• 27 OCT 09
    • 0

    #1145: Comments on the University of Pittsburgh, etc.

    From Katharina Gustavs:

    Don,
    I noticed the same thing and started wondering about it. Interestingly, the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine at the same University of Pittsburgh still posts the advisory. None of the provided links within the university work anymore but all the links to the news outlets reporting about the advisory.
    http://www.mirm.pitt.edu/news/article.asp?qEmpID=333

    A similar thing happened at the National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS). At the beginning of this year, you could still access their innovative “IEQ indoor environmental quality project: recommendations for plumbing, mechanical and electrical equipment from 2006 (http://ieq.nibs.org/design/re_plumbing.php), in which the design goal for magnetic field exposures was given with below 250 nT (2.5 mG) and preferably below 100 nT (1 mG). When I checked back only recently, the document has vanished. My inquiries at NIBS by phone and e-mail have not yet been answered and I doubt they ever will. I would very much appreciate if someone could supply me with a direct contact within this institution to get to the bottom of this.

    Their new “updated” (or what I would call “dated”) version of Enhanced Indoor Environmental Quality at the Whole Building Design Guide still mentions electromagnetic fields, but the significance of their impact was reduced to this blurp, which speaks for itself:

    “EMF are thought to cause cancer, however there is insufficient evidence to prove this. There are no federal standards limiting occupational or residential exposure to EMF at this time, only various U.S. and International voluntary occupational exposure guidelines. Nevertheless, facility designers and managers should consult the following resources to find out the latest scientific research and recommendations on dealing with EMF exposure:
    “¢ EMF RAPID””Electric and Magnetic Fields Research and Public Information Dissemination Program
    “¢ World Health Organization (WHO), Electromagnetic fields (EMF) website”

    As if facility managers would find any biologically based, meaningful information at these two sites.

    Katharina

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