said the state has formally requested the assistance of the EPA.
Some researchers have blamed such signals for disorders ranging from cancer and cataracts to headaches and insomnia. Some health professionals and environmentalists call the signals "electronic smog."
Van Ert has complained that official response to the problem has been sluggish.
Dr. David White, Lane County health officer, said the lack of precedents for dealing with public health problems possibly caused by radio waves has made it difficult for agencies to respond.
"This is the kind of problem that ought to fall in somebody's bailiwick," said White. "It's not the kind of problem agencies are used to dealing with. It's just that everybody, including me, has been saying 'not me.'"
The Eugene area radio signal is described by personnel at the University of Oregon and the UO Health Sciences Center in Portland as a "radio frequency pulse signal." The experts who have investigated the phenomenon describe it as a 4.75 megahertz pulse occurring 1,100 times per second.
The signal has been recorded at weak levels inside at least two Eugene homes. At 3,000 feet above the city it has been measured at intensities as high as 500,000 watts.
"We saw some rather atrocious signal levels in our aerial search over Eugene," said Bill Bise, a Portland radio engineer. "The frequency didn't worry me. But the pulse portion of the signal is something to be concerned about. I've seen about 25 references to pulse sources causing biological effects."
Van Ert conducted 25 interviews with persons who live or work in the areas where the signal has been detected. He said persons described a common set of symptoms, including ear and throat problems, headaches, and insomnia.
Van Ert and other researchers said there are several possibilities for the source of the signal. One is an errant signal from a government or military installation. Another is the possibility of a "spurious" signal, an effect that occurs under certain conditions when two or more frequencies combine to produce another signal.Another possibility is a "skywave" or "skip," the freak transmissions that occur when signals from a distant location bounce off the atmosphere and are directed to earth again.
The scientists said the signal also could come from an "improperly shielded" industrial application that uses radio signals in a manufacturing process, such as lumber and veneer dryers, glue dryers and commercial food processing plants.
EUGENE, Ore. - Those mysterious radio signal that some Eugene residents turn their skin red and cause other health problems are not coming from outer space, but from a "naval operation" in Alameda, Calif., a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) official said Tuesday.
Theories on the source of the signals, which have been investigate by engineers and Oregon health officials, ranged all the way to outer space. But the answer is nothing so exotic, said Richard Smith, assistant chief of the enforcement division of the FCC.
"Frankly, I think it's much ado about nothing," Smith said.
Kristine Gebbie, admistrator of the Oregon State Health Division, said the signals had been heard at widely scattered areas in Oregon, but they were up to 100 times stronger in the Eugene area.
"At the same time this electromagnetic sources has been detected, people have reported noises in the head, stuffiness and reddened skin," she said Monday.
Marshall Van Ert, an industrial hygienist at the University of Oregon who was one of the original investigators of the pulses in the Eugene area, said the signals caused his skin to turn red.
"On at least five occasions I have had to leave my apartment," Van Ert said. "The signal strength will begin to increase in intensity in the evening from 6 to 7 o'clock and continue through the night and into the morning until about 8 or 9 o'clock."
Smith said the FCC had determined the signal was emanating from a "naval operation" at the Alameda Naval Air Station, on San Francisco Bay, but he did not know what the operation was.
The data transmission is something that has been going on for some time," he said, "and there is nothing particularly mysterious about these radio signals that we can see."
Van Ert said his investigation began when he was asked to investigate a house in nearby Santa Clara, Ore. last October.
"In the house, I perceived a high-pitched, nonaudible sensation that set up a ringing in my ears. It felt like a pressure around my head."
The oregon State Health Division said Tuesday the matter is now in the hands of the federal Environmental Protection Agency for any further action.
The question still remains, was the signal intended to cause harm and was it covered up?
They have this capability today. It's used for surveillance and electronic warfare. Interferometry is the name of this type of signal. It's a type of building penetrating radar, and it can scan home, body, brain, cells, effects - and assault. Get the info @ oregonstatehospital.net and drrobertduncan.com - I'm hooked up with CIA, DOD, US DOJ, NASA, USIS whistleblowers on this.
ReplyDeleteOne of the more complex applications is remote neural monitoring, to extract thoughts, ideas, memories, and to pass information into the brain of agents, police, and to torture citizens. It's installed in Eugene, Salem, Portland, cross state - it works wherever people are. Out in the mountains. On the streets. Inside businesses. The link will not be broken by cross state or country travel.