For as long as I can remember, I have instinctively taken a few steps back from a microwave when in use, and I have never pressed a cell phone against my ear, opting for speakerphone instead. I assumed everyone practiced similar precautions, despite the media labelling of RFK, Jr. as a misinformation spreader for claiming there is a link between cell phone use and cancer.
Although I had some misgivings regarding the health effects of EMF radiation, I wasn’t particularly interested in scheduling an evaluation of my living space. I had more than enough problems on my plate without adding invisible ones! Admittedly I had covered my Wi-Fi router with faraday fabric and later still plugged it into a power strip so I could turn it off at night, and I have never charged my phone overnight in my bedroom. I figured I had taken the necessary precautions.
While research is still ongoing regarding EMF radiation, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, operating under the WHO, has classified non-ionizing EMFs in the radiofrequency range as Group 2B, a possible human carcinogen. This implicates electronic devices such as cellphones, smart devices, and tablets.
All of this brings me to Arthur Firstenberg’s The Invisible Rainbow: A History of Electricity, a book that examines the effect of electromagnetic radiation on the environment and human health and that came highly recommended to me. Firstenberg explores the fascinating history of electricity within its pages. In a summary of the book, Blinkest concluded that, while it contains controversial ideas, “the book is an important contribution to the ongoing debate about the potential risks of electromagnetic radiation.”
As for me, once I finally took note of the banks of smart meters around my complex, I capitulated to an assessment of my living space through Safe Tech Tucson. The number of tips to address the different types and sources of EMF radiation can feel overwhelming, but some fixes were easy no-brainers that could be implemented immediately. I have a wired keyboard and mouse, so I shut off bluetooth on my laptop. I had already turned the Wi-FI off on my smart thermostat, but I had neglected to turn off “Wi-Fi radio.” Doing so brought down EMF levels in that room considerably.
Some fixes will involve a bit more effort. I moved my bed a few feet away from the wall, which will require a bedroom redesign (and perhaps a bookcase headboard). I don’t think my relatively new mattress has metal coils, but I am just going to let that one go (I found conflicting viewpoints on their safety, such as here and here). I now unplug the charger when using my laptop and bought a desktop charger so I can just turn it off. When I am not using my cell phone, I could switch it to airplane mode or stick it in a faraday bag.
Other solutions are more complicated but not insurmountable. I don’t object to switching from wireless to an Ethernet connection, but I would have to run Ethernet cables over and around my walls. The smart meters can potentially be addressed with fabric, paint, or smart meter covers.
As for the recommendation to turn off the breaker to my bedroom at night in order to bring me down to “forest level,” I worry that would be bad for the breaker, but apparently there are solutions to that problem as well. An electrician could install a kill switch, or I could purchase a remote cut off controller. I am going to miss the ceiling fan blowing on me though.
Image: Johannes Cathrine Krebs - A sleeping girl in the forest floor.jpg/ Wikimedia Commons
Thankfully I don’t live in super close proximity to a 5G tower, but it is impossible to completely escape EMF radiation in an urban environment, particularly if one lives in multi-unit housing. I suppose I could relocate to Snowflake, but then, as an acquaintance joked, I might “die of boredom.”
Who knows how much EMF I have already been exposed to after decades of working in libraries. I did used to keep a bag of Epsom salt next to my desk computer. In writing this piece I discovered that some libraries are now circulating EMF meters to the public.
Image: UTC Library Library2010 077 (5062768993).jpg/ Wikimedia Commons
I had to skim the 576 pages of The Invisible Rainbow because I am now aware that my cozy little reading corner is (potentially) cancer alley. I am awaiting a battery powered alarm clock and an LED reading lamp so I can replace the wired versions surrounding my reading chair and, perhaps after turning the power off, relax with a good book.
Interesting, thank you for the link! I know there is still lots of disagreement about potential harm (https://www.healthline.com/health/emf#protection), and I hope the naysayers are correct because I've been bathing in this stuff my whole life. But better safe than sorry, especially when it comes to simple fixes.
What an exhausting life you must lead...and I don't mean that as some sort of criticism. We all make many choices which are obscure to others. There are simply so many things more likely to kill you that are more immediate and likely--driving, going to a play, flying, not execising, walking down a city street. And in the end something will. I just can't be bothered to worry about things you really can't avoid no matter how many faraday clothes you wrap things in.
That's why I tried to provide a range of mitigations one can put in place-- from the super simple to the more complex, depending on how much this concerns a person.
Agree. EMF has been around for a very long time. If there is some signal (in the medical harm sense) it is very, very tiny, eclipsed by a multitude of much more obvious harms we subject ourselves to. But to each his own concerns.
