Dirty Electricity: How Modern Electrical Infrastructure Creates Biological Stress

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The Hidden Pollution on Your Wires

The electricity delivered to your home is supposed to arrive as a clean 60 Hz sine wave (50 Hz in most of the world outside the Americas). In theory, this fundamental frequency — established when Edison and Tesla were designing the power grid — is what powers your lights, appliances, and devices.

In practice, the electricity in modern buildings is contaminated with high-frequency voltage transients — microsurges, harmonics, and oscillatory disturbances superimposed on the 60 Hz carrier wave at frequencies ranging from kilohertz to megahertz. These transients are called “dirty electricity” — a term coined by electrical engineer Dave Stetzer — and they represent one of the least recognized and most ubiquitous environmental health hazards of modern life.

Dirty electricity is generated every time an electronic device interrupts or modifies the flow of current: dimmer switches chop the sine wave, switched-mode power supplies (in every phone charger, computer, LED driver, and modern appliance) convert AC to DC through rapid switching, variable-speed motors modulate current, solar panel inverters convert DC to AC, and energy-efficient CFL and LED lighting operates through high-frequency ballasts.

The irony is profound: many of the technologies promoted as “energy efficient” and “smart” — LED lighting, variable-speed HVAC, solar inverters, smart meters, dimmer switches — are among the most prolific generators of dirty electricity. The pursuit of electrical efficiency has filled our buildings with high-frequency electromagnetic noise at levels that would have been unimaginable to the engineers who designed the original power grid.

And this noise is not confined to the wires. Dirty electricity radiates from every wire, outlet, and device in the building, creating a bath of high-frequency electromagnetic fields that the occupants absorb continuously.

The Pioneers: Milham and Havas

Samuel Milham: The Electrification-Disease Connection

Samuel Milham, a physician and epidemiologist who spent decades at the Washington State Department of Health, published one of the most provocative papers in environmental health history in 2010: “Historical evidence that electrification caused the 20th century epidemic of diseases of civilization.”

Milham’s research methodology was straightforward: he compared disease mortality rates in rural areas that received electrification at different times (through the Rural Electrification Act of the 1930s-1940s) with urban areas that had been electrified decades earlier. His findings:

• Cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, and suicide mortality rates were significantly higher in electrified urban areas compared to non-electrified rural areas during the same period
• As rural areas became electrified, their disease rates rose to match urban rates
• The timing of disease rate increases correlated with the arrival of electrical infrastructure, not with other urbanization variables

Milham published his findings in Medical Hypotheses and subsequently in his book Dirty Electricity: Electrification and the Diseases of Civilization (2010). His central hypothesis: it is not the 60 Hz fundamental frequency that produces health effects, but the high-frequency transients (dirty electricity) that have become increasingly prevalent as electronic devices have proliferated.

Milham investigated specific occupational and environmental clusters:

The La Quinta middle school cluster: In 2003, Milham investigated an apparent cancer cluster among teachers at La Quinta Middle School in California. Sixteen teachers had been diagnosed with 18 cancers — a rate dramatically exceeding expected background incidence. Milham measured dirty electricity levels in the school and found elevated high-frequency voltage transients, particularly in classrooms with the highest cancer incidence. After installing Stetzer filters (which remove high-frequency transients from wiring), measurable health improvements were reported by staff.

The Amish comparison: Milham noted that Old Order Amish communities — which do not use grid electricity — have dramatically lower rates of cancer, cardiovascular disease, and other “diseases of civilization.” While lifestyle differences (diet, physical activity, community structure) certainly contribute, the absence of electromagnetic exposure is a variable that deserves investigation.

Magda Havas: Biological Effects Documentation

Magda Havas, Associate Professor of Environmental and Resource Studies at Trent University in Ontario, has conducted some of the most rigorous research on the biological effects of dirty electricity.

Diabetes and blood sugar: Havas documented that Type 1 diabetics in buildings with high levels of dirty electricity require more insulin than in clean electrical environments. When Stetzer filters were installed to reduce high-frequency transients, several patients showed measurable improvements in blood sugar control. The mechanism may involve dirty electricity’s interaction with voltage-gated calcium channels in pancreatic beta cells, disrupting insulin secretion.

