How our power ⚡ grid became toxic
Ohm's Law | Ground Current | 49ers
Here’s what we’ll learn in this article:
1. How is our power grid electrocuting us?
2. How did our ground become polluted with electrosmog?
3. How does dirty electricity affect our health?
4. How does EMF penetrate our body?
5. When are large magnetic fields generated?
6. How could electric currents disrupt collagen synthesis?
4. How does EMF penetrate our body?
“An element that is to us more intimate than the very air that we breathe.”
~ Abbé Nollet, speaking on electricity in 1746
As we walk the Earth, we gaze upon the Heavens with trepidation and excitement at the weather to come. Skies emblazoned with a red light at night give sailors their delight, while grim grey bouldering clouds forecast gloom. Yet when we turn our gaze away from the starry sky, casting our heads down to observe the climate of the very ground we walk upon, a hidden drama enfolds.
Forces beyond our comprehension mold the skies and ribbons of stars with an aetheric web of electric currents flying on the winds of the divine. Similar spirits run along the trails and highways of our world, greeting squirrel and pedestrian alike with invisible mystery. It seems we’ve had our heads in the clouds so long, that we’ve fallen asleep to the reality that our environment is not only damaged by black smoke, but ravaged by the lighting of gods we’ve failed to control.
How is our power grid electrocuting us?
Let’s start with the basic concept of electricity, as it applies to the power grid of North America. When power is run to our homes, the electrical utility uses earth as the ground. Anytime power is run from the electrical substation, which is the source, the utility company needs to provide a way for current to flow back to the substation via a neutral wire.
This has not happened.
The late Dave Stetzer, an electrician by training with over 30 years of experience, testified to the Michigan Attorney General on how our power grid is contributing to a storm of electrical pollution. What Stetzer describes is the following:
“The essential problem is that the utility is using the earth as the return pathway for its electricity or neutral current, back to the substation, rather than its own neutral wire. This is occurring because of a number of factors including the following:
1) a decrease in the ability of the neutral wire to conduct current due to degradation of the wires; and
2) an increase in the impedance (similar to resistance) of the neutral wire due to the changing characteristics of loads from linear to non-linear.”
Rather than the electric utility using a dedicated neutral wire, the electric utilities install an excessive amount of ground rods, which then conduct electricity over the ground back to the substation. According to Ohm’s law, these electrical currents run through our entire country by the path of least resistance. As a result, ground current EMF (a form of electromagnetic pollution) is created that would normally never be present.
If you want to fully understand this issue, I would highly recommend you watch the video by Stetzer and Graham linked below. It’s well worth the watch.
Further adulterating this sea of pollution is the antiquated three-wire system of our power grid. Power distribution lines (seen as power poles on the above diagram) that deliver electricity to our home have three wires, which are not enough to handle the current demand of modern electronics. Previously our power grid only had to support light bulbs and motors, and now the grid has to run televisions, computers, solar power inverters, electric vehicle charging stations, HVAC systems, and “smart” technologies. Since the North American power grid cannot handle this exponential increase in demand, another type of EMF - high-frequency voltage transients, known as dirty electricity, is also produced.
Dirty electricity has frequencies between 2 and 100 kHz in the radiofrequency range. These fields are potentially present on all wires carrying electricity and are and are increasingly found in ground currents returning to utility substations.1 They are caused by interruptions of current flow, which is exacerbated by energy-efficient appliances, along with arcing and sparking.
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Dirty electricity generated outside can enter a building on electric wiring, or through ground rods and conductive plumbing such as copper. Over the last twenty years, about 70 percent of electricity returns to the substation via the earth rather than through the neutral transmission lines.
The electric utilities have known about these specific flaws of the power grid since the 1990s when the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) published a review on the benefits of the five-wire power distribution system. EPRI conducts research and development into energy generation, nuclear energy, and power delivery, collaborates with over 450 companies in 45 countries, and is a leading source of scientific and engineering analytics.2 In 1995, EPRI published a document that reviewed the engineering and health-related costs of the current three-wire power distribution system. Regarding the health consequences, the EPRI document states:
“ Furthermore, proximity to distribution lines has been associated with the risk of childhood cancer in three epidemiological studies.”
~ Handbook for the Assessment and Management of Magnetic Fields Caused by Distribution Lines, (EPRI, 1995)
The book was stamped by the Wisconsin Public Service Commission. You might be asking yourself: “If this is public information, why weren’t we officially alerted to the cancer link back then?” The document in question, a paperback book, could only be viewed if one bought it for $25,000 USD (roughly $53,000 today when adjusted for inflation).
Subsequently the New York Power Association & EPRI published a study3 in 2002, whereby they monitored the power quality of a five-wire system. They found that this type of upgraded power distribution diminished ground current and EMF from magnetic fields up to 50%.
North America currently uses the outdated three-wire system, meaning we have 21st century technology that is still running on a grid from the 20th century.
How did we get here?