Your opening paragraph reminded me of an incident a few years back. I was a consulting engineer for an outfit involved with ultrasonic detection of metal flaws. A number of us were sitting in the lunch room one afternoon where there was a microwave oven. And someone moved away from it as you do, Susan, when someone else turned it on.
The microwave had a grill visible across the glass window. Someone opined that moving away was pointless as the metal enclosure plus the grill made it a Faraday cage. Inquiring minds wanted to verify this.
We happened to have a very accurate signal strength meter out in the lab. Someone fetched it and we put a mug of water in it (for loading) and turned it on. We could measure it from anywhere in the room. But it wasn't strong. But it was leaking EMF.
Someone suggested that it should be good enough to contain cell phone signals though. How to test that? Well, how about put a cellphone inside it and call it? (Not while the microwave is running, of course). Easy experiment to try. Turns out it rings in their just find. By symmetry, it's signal is escaping just as well.
That really surprised us. But not after looking at the back of the microwave. Early microwave ovens were in metal boxes. They were probably complete Faraday cages and would have stopped transmission. But all microwave ovens now come from China, and they can make them cheaper if most of the box that you don't see is plastic. How do they meet the environmental standards our oh-so-on-the-ball-Govt approves? They put that screen in the front and resisitively load it so it blocks EMF down to what is considered a safe level. In the front. If you live in the apartment on the other side of the wall - not your problem, I guess. If it's halving the signal coming through the glass, it's doubling it in some other direction.
We moved recently and decided to give away our microwave - not for that reason, but because it has one of those on-demand hot water spouts for hot drinks and we wanted the counterspace freed up. We really haven't missed it.
Wrapping a cellphone in aluminum foil (completely - no gaps) works as well as one of those pouches/devices the tin-hat people sell. Easy to test - wrap it and call it and you'll see. I wonder about doing that sometime - not out of worry about EMF for health reasons, but because the GPS chip is always working - even when you have shut it off. And rumor has it (Snowden), there are a variety of entities that can interrogate it at will. But then I remembered that all cars in the U.S. have GPS chips in them now too, so they got you one way or another. Sigh. Good thing I'm not on their radar.
Did you know there are laws that restrict one's ability to shield spaces from cellphone signals? Theaters and concert halls can't do it, for example. They claim it's because it would interrupt emergency communications services. Seems a specious argument to me. One could probably do this in a private home. But I'm not even sure of that anymore.
The privacy aspects of all this interests me far more than the health aspects. Good book: David Brin's "The Transparent Society".
Thanks for the book rec. Fascinating story about the microwave. I have one, but very rarely use it. The backside (it is on a storage shelf) points towards my living room! I did just get rid of my dishwasher-- not for EMF reasons (although maybe it did contribute a little to that issue) but I have survived without it and like the extra space.
I inherited my new-ish car and didn't even realize it had Wi-Fi in it, but once I figured that out I turned it off (for health reasons). But I'm guessing there are still GPS chips in it.
I did get a cash offer from the City to allow them to control my smart thermostat. I declined.
The IoT (Internet of Things) is opening up vast new vistas of surveillance, both licit and illicit. It's becoming next to impossible to buy pretty much anything anymore that doesn't come with bluetooth and/or WiFi and/or cell connections of some kind. There are dozens of dark-web groups whose members compete with each other at hacking into people's "smart tv's"; once that is accomplished, they surreptitiously turn on the camera (they all have camera's these days) and microphone and record anything interesting - uploading anything vaguely porn-like to trade amongst themselves. Extra credit for replacing the currently being-watched show with something off-the wall, from the innocuous end of the spectrum (Rick-rolling them with the Aston video) to something unbelievably crude or threatening-scary - at the same time recording the viewers reaction as it dawns on them something weird is going on. They post split-screen videos of the viewers and what they are viewing.
Almost everything has a microphone at the very least. This is so it can be Alexa or Siri-compatible (voice commands). Who thinks that their "smart lightbulb" actually has the signal processing power onboard to do voice recognition? Anybody? No. These devices just pass the audio up to the company providing the device to monitor for commands and send back on/off signals. But they never do anything else with it - that would be unethical (sarc). Except that you probably approved it when you clicked the terms and conditions you didn't read because they were 200 pages long in 5pt font.
I was searching for information about an attack someone was attempting on my server and the best information came from the guys doing this kind of thing. Then it became a rabbit hole (Runaway! Madness lies ahead!)
Do you own a computer monitor? It very likely has both a camera and microphone in it. Then there are your laptop, tablet and phones that all do. It's getting hard to stay clear of. You can put tape over cameras but microphones are difficult to mask. Anything that responds to Siri or Alexa commands has a microphone. And are evidently easy to hack.