Multiple sclerosis: Havas has documented cases of MS patients whose symptoms (fatigue, tremor, cognitive difficulty, pain) fluctuated with dirty electricity exposure. One patient, Cathy Fesick, showed dramatic symptom improvement when dirty electricity was filtered from her home, and symptom recurrence when she entered high-DE environments. The effect was documented on video and in peer-reviewed publication.

Heart rate variability: In controlled provocation studies, Havas demonstrated that exposure to dirty electricity produced measurable changes in heart rate variability — specifically, a shift toward sympathetic dominance (stress response) — in a subset of electrosensitive individuals. The double-blind protocol (neither subjects nor researchers knew when the DE exposure was active) produced statistically significant results.

Classroom performance: Havas installed Stetzer filters in schools and documented improvements in student behavior, attention, and teacher-reported health among staff. While not controlled clinical trials, the consistency of reports across multiple schools is suggestive.

The Mechanism: How Dirty Electricity Interacts with Biology

The biological interaction mechanism for dirty electricity overlaps with, but extends beyond, the VGCC hypothesis proposed by Martin Pall for radiofrequency EMF:

Frequency and Waveform Matter

The 60 Hz fundamental frequency of grid electricity is a continuous sine wave — smooth, predictable, and relatively benign in terms of biological interaction (though ELF magnetic fields from power lines are separately concerning). The body’s neural and muscular electrical systems operate at frequencies (1-100 Hz for neural activity, DC to low Hz for wound healing currents) that are within the same order of magnitude as 60 Hz, but the interaction is limited because the body has evolved some degree of resilience to natural ELF fields (from thunderstorms, the Schumann resonance, and geomagnetic activity).

Dirty electricity, however, consists of sharp, transient, high-frequency signals — microsecond-duration spikes and oscillations at kilohertz to megahertz frequencies. These transients have characteristics that make them particularly biologically active:

Fast rise times: The rapid voltage changes in dirty electricity transients (dV/dt — the rate of voltage change over time) are extremely high. In electrical engineering, dV/dt is a critical parameter because it determines how much current is coupled into nearby conductors through capacitive coupling. The body’s tissues and cell membranes are dielectric (insulating) layers between conductive fluids — they are, in effect, capacitors. High dV/dt in the surrounding electromagnetic environment couples current through these biological capacitors with far greater efficiency than smooth sine waves at the same voltage.

Broad spectrum: Dirty electricity contains a wide spectrum of frequencies, some of which will inevitably coincide with the resonant frequencies of biological structures — cell membranes, ion channels, organelles, and tissue cavities. Resonant coupling amplifies the biological interaction at these specific frequencies.

Unpredictability: Unlike the smooth, periodic 60 Hz fundamental, dirty electricity is chaotic and aperiodic. Biological systems that have evolved some tolerance for periodic signals (through adaptation and habituation mechanisms) may be unable to adapt to unpredictable, transient signals — each spike representing a novel perturbation that the biological system must respond to.

Coupling Through Wiring

Dirty electricity does not stay on the wires. The building’s electrical wiring acts as an antenna, radiating the high-frequency transients into the living space. The electric field component of this radiation oscillates at the transient frequencies and penetrates the body, inducing currents in tissues.

In single-family homes, the wiring runs through walls, ceilings, and floors — surrounding the occupants with a web of unshielded conductors carrying contaminated signals. The bedroom — where occupants spend 8 hours in close proximity to in-wall wiring — is a particularly concerning exposure environment.

Health Correlations: The Epidemiological Evidence

Cancer

Milham’s epidemiological work linking electrification to cancer mortality has been supported by several occupational and residential studies:

Teachers: Teachers (who spend full days in buildings with high occupancy, extensive lighting, and numerous electronic devices) have elevated rates of certain cancers, including breast cancer and melanoma, that are difficult to explain through traditional risk factors.

Office workers: “Sick building syndrome” — a constellation of symptoms including headache, fatigue, cognitive difficulty, and respiratory irritation — disproportionately affects workers in modern office buildings with extensive electronic equipment, fluorescent lighting, and sophisticated HVAC systems. While multiple factors contribute (VOCs, ventilation, mold), dirty electricity is a plausible and largely uninvestigated contributor.

