I was intrigued to note in New Scientist for June 17 some comments on the craze for using magnets for various domestic purposes. Apparently an associate professor in Simon Fraser university in Canada has been trying to debunk this piece of pseudoscience, and has accused the manufacturers of strange devices employing magnets of indulging in sales programmes which he calls "magscams".
Advertisements are being inserted into sales catalogues describing devices to insert into a car fuel tank to economise consumption, to put into a washing machine to do away with the need for detergent, and magnetic objects to insert into central heating boilers and even common kettles to prevent their furring up.
The explanations offered by manufacturers to try to convince the gullible buyer do not stand examination from a strictly scientific angle. It is easy to talk of the deflection of ions in the water of a kettle by a magnetic field so that they combine and precipitate, but it does not make sense. And claims that a bangle containing fixed magnets will relieve arthritic pain might make sense only if we could demonstrate that our tissues contain particles of iron. Some such effect may indeed explain the direction-finding ability of birds, but we are not birds and need the sun or a compass to orient ourselves.
There are mystics who argue that our ancestors laid out all manner of landmarks across the countryside by using what they call "ley lines" or lines of magnetic force. There are, of course, a few such lines, most of them determined by the earth's magnetic field, and some laid down by local masses of such rocks as titanomagnetite and magnetite itself. On several occasions I have discovered during an exploration of wild countryside, usually with an archaeological survey in mind, that my surveying compass has gone crazy, but reference to the detailed geology of the land has shown why. I have hitherto found no need to invoke mystical lines of force.
Of course, fixed magnets are one thing, and electromagnetic fields quite another. I am not prepared to take too many liberties with electromagnetic fields, since I am aware that they do, at a certain level, affect the function of animal cells. Until we understand more, we should exercise great caution.