How I figured it out, what I learned and how I deal(t) with it.

The Health Consequences of Wireless Technology

Smartphone use in the classroom used to be one of my pet peeves, students are constantly distracted by them. Outside of the classroom, people have become 'smombies', a neologism derived from 'smartphone' and 'zombie'. This phenomenon is so prevalent, the neologism was even awarded the "2015 Youth Word of the Year" in Germany. We have all seen these people, for some of us, we may recognize them amongst our friends or family, or even in the smartphone mirror (if we are honest enough with ourselves). If you go out in public today, anywhere you go, recognizing smombies is like shooting fish in a barrel.

The behavioral component of the smombie epidemic is troubling and there is a growing body of evidence that points to many negative behavioral and developmental side effects of smartphone use, especially among young children. But there have always been behavioral problems in the classroom and this is just one more to add to the list. The behavioral and developmental problems aren't the topic today however, though I will treat them in the future.

Today I will address the largely unrecognized, unacknowledged and often vehemently denied negative effects of the electromagnetic frequencies that enable wireless communication. I want to make very clear that I am aware of the benefits of wireless and I find it very useful, but I think it also important that people be aware that there are biological consequences to the use of the technology so that they can use it responsibly.

The First Time I Thought Something Wasn't Quite Right

In May of 2011, the European Parliamentary Assembly passed [Resolution 1815 (http://assembly.coe.int/nw/xml/XRef/Xref-XML2HTML-en.asp?fileid=17994&) which states that sufficient data is available to demonstrate that microwaves and electromagnetic fields (EMF) that are used in wireless communication have a negative impact on the environment and on human health:

"non-ionizing frequencies... telecommunications and mobile telephony, appear to have more or less potentially harmful, non-thermal, biological effects on plants, insects and animals as well as the human body, even when exposed to levels that are below the official threshold values."

The summary of research presented to the European Parliamentary Assembly that motivated this resolution can be found here: [Doc. 12608 - 06 May 2011 - The potential dangers of electromagnetic fields and their effect on the environment].

Within Resolution 1815 chapter 8.3.1 specifically recommended that the member states of the European Union take immediate steps to:

"8.3.1. develop within different ministries (education, environment and health) targeted information campaigns aimed at teachers, parents and children to alert them to the specific risks of early, ill-considered and prolonged use of mobiles and other devices emitting microwaves;

8.3.2. for children in general, and particularly in schools and classrooms, give preference to wired Internet connections, and strictly regulate the use of mobile phones by schoolchildren on school premises;"

As a teacher, this caught my attention. When I read Resolution 1815 in its entirety, I was mildly concerned. Especially the passage that mentioned non-ionizing radiation (i.e. non-thermal radiation). Like almost everyone else at the time (and still today), I thought the thermal radiation from cell phones was what people should keep an eye on. The SAR (Specific Absorbtion Rate) had even been mandated on cell phones packaging to let consumers know how much thermal radiation phones produced. I decided to look into it more closely.

I started reading up on non-ionizing radiation to start with and what kind and how much of it is emitted from technologies that enable wireless communication: mobile phones, smartphones, wireless telephones, routers, router repeaters, wireless keyboards, wireless mice, bluetooth devices, smartmeters and of course, the granddaddy of them all cell phone towers. I am sure this is not an exhaustive list. What I learned over the course of the ensuing months (and ongoing until today, many years later) would completely change my view of wireless technologies forever.

What I Learned

First off, I want to say that I am not an electrical engineer or a medical doctor, so I had to do a lot of reading. And when I say a lot, I mean a ton. Learning the technical and medical jargon was hard. Really hard. Don't worry, I am not going to start talking telomeres and frequency oscillation here, because it isn't necessary, I just wanted to point out that when I started reading up on things, I went into the scientific literature too, not to the point where I could do the studies myself, but far enough to understand what I was reading and not have to look up every other technical word.