Diabetes

The correlation between electrification and diabetes is one of Milham’s most striking findings. Type 2 diabetes was essentially unknown in populations prior to electrification. Its exponential rise over the past century — particularly the sharp acceleration since the 1980s (coinciding with the proliferation of switched-mode power supplies in consumer electronics) — defies explanation by dietary and lifestyle factors alone.

Havas’s observation that dirty electricity affects blood sugar control in Type 1 diabetics provides mechanistic plausibility. If high-frequency electromagnetic transients disrupt the voltage-gated calcium channels in pancreatic beta cells (as the VGCC hypothesis predicts), they could impair insulin secretion — contributing to both insulin resistance (through chronic calcium dysregulation) and hyperglycemia.

Asthma

Milham has noted that the asthma epidemic — which began in earnest in the 1980s and has reached rates of 8-10% of the population in developed countries — correlates temporally with the proliferation of electronic devices and dirty electricity. While allergen exposure, air quality, and immune dysregulation are established contributors, the timing of the asthma epidemic better correlates with electronic proliferation than with changes in allergen exposure or air quality (which have generally improved since the Clean Air Act).

Neurodegenerative Disease

Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and ALS rates continue to climb in electrified populations. Several occupational studies have linked electromagnetic exposure (particularly for electrical workers) with elevated neurodegenerative disease risk. Dirty electricity, with its broad-spectrum high-frequency content, may contribute to the chronic neuroinflammation and oxidative stress that underlie these conditions.

Sources of Dirty Electricity in the Modern Home

Understanding the sources allows targeted mitigation:

Highest Contributors

Dimmer switches: Standard TRIAC dimmer switches chop the sine wave at the set point, producing extremely dirty waveforms with significant harmonic content. Every dimmer switch in the house is a dirty electricity generator. Leading-edge (standard) dimmers are worse than trailing-edge dimmers. Sine-wave dimmers (more expensive) produce minimal distortion.

CFL and LED lighting: Compact fluorescent lamps use high-frequency electronic ballasts. LED lights use switched-mode power supplies. Both generate significant high-frequency transients on the wiring. Quality varies dramatically between manufacturers — cheaper products tend to produce more dirty electricity.

Switched-mode power supplies (SMPS): Present in virtually every electronic device — phone chargers, laptop adapters, computer power supplies, TV power supplies, appliance electronics. SMPS work by switching current on and off at high frequency (typically 20 kHz - 2 MHz), generating harmonics and transients that feed back onto the building wiring.

Variable-speed motors: Modern HVAC systems, washing machines, fans, and heat pumps use variable-frequency drives (VFDs) or electronically commutated motors (ECMs) for efficiency. These produce significant dirty electricity.

Solar panel inverters: Convert DC from solar panels to AC for the grid. Depending on design quality, they can be significant dirty electricity sources.

Smart meters: Digital utility meters that communicate usage data wirelessly. Some models produce significant dirty electricity on the building wiring through their switching power supplies and communication transmitters.

Arc fault circuit interrupters (AFCIs): Required by modern building codes in bedrooms and living areas, AFCIs use electronic monitoring circuitry that can itself generate dirty electricity.

Moderate Contributors

Desktop computers and monitors: Multiple SMPS and clock oscillators.

Television sets: Modern flat-screen TVs use SMPS and LED backlight drivers.

Refrigerators and freezers: Particularly models with inverter compressors (variable-speed).

Microwave ovens: Magnetron operation produces significant EMF and dirty electricity.

Lower Contributors (but additive)

Phone chargers, alarm clocks, internet routers, printers, and other small electronics individually produce less dirty electricity but collectively add to the total noise floor.

Measurement

Dirty electricity can be measured using specialized meters:

Stetzer Microsurge Meter: Plugs into a standard outlet and measures the level of high-frequency voltage transients in Graham-Stetzer (GS) units. Readings below 25 GS units are considered clean; above 50 GS units is considered concerning. Many homes register 200-2000 GS units without filtration.

Greenwave EMI Meter: Similar to the Stetzer meter, measures high-frequency electrical noise on building wiring in millivolts (mV). Below 50 mV is considered good; readings often exceed 500 mV in modern buildings.

Oscilloscope: For detailed waveform analysis, a USB oscilloscope connected to an appropriate probe can visualize the actual voltage waveform on the building wiring, showing the transients superimposed on the 60 Hz sine wave. This is the most informative measurement but requires technical expertise.

