Introduction

In the early 1960s, Dr. Robert Becker, an orthopaedic surgeon working at the Veterans Hospital and Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse, New York developed the insight that we were electrical beings governed by electrical laws, and he published an important series of papers describing the role of neurogenic electrical signals in the control of the growth of nerves, muscles, and bones. He conducted well-controlled EMF experiments to develop treatments for orthopaedic diseases, but he saw that man-made EMFs could both injure as well as cure, depending on the circumstances. In a 1968 invited report intended only for the eyes of Congress, he warned that serious public-health consequences could arise from uncontrolled use of EMFs because electropollution induced currents in the body comparable in strength to those that mediated the body’s natural growth and regulatory systems.

Man-made electromagnetic fields (EMFs) became progressively more prevalent in the general and workplace environments following the development of the national electrical grid, increased use of radar, radio and television, and the proliferation of myriad kinds of EMF producing and consuming devices including computers, cell phones, WiFi, and military weapons and communications systems. The tremendous expansion in society’s use of EMFs occurred in the absence of serious inquiry into their possible impact on the health of the population.

Dr. Becker trained many physicians and scientists who pursued their own vision of what they had learned from him about medicine and science. I spent the first 16 years of my career working in his laboratory. The publications available on this website are part of his legacy. The errors are mine. My inspiration came from him.