4 ms·

Sure, the cheeseburger is bad for you if you eat 10 every day, never exercise etc. But that kinda goes without saying right? Just like you might say that a law

by wanda 4y ago

Sure, the cheeseburger is bad for you if you eat 10 every day, never exercise etc. But that kinda goes without saying right? Just like you might say that a lawnmower is compliance tested against electrical faults before sale and is thus safe to use, despite having some sharp rotating blades on the bottom that could ruin your day pretty quickly if you put your head in it and turned it on. The way EM radiation works is that it's classified as ionising if it's sufficiently energetic and penetrative (read: high frequency/short wavelength) to enter human tissue and detach electrons in the atomic structures that make up that tissue. The danger that ionising radiation presents is that detaching electrons in DNA can cause carcinogenic mutation i.e. cause cancer. Radiation in high-frequency ultraviolet and above in the EM spectrum is considered ionising, and everything from low-freq UV below is considered non-ionising. This is because the energy carried by EM waves of lower-than-UV frequency is not sufficient to ionise atoms in human tissue. I don't know the exact numbers on that, but I do know that the lowest threshold for ionising any atom is 3.9eV (low f UV) to ionise a caesium atom — and obviously we aren't made of caesium. And this is backed up pretty well by the fact that if visible light were dangerously ionising EM radiation, life would not exist as we know it, and even if it made it this far, we'd all have a lot of cancer. And since visible light is ostensibly higher frequency/higher energy than this "terahertz radiation" (presumably a buzzword for high freq microwave/infrared?) we can safely say that it won't hurt us in the way that a thousand chest X-rays might. Now it's true that you can burn your food in the microwave and you can blind yourself with a laser, but this isn't because you ionised your chicken beyond core cooked temperature, it's because you subjected it to intense microwave radiation which excites the atoms. Sufficiently intense visible light will burn your skin, but it won't mutate your skin. You get skin cancer from excessive exposure to ultraviolet, not from light. Cellphones, wifi and 4G/5G have all been used by those who profit from scaremongering, but if you think about it, if any of it were true, there would have to be some new science to describe the mechanism by which they cause harm.

was_a_dev 4y ago
> "terahertz radiation" (presumably a buzzword for high freq microwave/infrared?) THz is a recognized EM band between (0.3-3.0 THz) - it is a bit more than a buzzword
rapjr9 4y ago
Terahertz radiation has a new mechanism by which to cause harm, namely, it can alter and trigger chemical reactions between molecules. That is why the chemistry field is so interested in it, as per the article. So while it is not ionizing radiation, it is chemistry altering radiation. Maybe you could make a THz death ray that kills all bacteria (both good and bad) by messing with bacterial chemistry. Because it has been so difficult to produce, especially at higher power levels, we don't have much, if any, data on how safe it is for biological systems. I don't know if Terahertz radiation is known to exist in nature, maybe it does, maybe we just have not had good enough receivers that can see it. Given the output of our Sun is so broadband I suspect that it emits THz radiation also. Maybe someone with access can summarize the article behind this paywall?: "Effects of Terahertz Radiation on Biological Systems" https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10643389.2011.574206?journalCode=best20 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10643389.2011.57... Abstract "Effects of electromagnetic fields on biological systems of all levels, ranging from isolated biomolecules to whole organisms, have been investigated comprehensively for a long time. Due to a lack of suitable sources and detectors, the terahertz frequency range has not been investigated to the same amount as other frequencies. Even though early reports date back to the 1960s, thorough research has only been conducted during the last decade. The aim of this review is to give a summary of all available publications on this topic. A comprehensive literature research was conducted resulting in 37 identified publications. An overview of publication analysis is presented, followed by a detailed description of theoretical investigations. Subsequently all experimental investigations are described, including details on frequency, exposure time, power density, biological system, and outcome of the studies." Or these: "Effects of Terahertz Radiation on Living Cells: a Review" https://link.springer.com/article/10.1134/S0030400X20060041 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1134/S0030400X20060041 "Terahertz Radiation Effects and Biological Applications" https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10762-009-9561-z https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10762-009-9561-z

by wanda 4y ago

was_a_dev 4y ago

> "terahertz radiation" (presumably a buzzword for high freq microwave/infrared?) THz is a recognized EM band between (0.3-3.0 THz) - it is a bit more than a buzzword

rapjr9 4y ago

Terahertz radiation has a new mechanism by which to cause harm, namely, it can alter and trigger chemical reactions between molecules. That is why the chemistry field is so interested in it, as per the article. So while it is not ionizing radiation, it is chemistry altering radiation. Maybe you could make a THz death ray that kills all bacteria (both good and bad) by messing with bacterial chemistry. Because it has been so difficult to produce, especially at higher power levels, we don't have much, if any, data on how safe it is for biological systems. I don't know if Terahertz radiation is known to exist in nature, maybe it does, maybe we just have not had good enough receivers that can see it. Given the output of our Sun is so broadband I suspect that it emits THz radiation also. Maybe someone with access can summarize the article behind this paywall?: "Effects of Terahertz Radiation on Biological Systems" https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10643389.2011.574206?journalCode=best20 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10643389.2011.57... Abstract "Effects of electromagnetic fields on biological systems of all levels, ranging from isolated biomolecules to whole organisms, have been investigated comprehensively for a long time. Due to a lack of suitable sources and detectors, the terahertz frequency range has not been investigated to the same amount as other frequencies. Even though early reports date back to the 1960s, thorough research has only been conducted during the last decade. The aim of this review is to give a summary of all available publications on this topic. A comprehensive literature research was conducted resulting in 37 identified publications. An overview of publication analysis is presented, followed by a detailed description of theoretical investigations. Subsequently all experimental investigations are described, including details on frequency, exposure time, power density, biological system, and outcome of the studies." Or these: "Effects of Terahertz Radiation on Living Cells: a Review" https://link.springer.com/article/10.1134/S0030400X20060041 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1134/S0030400X20060041 "Terahertz Radiation Effects and Biological Applications" https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10762-009-9561-z https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10762-009-9561-z