In 1972, an oil embargo pushed the US to become more energy efficient. This action spawned the era of energy-efficient appliances, which use a technology called switch-mode power supply (SMPS) to regulate voltage more precisely by converting AC to DC electricity. To accomplish this SMPS has to interrupt the electrical current flow up to hundreds of thousands of times per second. When AC is converted to DC, this creates dirty electricity, which then flows back into the grid.
Modern electronics operate using short pulses of current, instead of the continuous current used by the incandescent light bulb. When these types of short pulses are generated, they create electrical fields that are thousands of times more powerful than those we had before 1970. For instance, our home wiring runs on 60 Hz (cycles per second), but now many devices can put out up to 100 kHz (100,000 Hz) and higher. To put this into perspective: our brains emit pulses of 8-60 Hz.
We can envision the current as a wave. Linear loads (sine waves) are what our bodies have adapted to live in. The Schumann resonance, the electrical pulse of the Earth, is such an example. Non-linear loads are unnatural, and our organs and tissues feel their disharmonious impact as disease.
What does this do to our health?
Samuel Milham, M.D. is an epidemiologist, or a scientist who proves that the results obtained by other labs and researchers actually happen to the masses of people in the real world. He studied historical US mortality and electrification data of the 1930s and 40s.
Milham was astonished as he found that the data suggested that cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and suicide are caused by EMF exposure. Milham would go on to literally write the book on Dirty Electricity.
Dirty electricity was shown to be a potent universal carcinogen in a study of cancer in teachers at a La Quinta, California, middle school. A single year of employment at the La Quinta school increased cancer incidence by 21%.7 Schools are notorious generators of dirty electricity due to the number of computers, copiers, and fluorescent lighting in use.
Dr. Milham also testified in a trial for two of three men who had developed breast cancer from sitting in the same office in a county office building in Albuquerque New Mexico, where they were exposed to strong magnetic fields from a nearby electrical switchgear room (Milham 2004). A dozen previous studies had linked male breast cancers to EMF exposures.4
A colleague of Milham and Stetzer is Dr. Magda Havas, a renowned international researcher on the effects of electromagnetic radiation. She has found that dirty electricity can exacerbate not only diabetes and multiple sclerosis5, but also changes our mental and emotional state. Dr. Havas has done extensive research in schools, and found increased irritability, ADHD, brain fog and headaches in both teachers and students2 when this form of EMF is present.
How does dirty electricity penetrate our body?
Detrimental human exposure to dirty electricity occurs via a phenomenon known as capacitive coupling. High frequency electric fields attract themselves to us, and generate exogenous currents in the body.6 Put another way, our bodies act like antennas that receive energy of ambient electric fields, just like the wireless energy transfer in the fluorescent tube below, which is not plugged in:
Our skin has a natural impedance (similar to resistance) to electrical currents, measured in ohms (Ω), and varies. On average our total body impedance is 3,000 ohms. When artificial electrical fields like those generated by electronics are present, our skin impedance can drop substantially to 500 ohms. When our living spaces contain dirty electricity, our skin’s ability to protect the rest of our body from electrical current drops considerably. In order for electric fields to not go internal and couple with our organs, we need to remove any sources of kHz frequencies, especially where we spend most of our time.
Those of us who are more sensitive to shifts in weather, are also more tuned in to changes in our electromagnetic environment. If you’ve ever felt an ache in your joints or malaise at the onset of a storm, this is no accident. Before a storm is created, ions of electricity undergo a change. Since electric currents travel faster than a storm, weather-sensitive individuals typically feel a change in their health in the moments leading up to inclement weather. As you’ll note in the diagram above, our skin becomes 300x less resistant to electrical currents in wet conditions.
Oceans have bigger waves
In 1979, Nancy Wertheimer and Ed Leeper published a study suggesting that residential magnetic fields could cause childhood cancer. They didn’t actually measure magnetic fields, but noticed that the electrical distribution wires at residences with childhood cancer cases were thicker than at control houses. Thick wires carry more current, and magnetic fields are proportional to current flow.
We can think of electric current like water. Just as a larger body of water will generate bigger waves, a larger electric field will produce a bigger magnetic field. Dirty electricity is when multiple “waves” ripple together in bursts, however does not necessarily always translate to a larger magnetic field.
Electrical substations have both extremely high levels of magnetic fields and dirty electricity. Due to their thicker wires and the high frequency voltage transients they generate, we can think of them as a vast stormy ocean of tidal waves continuously pounding the shores of our biological systems, rippling through our organs and bones with torrents of electricity.
How could dirty electricity disrupt collagen synthesis?
Twice nominated for the Nobel Prize for his pioneering work in tissue regeneration and bioelectricity, Dr. Robert O. Becker showed that collagen, the most abundant protein in our body, is a piezoelectric semiconductor. Piezoelectricity is the ability of crystals to convert electricity into mechanical energy and vice-versa. Semiconductors can either conduct electricity or be insulated against it, enabling them to serve as a foundation for computers and other electronic devices. Collagen forms a matrix with our bones, which contain apatite crystals that transmit electrical impulses.
