Yeah well it would have doubled their fun, but this was about evil radio towers giving people brain cancer (and possibly kill honeybees, depending if they've heard that myth too).

I'm willing to bet dollars to donuts that the people who did this used their iPhones (I know I'm stereotyping, but I can't see ELF'ers with just any mobile phone) to coordinate the attack, placing them in as much, if not more danger of brain cancer than any AM radio station. Let's look at the science.

Firstly, these ELF loonies probably aren't familiar with the law of inverse squares, which dictates that the power radiated into free space around an antenna is inversely proportional to the square of the distance from said antenna. That's a fancy way of saying that the radiated power drops off geometrically as you move away from the antenna. Since your mobile phone is fantastically closer to your brain than the AM radio station a mile or more away, it stands to reason that even though the total power radiated by your mobile is significantly less, the closeness can make up some or all of the difference.

Secondly, let's talk about the frequency of that radiated signal. At the top of the AM radio band, signals are approximately 160 meters, or 525 feet in length from crest to crest. At the bottom of the band, waves are well over a thousand feet long from crest to crest. A wave this size is enormous in relation to the average cell in your brain, and therefore only a minute portion of the wave affects each cell meaning that little of the energy in the wave is transferred to the cell. Turning to the typical mobile phone frequencies, they range from 350Mhz to 1.9GHz – wavelengths from a little less than 3 feet to about 1/2 inch. These wavelengths, especially the shorter ones, 'see' each cell as a more significant obstacle because the cell can now hold a larger portion of the wave. This means the cell can also trap more of the energy in that shorter wavelength, than it can of the longer AM radio wave. It's why microwave ovens work at frequencies of 2.45Ghz, because waves that short impart a significant portion of their energy to the liquids inside the cells of whatever's cooking.

In short, AM radio is very unlikely to be the culprit in brain cancers, and though it's never been proven beyond any doubt that they cause harm, mobile phones are much better candidates for causing brain cancer a)because of proximity to the brain, and b)because of the frequencies involved. But don't tell anyone from ELF about these facts – it's likely to distract them from their self-appointed saviour mission, saving us from something from which we don't need saving.

jimg: I posted on this (and bees) on my blog before this post went up and now in the comments there's a guy blaming the CIA for blowing up the towers. Several posts on the evil brain destroying power of radio and high tension power lines too. No end to loonies out there.