By 1984, I had concluded that, from a scientific perspective, the Battelle powerline EMF studies were unreliable, and I was ready to explain why I thought this was the case. With the assistance of Don Justesen, who was then the president of the Bioelectromagnetics Society, arrangements were made for me and Richard Phillips, Battelle’s Task Leader for EMF research, to go head-to-head at the 1984 annual meeting in Atlanta, Georgia. Justesen was a good friend of Phillips, and I think his cooperation was prompted by his expectation that I would make a fool of myself at the meeting.

In preparation for our talks, Phillips sent me a complete set of the Battelle published articles (which I already had), and I sent him a letter that detailed the points that I would make during my presentation.

On the day of our talks the room was packed. I went first, and I made all my intended points in a series of slides, and I concluded that the Battelle EMF research program had failed. At the exact moment I finished my presentation there was a tremendous clap of thunder and the meeting room went completely dark. When the lights came back on I was back in my seat and Phillips was at the podium swinging his head from left to right trying to figure out what happened. He did a reasonable job trying to defend Battelle’s EMF research, but the facts were against him. He focused his presentation on isolated positive aspects of Battelle’s work, rather than on dealing with my charge that, in sum, the Battelle effort failed. Nevertheless, Phillips’ effort was warmly received, because they were his people in the room, and the Battelle juggernaut continued during the next 15 years. Their level of funding increased, and Battelle investigators were appointed to every major powerline EMF blue-ribbon committee.