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Parents: Should You Nix the WiFi?

Is anyone in your house dealing with health issues that just won’t go away no matter what foods you eat, which supplements you take, or how many practitioners and therapies you run through?

Is your child anxious, hyperactive, erratic, ticking, angry, foggy, forgetful, sleepless, nauseous, sluggish, dizzy, itchy, congested, or in pain?

Based on the extensive evidence base and reinforced by the volume of anecdotal stories I’m hearing, it’s worth trying this:

Shut off your WiFi

I just did. I flipped the switch on our router.

And then my family freaked out because it disabled our internet… so I had to turn it back on again. But a Verizon rep helped me to banish WiFi in 30 seconds. No worries; it’s just as easy to get it back. (Netgear, Linksys, Belkin router instructions and try “admin”/serial # for username/password.)

Our abode is now wireless-less. The only way we access the internet at home is with a wired connection. Yes, it means that my iPad and my son’s Kindle are now rendered, uh, less functional. “TOTALLY USELESS,” stormed my 13 year-old. (See below for wired iPad hack)

Here’s my thought process and some of the research I reviewed before flipping the switch. It got me so worked up that I wrote an open letter to Apple’s CEO last week.

The body is electric

Toni Bark, MD recently introduced me to Robert Becker’s fantastic book The Body Electric: Electromagnetism and the Foundation of Life. Our cells communicate with each other via bioelectrical signals and EMFs, which help to regulate important biochemical processes. It’s important for our internal electromagnetic field to stay in balance. When we are exposed to some types of radiation:

    • it affects biophysical events around cell membrane receptors
    • it causes biochemical changes within the cell
    • it impacts cell to cell communication

All of these things can change the way our body works and make us sick.

“I don’t have radiation in my home!”

emr_spectrum
WRONG. And there’s a lot more than I realized. Electromagnetic radiation involves:

    • Anything with an electric field around it, including power lines
    • Anything with a magnetic field, including an electric source or an engine/motor
    • Anything that delivers or communicates with a wireless signal

DEVICE-O-RAMA!

Sources of residential radio frequency radiation (RFR) include:

WE ARE BATHED IN RFR

Even more radiation exposure is coming our way as Americans demand ever greater connectivity. Ad-supported WiFi is here (Boingo). Schools and libraries are veritable hot spots. Parks and your favorite stadium, too. President Obama’s goal is to connect 99% of students to high-speed broadband including robust WiFi in every classroom within five years. As more materials are pushed online, imagine the radiation generated by, say, 20 children per classroom, 3 classrooms per grade, 6 grades per elementary school, all wirelessly accessing curriculum on their iPads in the same building at the same time.

As if the above exposures weren’t already overwhelming, we must also consider power lines, motors, and our many appliances — TVs, HVAC systems, refrigerators, electric ovens, bedside electronic radio-alarm clocks, power supplies, voltage converters, stereos, fans, wired computers and laptops, monitors, and compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) — plus ionizing forms of radiation exposure via the soil, water, vegetation, air travel, x-rays, and medical devices. (We’ll address some of these in a future post–they’re a different kind of problem.)

Cumulatively, it really starts to add up. So… is WiFi safe?

Radiation is harmful, especially to children

The CDC retracted its precautionary health warning about cell phone radiation just ten weeks after publishing it on June 9, 2014. Other government agencies are no help:

“No one knows for sure [what level of radiation is safe]. This question is of ongoing interest to scientists and researchers… an average of one in four people develops some form of cancer.” [Environmental Protection Agency]

“There are no specific standards for radiofrequency and microwave radiation issues.” [U.S. Department of Labor]

But scientists forge ahead. This excellent paper by Andrew Goldsworthy, PhD provides a plausible biological mechanism explaining the seemingly disparate health effects of non-ionizing radiation from allergies to cancer due to cellular membrane leakage.

As I shared in last week’s post, children absorb up to ten times more radiation than adults. Thinner skulls and higher water and ion content facilitate penetration. Here are a few peer-reviewed studies from the extensive scientific literature (emphasis mine):

INFERTILITY

“[Microwave] irradiation induced a significant decrease in sperm count and sperm viability… these adverse reproductive effects suggest that chronic exposure to nonionizing MW radiation may lead to infertility via free radical species-mediated pathway.” – Free Radic Res. 2014 May;48(5):511-25

CANCER AND NEURODEGENERATIVE DISEASE

“The evidence is strongest for leukemia from electricity-frequency fields and for brain tumors from communication-frequency fields… association with other diseases as well, including neurodegenerative diseases.” – Rev Environ Health. 2008 Apr-Jun;23(2):91-117

“[O]ur results are consistent with an early effect in carcinogenesis (initiator) by analogue mobile phones, and both an early (initiator) and late (promoter) effect by wireless phones of the digital type.” – Int J Oncol. Dec 2013; 43(6): 1833–1845

In 2011, the World Health Organization classified RF electromagnetic fields emitted by wireless communication devices an IARC Group 2B Possible Carcinogen. Other 2B agents include DDT, dry cleaning chemicals, lead, pesticides, and engine exhaust. Many are rightfully concerned about IARC 2B substances, including California Public Schools  [p126]. Why not this one?

