NEW YORK -- Autism has become the fastest-growing developmental disability in the United States. With numbers on a steady rise, it has been estimated that one in every 150 birth (24,000 newborns a year) will be diagnosed with autism.
The epidemic has yet to be clearly linked to a specific cause, but it seems that stray electrical currents could be closely connected to the neurological disorder.
Electricity poles high above highways, city streets and small-town roads are poisoning our heatlh. Because of a small wiring problem that large utility companies refuse to fix, North America may have a major problem: outbreaks of autism, cancer, fibromyalgia and childhood leukemia.
"Thomas Edison warned us not to use the earth to return electrical currents back to utility substations, and now we have a huge problem on our hands," says Russ Allen, author of new book Electrocution of America: Is Your Utility Company Out to Kill You?
According to Mr. Allen, Americans are at serious risk for major health problems caused by the stray currents that leak off utility distribution wires. Up to eighty percent of these stray currents travel through our homes, offices, schools, farms, streets and playgrounds.
"Stray current will directly affect anything that conducts electricity-metal, water or even flesh," says Mr. Allen. "The current can be flowing through your body without your knowing it. Most of the time, you won't even feel a shock."
But this can all be avoided. If major utility companies were to follow the same code we use to wire our homes, Russ Allen believes, diseases like autism could be suppressed or eliminated.
"No one can come up with a reason why autism is running rampant," says Mr. Allen. "But women are exposed to electrical pollution everyday prior to giving birth, and high-voltage currents increase fetal damage."
In order to reduce the devastating effects of stray current, utility companies nationwide simply need to run an additional wire on electricity poles. Currently, the bottom wire on the pole is inefficiently used for two purposes: to return the electricity to the substation and for fault protection (in case there is a bad fuse or a problem with appliances).
But if the solution is so easy, why hasn't it been fixed?
"Utility companies are too cheap, and a fix could expose the damage they are causing," says Mr. Allen. "In order for stray currents to vanish completely, we need to group together and demand that the companies rewire their distribution systems."
Mr. Allen is one of the heirs to the Allen Dairy Farm outside of Green Bay, Wisconsin, and a figurehead in the movement against the electrocution of animals. He spent months in a heated court battle with the Wisconsin Public Service Corporation and was awarded $2 million in damages.
Electrocution of America: Is Your Utility Company Out to Kill You? can be found on Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, Borders.com, PriceGrabber.com, Target.com and Ecampus.com.
For more information, contact the author directly at email@example.com.
GLENMORE BOOKS and author Russ Allen chose Arbor Books (www.ArborBooks.com) to design and promote Electrocution of America: Is Your Utility Company Out to Kill You? Arbor Books is an internationally renowned, full-service book design, ghostwriting and marketing firm.
(Electrocution of America: Is Your Utility Company Out to Kill You? by Russ Allen; ISBN: 0-9779685-0-2; $22.95; softcover; 5½" x 8½"; 406 pages; GLENMORE BOOKS)