What Becker found was astonishing: humans have a Body Electric that works like a computer. Dr. Becker researched bone and limb regeneration in mammals using minuscule electrical impulses. Conversely, injuries would produce electricity:
“A fracture produced a current of injury…at the same time, the bone generated its own current piezoelectrically due to residual stress in the mangled apatite-collagen matrix. These signals combined to stimulate the cells that formed new bone.”
~ Dr. Robert Otto Becker
Even though Dr. Becker was not studying the effect of higher electrical frequencies on collagen, he and his team were able to prove that even weak electric fields could dictate collagen growth and alignment. If this is the case, how could stronger electromagnetic fields impact our health?
We need look no further for confirmation on the health effects of electricity and radiofrequency EMF on collagen than official military documentation. In 1971, Dr. Zory Glaser compiled his first EMF bioeffects bibliography as a result of his Ph.D. studies into non-ionizing radiation exposure from RF sources. He was studying potential adverse effects on military personnel, which led to the development of the RF bioeffects laboratory at the Naval Medical Research Center.
Dr. Glaser funded, managed, and performed EMF bioeffects research as part of his assignments at the Navy’s Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, and then at the Naval Medical Research and Development Command (as Electromagnetic Radiation Program Manager). Dr. Glaser’s bibliography includes more than 2000 references on the biological responses to radio frequency radiation, which include numerous studies on the disruption of collagen and soft tissue production from artificial EMF.
Gladiators of the Electric Arena
This research has never been more relevant than today. In the 1970s, the military was exposed to high-powered electronics and radiofrequency much more than the general public. In 2026, a different picture emerges. Toddlers, elders, and soldiers alike carry wireless devices and are plugged into an electric sea of connectivity. Another demographic is taking notice: athletes.
When 49ers tight end George Kittle tore his Achilles (a form of soft tissue) on January 11 during a playoff game with the Philadephia Eagles, he became the latest 49er to suffer a major injury. The 49ers are the most injury-prone team in the NFL. Kittle’s injury led to countless people on X circulating a theory that low-frequency radiation from an electrical substation near Levi’s Stadium and the 49ers practice fields might have contributed to the team’s injuries. Teammates on the 49ers have openly discussed their concerns about the harms of EMF for years:
While some teams have their practice facilities in a different location than their stadium, the 49ers have their practice field situated directly next to Levi’s Stadium. Just to the south of both the stadium and the practice field, which is labeled “multi-use field” on the map below, is the Silicon Valley Power Mission Substation.
Quantum biologist and health practitioner Peter Cowan was the one who brought this issue to the forefront of the mainstream, with a viral post on X:
As we cheer and urge “our team” to glory any given Sunday, let us also applaud their courage to stand alone in the stadium of public opinion, where the game has become a sport of shouting down anyone who has a different view, or wears a color we don’t like. Let us respect the force that runs the very screen at which we scream. We are all now gladiators of an electronic colosseum, and can only beg for the mercy of a crowd that doesn’t know that it too, is food for lions.
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⚡ Additional resources:
Thank you Paul Harding for pushing me down this road, where we get to the “root” of the problem:
Electrical Pollution: David Stetzer & Martin Graham
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Milham, S. (2012). Dirty Electricity: Electrification and the Diseases of Civilization.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_Power_Research_Institute
T. A. Short, J. R. Stewart, D. R. Smith, J. O’Brien and K. Hampton, “Five-wire distribution system demonstration project,” in IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery, vol. 17, no. 2, pp. 649-654, April 2002, doi: 10.1109/61.997954.
Milham S. A cluster of male breast cancer in office workers. Am J Ind Med. 2004 Jul;46(1):86-7. doi: 10.1002/ajim.20027. PMID: 15202128.
https://magdahavas.com/electrosmog-exposure/multiple-sclerosis-and-dirty-electricity/
Tsong TY. Deciphering the language of cells. Trends Biochem Sci. 1989 Mar;14(3):89-92. doi: 10.1016/0968-0004(89)90127-8. PMID: 2728105.
While reading this I was reminded of a dream I had last night. As I was moving across the landscape in my dream I encountered several rivers, some big, some small. The big ones had big standing waves, the small ones had small standing waves. Someone told me the the bigger the river, the bigger the wave.
At a recent public meeting about a possible new solar farm being placed in the midst of our remote pueblito, I asked how the system was going to be grounded and if this system was going to increase ground current issue in our community. I mentioned that grounding is done differently in Europe. The representative form the power company knew nothing about ground current or that Europe did things differently.
great article Roman. i loved the clip with the niners. in 2020-2021 i was watching a lot of basketball w my B-ball lovin husband - and the warrior leadership were so proud of their new "chase" stadium and the media-touted 5G (i think they were one of the first such "blessed" teams). anyway, i watched as one player after another kept getting bad injuries - like steph especially - and clay was already sidelined for a year or more. lots of ligament issues. poor guys. bad enough the lack of sleep, little sunlite, etc.