So, Resolution 1815 in end effect based its decisions and recommendations on the "Bioinitiative Report" composed by 26 experts who evaluated over 1,500 scientific studies. The laundry list of negative health consequences is astonishing to say the least, and further below I will provide a partial list of them. It was these consequences that lead the report writers to state that a reevaluation of the maximum allowable exposure limit to EMFs was necessary. To my knowledge this has still not happened.

Since then, further research has been conducted that only underscores the seriousness of the situation. The earliest research, upon which the current maximum exposure limits are based, focused on the thermal effects of EMF radiation; today, research is focusing on the non-thermal (i.e. non-ionizing) radiation emitted by wireless devices.

A lay explanation for non-ionizing radiation is, basically, that it is a kind of electromagnetic radiation sufficient to excite an electron, but not enough to remove an electron from an atom/molecule. And very basically speaking, what is happening is that non-ionizing radiation from wireless technology is exciting the DNA and cells in the human body to a higher energy state than is natural and this is causing them to "misfire" in various ways.

In light of the mounting body of evidence coming from the studies into the effects of non-ionizing radiation, more and more people are waking up to the fact that the wireless industry has not done its due diligence. This awakening is largely thanks to the insistent, repeated and increasingly shrill warnings of diverse international organizations who find their efforts hampered at almost every turn by an industry that stands to lose billions and be set back years until they can develop a safe wireless mode of communication. (Maybe those confiscated Tesla patents could help out here..., just saying.)

Is Anybody Doing Anything About This?

Yes, lots of people are mobilizing and trying to inform people. There are now countless websites that address the subject in more or less strident tones. And the warnings are not falling on deaf ears. Teachers' Unions and Organizations around the world, representing more than a million teachers, have taken steps to reduce the (previously considered only "possible") harmful effects of EMF radiation in schools. Among the teachers organizations that have mobilized we find:

GEW: Gewerkschaft Erziehung und Wissenschaft, Germany - 260,000+ Members
United Federations of Teachers, USA - 200,000+ Members
Canadian Teachers' Federation - 200,000+ Members
Elementary Teacher's Federation of Ontario, Canada - 76,000+ Members
British Columbia Teachers' Federation, Canada - 41,000 Members
United Teachers of Los Angeles - 40,000 Members
Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association, Canada - 37,000 Members
UK: Voice - The Union for Education Professionals - 20,000 Members
UK ATL: Association of Teachers and Lecturers - 160,000+ Members
UK PAT: Professional Association of Teachers - 35,000 Members

Not only that, but governments and governmental agencies worldwide have also begun to institute preventative measures. Here I will provide only a partial list of actions that have been taken:

The Israeli Dept. of Education was one of the first to forbid Wi-Fi in elementary schools and instruct teachers to ensure that mobile phones are turned completely off unless in use. source
The Russian National Committee has published a warning against the use of Wi-Fi and repeatedly recommended that Wi-Fi not be used in schools. source
Schools throughout Canada and United Kingdom have dismantled their Wi-Fi networks and returned to cabled internet connections. source
The Indian Supreme Court has upheld a court decision to initiate the removal of cell phone towers from the vicinity of schools, universities, hospitals and playgrounds because the radiation has been deemed "hazardous to life" by national scientists. source
Even in the USA, the capital of wireless lobbying, the Environmental Protection Agency has declared that the maximum allowable exposure limit is fundamentally flawed, whereas the Food and Drug Administration has observed that the maximum exposure limit does not take long-term and chronic exposure into consideration. source
On the other side of the pond, in the European Union, the European Environmental Agency has advocated the immediate reduction of Wi-Fi, mobile phones and cell phone towers in order to reduce the public's exposure to non-ionizing EMF radiation. source
The French National Assembly has ordered that all public schools return to cable internet access; further, the French National Library and many other libraries in Paris, including numerous universities through France are completely dismantling their Wi-Fi networks.
Germany has also explicitly recommended against the use of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth at schools, as well as the removal of DECT telephones. source The Bavarian Parliament has recommended schools discontinue using Wi-Fi source and the city of Frankfurt (am Main) has forbidden the use of Wi-Fi in its schools until it can be proven harmless (i.e. goodbye Wi-Fi). source
In Austria, the Austrian Doctors' Association (ÖAK) has confirmed DNA fragmentation and an increased risk of brain tumors via wireless technologies and has issued numerous warnings to reduce exposure, especially in schools, where it is recommended Wi-Fi not be used at all. source source source source.