Mitigation Strategies

Filtering

Stetzer/Greenwave filters: Plug-in capacitive filters that shunt high-frequency transients to the neutral conductor, reducing dirty electricity on the wiring. Typically 15-20 filters are needed per home, concentrated near the largest sources. Filter effectiveness varies by source type and installation location.

Whole-house power line filter: A hardwired filter installed at the electrical panel that reduces dirty electricity entering the home from the grid (from neighbors’ devices, nearby industrial equipment, etc.) and from internal sources. More effective than plug-in filters but requires professional installation.

Important caveat: Filtering reduces dirty electricity on the wiring but does not eliminate the EMF produced by the devices themselves. A dimmer switch may produce less wiring noise when filtered, but it still generates its own local electromagnetic field.

Source Reduction

Replace dimmers: Switch to simple on/off switches, or use sine-wave dimmers that produce clean waveforms. This is often the single most impactful intervention.

Lighting choice: Use incandescent or halogen bulbs (no electronic ballast — clean sine wave operation) where lighting is close to occupants, particularly in bedrooms. If using LED, choose high-quality drivers with built-in EMI filtering.

Unplug unused chargers and devices: Even when not charging a device, many SMPS continue to draw power and generate dirty electricity when plugged in.

Hard-wire where possible: Ethernet instead of WiFi, wired instead of wireless peripherals.

Bedroom Optimization

Since the bedroom represents 8 hours of continuous exposure in a state of maximum biological vulnerability (sleep, repair, immune function), optimizing the bedroom electrical environment has outsized impact:

Kill switch: Install a demand switch (Stetzer, Gigahertz Solutions) that cuts power to the bedroom circuit breakers when no current is drawn. When the last device in the bedroom is turned off, the switch automatically de-energizes the entire circuit, eliminating all EMF and dirty electricity from the bedroom wiring. When a device is turned on (a light switch, for example), the switch re-energizes the circuit.

Remote devices: Remove unnecessary electronics from the bedroom. No TV, no computer, no phone charger. Battery-powered alarm clock only.

Distance from panels: Position the bed as far as possible from the electrical panel, which is typically the noisiest EMF source in the house.

The Consciousness Implications

Dirty electricity represents a unique form of electromagnetic pollution because it is delivered directly into the living space through the building’s wiring infrastructure — a delivery system that cannot be avoided by distance or shielding (you cannot move away from the wires in your own walls).

The biological effects documented by Milham and Havas — disrupted blood sugar regulation, altered heart rate variability, neurological symptoms, cancer risk — all reflect systemic biological stress. The consciousness implications follow from the biological disruption:

Sleep disruption: Dirty electricity in the bedroom wiring exposes the brain to high-frequency electromagnetic transients throughout the night, potentially disrupting the deep sleep stages upon which cognitive function, emotional processing, and neural maintenance depend.

Sympathetic activation: Havas’s HRV data demonstrates that dirty electricity shifts the autonomic nervous system toward sympathetic (stress) dominance. Chronic sympathetic activation narrows consciousness into survival-oriented processing — reactive, anxious, and unable to access the relaxed, open awareness that characterizes optimal cognitive and creative function.

Neuroinflammation: Through the VGCC mechanism (or related pathways), dirty electricity may contribute to the chronic, low-grade neuroinflammation that degrades synaptic function, neurotransmitter signaling, and neural plasticity.

Cumulative burden: Dirty electricity does not exist in isolation. It adds to the total electromagnetic burden (WiFi, cell signals, Bluetooth) and to the total toxic burden (chemicals, metals, mycotoxins). The consciousness system processes the combined load, and dirty electricity — because it is continuous, inescapable, and delivered directly into the living space — may represent a disproportionate share of that combined burden.

The solution is not to abandon electricity. It is to clean it — to recognize that the quality of the electromagnetic environment inside our buildings matters as much as the quality of the air and water, and to apply the same engineering rigor to managing electrical noise that we apply to managing any other form of environmental pollution.

The consciousness that operates through your nervous system deserves a clean electromagnetic environment. The tools to create that environment — filters, source reduction, bedroom optimization — are available, affordable, and effective.

Your wires carry more than electricity. They carry noise. And that noise is in your brain every hour of every day.

Clean the signal. Clear the noise. The consciousness underneath will thank you.