Anyone have experience with a Gauss meter for measuring EMF?

Thanks,
Dave

Dave,
We have at least one at work. Any specific questions? I haven't used it myself but I know at least one other TE who has used it in the field.
Joe

Hi Joe, thanks for responding. I have a client with health problems. She wants to test her house for EMF and has suspicions about cell phone use. In reading an article it mentioned shared neutral circuits. My client is going to be testing a residence, so any suggestions for reducing EMFs would be helpful.

Thanks,
Dave

We used one a few years ago when everyone was getting upset about EMF from power lines. Once most of the arguments had been debunked, it kinda fell out of use.
Obviously, you'll get higher readings around running appliances than you will around, say, the wire in the wall.
And if I remember correctly, the strength of the field is inversly proportional to the square (or cube?) of the distance to the source of the EMF. So someone would be much more exposed to something up close like an electric blanket, than they would their breaker panel.

As for cell phones, I would think the RF frequencies would be more of a worry than the EMF.

Well Dave, I must be a dead man then. My office is in a traction power substation. I'll read the specs tomorrow but I doubt our gauss meter(s) work at cellphone frequencies. My first question to her would be if it looks like she is watching the "Green Hornet" on any non-LCD color TVs or computer monitors. Purity issues loomed large for us before we switched to LCDs. I'm used to using mu-metal shielding to protect video monitors from monitor speakers, but not protecting humans from EMF. It's funny you mention this now though because I just asked my boss today if he was still going to buy the house under the HV lines. We're all thinking that the jury is still out on that. I think I have read about structural steel bonding and EMF so I will check my stack-o-stuff.
Joe

[This message has been edited by JoeTestingEngr (edited 03-22-2006).]

To add perhaps a little too much information, her husband has a tumor in the brain and in the hip of the pocket he carries his cell phone in and is now possibly a rare form of luekemia (if I remember the info. correctly). She's serious about reducing EMFs.

Thanks,
Dave

It's funny this subject came up, just last week I read a home and cottage magazine article about a woman who fought breast cancer and was convinced the emf's in her old house was responsible.

According to her, Watch out for those dimmers!

Not to be cynical, but I'm betting once she finds out where the sources of EMF are coming from, she won't be willing to give them up.

And Yes, older phones with higher outputs were linked to brain cancer in people that used them excessively. Just like testicular cancer in cops from the early radar guns. But again, I don't think EMF is the issue as much as RF.

http://www.sypris.com/stm/content.asp?page_id=667

Dave,
This is link that shows the F.W. Bell 6010 meter that we have at work. As I suspected, its frequency response is DC to 20kHz. I think that I would have to go along with WFO in this matter. I would suspect RF heating as the culprit. Having someone with a brain tumor AND one on the hip where a cellphone is carried is pretty compelling. The hip matter is particularly disturbing because you don't think of a phone as transmitting from there. There is always the concept of local oscillator leakage during reception. I never really tried to become an expert on cellphones so I don't know what kind of transmissions occur during on-hook (so to speak) operation.
Should she worry about EMF from her wiring? I doubt it. It probably doesn't cause heating like uW leakage does. Is she willing to use standard telephones with corded handsets and cellphones only in emergencies? Anyway, a spectrum analyzer with a broadband antenna might be better used to track down emissions more harmful than the EMF from the wiring.
Dimmers do mess up the AM talk radio experience, especially at low brightness levels, because of the fast rise times, but I doubt they have ever caused a tumor. Hardening of the eardrum, maybe.
Joe