And this is only a partial list, there is a movement afoot to do something about it. Thank goodness!

The Health Consequences - Why These Steps Are Being Taken

So I made the point that people are informing themselves and based on what they have learned, they are mobilizing. I waited until after I had presented the action being taken for a reason. I have learned through years of discussing this topic that it is best to start with what is being done and by whom (particularly by governments, because for some crazy reason most people trust government), then go to the why of the health consequences. If you just start dropping health consequence bombs on people, which can be scary or which attacks something they are very fond of (their smartphones), it tends to make them less willing to pursue the topic. I say this now so if you decide to say something in the future to someone you care about, you might have an easier go of it than I did at the beginning.

So having said that, what are these health consequences exactly? Unfortunately, the laundry list of nightmarish consequences is much, much too long to present here, so I have to keep it short. In the studies that have investigated exposure that is below the current maximum exposure limit, we find the following effects (each hyperlinked to a relevant study or report):

See this chart and many more HERE (.pdf) I cannot recommend this .pdf enough if you want a more thorough overview of the research.

This RT report isn't perfect, but it does cover a number of points in regards to this issue:

All of these effects are concerning of course, all the more so when exposure is considered a cumulative process. Yes, unfortunately, cumulative. I also think that I can't be all that far off the mark when many researchers create such tortured sentences as:

"The study group observed association between exposure to radiofrequency radiation from wireless phones and glioma and acoustic neuroma, but it was statistically not insignificant"

I mean it is a nice try to downplay the effects, but come on, "statistically not insignificant"? Didn't their English teacher ever tell them not to use a double negative when the positive formulation makes things easier to understand? That's right, it is a statistically significant increase in cancer. Anyway...

I think my readers are savvy enough that I needn't explain why the vast majority of studies funded by the wireless industry into the carcinogenic qualities of smartphones and Wi-Fi come back negative, while those conducted by independent parties show completely different results, but I hyperlinked a reference anyway.

Even though wireless technology is already classified a Class 2B carcinogen (meaning it is considered only a likely carcinogen, along with glyphosate for example), many advocate it being classified as a Class 1 carcinogen, together with tobacco, asbestos and benzene. Which I personally think it should be. The best analogy I have for the electrosmog soup we all live in is that the world around us has become a smokey bar where you can't see, smell or taste the smoke. Having followed the research for many years now, I am personally convinced that at some point the public health crisis that is now unfolding will force a Class 1 designation despite the best efforts of the lobbyists. If you didn't watch the RT clip above, now is the time.

Then again, maybe all of those scientists are wrong and nothing is happening. That would be a truth I would very gladly embrace, and I am open to it, but at this point it doesn't look good...

My Experience Telling People What I Learned

In the beginning, shortly after I learned most of what is written above, I ran around trying to tell everybody and warn everyone. I was a little overenthusiastic, admittedly, but my heart was in the right spot. I had even written out a lot of what you see above and given it to friends and colleagues, with an extensive list of studies including those referenced above and many more. I was disheartened when the response I got about 80% of the time was "I don't believe it" or "You're not a cancer researcher, you don't know what you're talking about" or something along those lines.

Practically nobody kept the list I handed them, and of those that did, I only know of one person who actually looked into it on their own. I spent a couple of months really concerned about it, and kept trying to get people to consider the possibility, but largely it was a waste of my time. Watching people walk around with their cancer-machines pressed against their head was driving me crazy. It took a good year of trying to get people to at least entertain the possibility before I mostly gave up.