Even more alarming, a team of veteran scientists published a 2013 paper in the peer-reviewed Pathophysiology journal arguing that the actual proper designation would be Group 2A Probable Carcinogen should the WHO revisit its classification. Other 2A agents include ultraviolet radiation A, B, C and cytotoxic chemotherapy agents such as cisplatin and nitrogen mustard.

BRAIN, SPINE, AND NERVE DAMAGE

“[E]vidence… suggests an association between RF-EMF exposure and either myelin deterioration or a direct impact on neuronal conduction… The most vulnerable… those in utero through to at least mid-teen years, as well as ill and elderly individuals.” – J Toxicol Environ Health B Crit Rev. 2014;17(5):247-58

People are suffering terribly

There is similarly a growing evidence base to support environmental illnesses caused by electromagnetic hypersensitivity. You don’t have to look far to find the stories:

    • The first accommodation has just been made in a U.S. public school system for a teacher with microwave sickness. She reported that students were bleeding from the ears and nose but the school refused to file incident reports (video testimony).
    • Teachers and students in La Quinta, CA started succumbing to vague symptoms then cancer at a rate three times higher than expected due to “dirty electricity” (EMFs), as reported by NBC News.
    • A tween started vomiting, suffering headaches and insomnia, and stopped growing after his school introduced its iPad program. His mom, Yifan Wang, homeschooled him for a year and then arranged for him to skip a grade to avoid the iPads. She has worked in the wired and wireless telecom industry since 1985: “I know firsthand how technologies, if misused, can cause irreversible and even deadly harm.” Yifan has two Master’s degrees in electrical engineering and holds two patents.
    • A Silicon Valley exec and his medical doctor spouse started getting intense headaches, heart palpitations, tinnitus, and insomnia after a bank of wireless smart meters were installed directly below their bedroom. Jeromy Johnson is now a safe technology advocate.

Recommendations for fearless parents

If we’re waiting for industry, medical, or government leaders to take action, we could be waiting a very long time. Industry will spend up to protect current cultural practices. It takes doctors 17 years before research evidence changes clinical practice. Our government denies the dangers. Parents need to be proactive.

For an extra nudge, read what the insurance industry thinks about future EMF-related claims risks (hint: this is squarely on their radar, more highly rated than drug resistance, cyber attacks, and emerging infectious diseases).

The following suggestions are not for the faint of heart (even squeaky clean celebrity moms find it challenging). WiFi devices are totally integrated into our lives and habits. It will require standing up to the people in our homes and changing the way we communicate with each other and the outside world.

MEASURE

    • Buy or rent an RF meter to measure radiation levels in your home and wherever else your kids spend a lot of time. Click here to buy the basic Cornet ED78S. Email me at info~at~fearlessparent.org to buy or rent the more advanced Acoustimeter for up to -20%.
    • Check AntennaSearch to see if there’s a cell phone tower or antennae near your home. Warning: this is upsetting. Since the info may not be up-to-date, Jeromy recommends walking around your neighborhood with your RF meter.

GO WIRED

    • Use corded landlines. DECT cordless phone base stations can generate ten times more radiation than the typical internet router.
    • Connect laptops and desktops to the internet via Ethernet cables.
    • Try this simple hardware solution for a “wired” iPad from a retired Motorola scientist.
    • Don’t allow a wireless smart meter to be installed in your home. A family member just had hers ripped out. The utility charged $75 to remove it and levies an extra $10/month to send someone to read the meter.

REDUCE

DELAY

GROUND AND BLOCK

EDUCATE

***

There’s a lot of corporate and institutional “maneuvering” behind the scenes. The LA Unified School District’s iPad scandal gives you a taste of it. The best chance we have to compel industry to make safer products is for us to wield our purchasing power. Please share your stories and suggestions. We can’t do this alone.

The author thanks Yifan Wang, Jeromy Johnson, and Devin Evert for their assistance and the benefit of their extensive research.

Louise circle 8-7-14Louise is going through iPad withdrawal. When she starts jonesing for some instant connectivity, she forces herself to ask: “Can it wait?” It almost always can.

 

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