Will electromagnetic radiation affect me if I sit close to a digital clock connected to 120 V?

Question

I was sitting within a few inches of a Digital clock connected to the 120 V. There is a transformer which will send electomagnetic radiation. Somebody advised me to move farther as it is harmful to the body. Please let me whether it is true. If so wha damage it can do. Thanks

Answer 1

If radiated 60 power from small household transformers were a serious hazard, we would have known about it for sure by now. These things are everywhere and have been for a long time - in "power bricks" that you plug into the wall to reduce the line voltage to something that your electronics can use, in fluorescent light ballasts, and they are in just about any electronics that you plug into the wall in some form.

The newer electronic device lack line-frequency transformers but instead have circuitry that increases the frequency to allow the transformers to be smaller. However, the higher frequency power is much more prone to radiate than that at line frequency.

There are also devices that are a lot bigger radiators of line frequency power than your digital clock. This would include motors, especially large ones; the heating elements in electric light bulbs, toasters, electric ranges, and the like; and the granddaddy of them all, the overhead power lines. No, your digital clock presents no significant radiation hazard.

Answer 2

I think that your friend is a bit on the paranoid side. The amount of electromagnetic radiation that would be emitted from the clock is so small that you would have a difficult time even registering it with a proper set of monitoring tools.

Answer 3

Nope. It's harmless. The 60 hz AC current creates some extremely low frequency electromagnetic radiation, but nothing that could hurt you.

Answer 4

Someone is scaring you as a joke. You'd have to be near an x ray machine in a doctor's office, walking around the nuclear reactor on an aging russian submarine, or something that risky to see any risk.

For more information on radiation risks:
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/nuclear/radrisk.html

Answer 5

Whoever told you to move is being overly paranoid.