After about two years of hearing me consistently reference the health consequences every time the topic came up, though admittedly with less and less concern about if people believed me or not and no longer with the intent of convincing anybody about anything, two of my friends seemed to come around and at least accept it might be possible. But behavioral changes are apparently the most difficult to make, especially with a technology that just makes everything so much more convenient. They still use their Wi-Fi and put their phones to their ear when calling people, I just shake my head.

Then about a year ago I met a pair of electrical engineers. They were talking about dirty electricity and how it was a problem. I tested the waters. We really got into it and they were amazed that I, as a "lay person" was able to really discuss the issue with them. I asked about their experience and if they had tried to warn people about EMFs. They both had. One of them had even gone to the school board where his son goes to school and gave a presentation about it. He basically got laughed off as a conspiracy nutter and gave up trying to spread the information. "They just think I'm crazy," he said, "why should I try and save people who aren't willing to look at the facts?" We changed the subject.

My greatest wake-up call as to how in love people are with convenience (and not their health or that of the people around them) was when some students did a presentation on virtual reality and brought a smartphone VR-goggle to class. I had had the students read some articles discussing the dangers of EMF just the week before and I said something along the lines of "That's really cool, but is it really a good idea to have what is basically a router attached to your head? I mean, we read that it could have negative effects," and my student (a nice and smart guy at that) replied, "I'll be happy to die early if I can have virtual reality." I almost fell off my chair. I let it go.

How I Deal With It

I learned that there really isn't much you can do about the electrosmog. I did make some minor changes to at least try and reduce my personal exposure. I stopped carrying my phone with me everywhere I go, and when I do, I carry it in airplane mode or shut off completely. When I need it, I turn it on and use speaker mode, I never hold it to my head unless absolutely necessary. I also went back to a wired internet connection. I bought a landline phone again, not having had one since I was in my early 20s. I went ahead and got a faraday baldachin for my bed, so my body has at least some time at natural background radiation levels. I am literally the only person I know who has taken any of these precautionary steps.

I resigned myself to being that weird guy who doesn't like smartphones. I became the teacher that demands students shut off their phones in class (which doesn't really work most of the time). I became the weird guy who doesn't use Wi-Fi.

I incorporated 'smartphone zombie' and 'smombie' into my personal lexicon and use them liberally, most frequently when I am on my bike and have to loudly announce "Look up you damn smartphone zombie!" to make sure I don't run over someone.

I frequently call smartphones 'cancer machines' in normal conversation even if people react strangely. I tell my guy friends "You're frying your little swimmers, dude," for a little morbid humor every time I see them put their smartphone in the front pocket of their pants. And yes, reduced motility is in the EMF cards.

But I don't get worked up or upset about it anymore like I did for the first few months. Once in a while if someone gives some sign they aren't that pleased with smartphone culture, I will test the waters. If they are receptive I will talk about it. I don't care anymore if people believe it or not, anymore than I care if people want to drink water or alcohol. But I do care that it is happening, just in some respects I have become resigned to it.

And I got over the idea of people not believing me when I talk about it, because it really isn't about me at all. But if someone wants to know something, I will discuss what I know. Over the years I have seen the tide slowly changing, so there is hope, but I have lost confidence that the sea change will take place fast enough to make any real difference in the trajectory.

Nevertheless, here I am writing about it on Steemit, if it makes just one person consider the possibility, it will be worth any sticks and stones that might be thrown.

In consideration of the information I have presented above, I encourage everyone to at least be aware that the potential for negative health consequences exists. You don't have to believe it, but at least look into it before you write it off. And there is no reason to panic if you become convinced. You can take easy steps to limit your personal exposure in keeping with the precautionary principle. Turn off your Wi-Fi when not in use and turn off your smartphone at night. Even the little things make a difference when exposure is cumulative.

There are many more considerations of course, available proofs and studies that support the existence of negative health consequences for wireless technologies that I will address as time goes by, earlier if sufficient interest is expressed.

Thank you for reading, I know it was a long one!

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tags: health technology science smartphone medicine