Dec 2001 - One amp going through for one year will corrode about 20 pounds of steel
Urban Decay Arriving on Track 11
by Fenella Saunders
From the
December 2001 issue; published online December 1, 2001http://discovermagazine.com/2001/dec/breakurban
Salt Lake City is getting a new light-rail line for the 2002 Winter Olympics. And to do it, they must dig up and move every water main, gas pipe, and sewer conduit running parallel underneath the two-and-a-half-mile track.
Why? Corrosion. The prob-lem is hardly unique to this rail link, which will connect the main stadium at the University of Utah to downtown. Sometimes stray electrons from the current that powers the train leak into the ground and flow through any pipes or other conductive objects buried there. "One amp going through for one year will corrode about 20 pounds of steel. It can discharge from a small area and penetrate a pipe in a very short time," says Steve Nikolakakos, a corrosion engineer with Russell Corrosion Consultants of New York.So Salt Lake City's public utilities project is using nonconductive polymer pipe or plastic-sheathed metal pipe. Plastic or rubber pads under the train tracks prevent current leakage. And routine checks of the pipes will pinpoint trouble spots.
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Also see -
Conditions Contributing to Underground Copper Corrosion
Alternating Current Action
Until these differences of opinion are reconciled and recent research results are corroborated, it is reasonable to believe that the commonly used practice of grounding electrical systems to underground copper water systems can lead to corrosion. If the copper plumbing system is connected to a nonconducting main, such as asbestos-cement, some corrosion damage can be anticipated where the current leaves the copper, even if the current is alternating. Further, cuprous oxide could become semiconducting under certain conditions of soil pH and electrical-field intensity. Grounding of the AC system to the underground copper water tubing and unbalance in the AC system could very well be involved in the underground corrosion process.
http://www.copper.org/resources/properties/protection/underground.html
and -
http://www.em3e.com/pdf/en/emf_pacenet_powerfrequency%20currents%20in%20water%20mains%20_Canada.pdf
Submitted by Milt Bowling
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Why Your DNA Isn't Your Destiny
By Dr. Joseph Mercola
Why does one identical twin develop cancer and the other remain healthy when they have identical DNA? Why does one twin become obese and another remain lean? As you age, your genome does not change but your epigenome changes ... There are also master genes that can switch on and off clusters of other genes. Scientists have discovered it is easier to make epigenetic changes than to fix damaged genes. Your epigenome is easier to mess up -- but it's also easier to fix.
http://www.mmshealthyforlife.com/?p=1536
Why Your DNA Isn't Your Destiny
You have had a long-standing deal with biology: whatever choices you make during your life might ruin your short-term memory or make you gain weight t or could hasten death, but they won't change your genes - your actual DNA.
The answer lies beyond both nature and nurture. Bygren's data - along with those of many other scientists working separately over the past 20 years - have given birth to a new science called epigenetics.
At its most basic, epigenetics is the study of changes in gene activity that do not involve alterations to the genetic code but still get passed down to at least one successive generation.
These patterns of gene expression are governed by the cellular material - the epigenome - that sits on top of the genome, just outside it (hence the prefix epi-, which means above). It is these epigenetic "marks" that tell your genes to switch on or off, to speak loudly or whisper. It is through epigenetic marks that environmental factors like diet, stress (electro magnetic radiation) and prenatal nutrition can make an imprint on genes that is passed from one generation to the next.
But the potential is staggering. For decades, we have stumbled around massive Darwinian roadblocks. DNA, we thought, was an ironclad code that we and our children and their children had to live by. Now we can imagine a world in which we can tinker with DNA, bend it to our will.
It will take geneticists and ethicists many years to work out all the implications, but be assured: the age of epigenetics has arrived.
http://www.dangersemo.com/