On the flip side of the coin there are practices like grounding which might be beneficial and help with the disorderly effects of emf. Thank you for the tips on how to mitigate possible harms, particularly the tip about breakers and wall wiring. That's a new one I hadnt heard before.
Thanks, a very interesting read. I've always suspected much of this. If I were younger I would likely investigate the problems with my place. and try to correct them. As it is, I've got too much on my plate already. I wish I lived electricity and gadget-free in the deep woods.
Many years ago, when wifi was new, there was an article about the "10 most dangerous professions."
And they put librarian on it. Because librarians are constantly surrounded by wifi. I laugh to think about now, where everyone now is constantly surrounded by much higher levels of wifi and other signals.
Thank you Susan for sharing this, lots to think about. I used to be more concerned about this, with our own wifi in the house; but we live in a very dense block and even when we shut our off we can see that there are literally dozens of wifi signals emanating from the houses and apartments around us! So I've gotten pretty fatalistic I guess.
I get that! The woman who did my evaluation had one of those meters that some libraries are circulating (linked to in the article), and it did seem to make a significant difference to do things like unplug the charger to the laptop and turn off the WiFi radio on the smart thermostat; however, rooms like my kitchen seemed to be picking up radiation from the surrounding bungalow condos. Also I am looking into installing a kill switch to the breaker in my bedroom to see if I sleep better (although I have rarely had sleep issues since I retired).
Ham radio operators also consider EMF. The very large association devoted to ham radio has this information page:
ARRL RF Safety Committee
https://www.arrl.org/rf-radiation-and-electromagnetic-field-safety
Interesting, thank you for the link! I know there is still lots of disagreement about potential harm (https://www.healthline.com/health/emf#protection), and I hope the naysayers are correct because I've been bathing in this stuff my whole life. But better safe than sorry, especially when it comes to simple fixes.
Also I wish my library system circulated those EMF meters because they are 400 bucks.
What an exhausting life you must lead...and I don't mean that as some sort of criticism. We all make many choices which are obscure to others. There are simply so many things more likely to kill you that are more immediate and likely--driving, going to a play, flying, not execising, walking down a city street. And in the end something will. I just can't be bothered to worry about things you really can't avoid no matter how many faraday clothes you wrap things in.
That's why I tried to provide a range of mitigations one can put in place-- from the super simple to the more complex, depending on how much this concerns a person.
Agree. EMF has been around for a very long time. If there is some signal (in the medical harm sense) it is very, very tiny, eclipsed by a multitude of much more obvious harms we subject ourselves to. But to each his own concerns.
Your opening paragraph reminded me of an incident a few years back. I was a consulting engineer for an outfit involved with ultrasonic detection of metal flaws. A number of us were sitting in the lunch room one afternoon where there was a microwave oven. And someone moved away from it as you do, Susan, when someone else turned it on.
The microwave had a grill visible across the glass window. Someone opined that moving away was pointless as the metal enclosure plus the grill made it a Faraday cage. Inquiring minds wanted to verify this.
We happened to have a very accurate signal strength meter out in the lab. Someone fetched it and we put a mug of water in it (for loading) and turned it on. We could measure it from anywhere in the room. But it wasn't strong. But it was leaking EMF.
Someone suggested that it should be good enough to contain cell phone signals though. How to test that? Well, how about put a cellphone inside it and call it? (Not while the microwave is running, of course). Easy experiment to try. Turns out it rings in their just find. By symmetry, it's signal is escaping just as well.
That really surprised us. But not after looking at the back of the microwave. Early microwave ovens were in metal boxes. They were probably complete Faraday cages and would have stopped transmission. But all microwave ovens now come from China, and they can make them cheaper if most of the box that you don't see is plastic. How do they meet the environmental standards our oh-so-on-the-ball-Govt approves? They put that screen in the front and resisitively load it so it blocks EMF down to what is considered a safe level. In the front. If you live in the apartment on the other side of the wall - not your problem, I guess. If it's halving the signal coming through the glass, it's doubling it in some other direction.
We moved recently and decided to give away our microwave - not for that reason, but because it has one of those on-demand hot water spouts for hot drinks and we wanted the counterspace freed up. We really haven't missed it.
Wrapping a cellphone in aluminum foil (completely - no gaps) works as well as one of those pouches/devices the tin-hat people sell. Easy to test - wrap it and call it and you'll see. I wonder about doing that sometime - not out of worry about EMF for health reasons, but because the GPS chip is always working - even when you have shut it off. And rumor has it (Snowden), there are a variety of entities that can interrogate it at will. But then I remembered that all cars in the U.S. have GPS chips in them now too, so they got you one way or another. Sigh. Good thing I'm not on their radar.
Did you know there are laws that restrict one's ability to shield spaces from cellphone signals? Theaters and concert halls can't do it, for example. They claim it's because it would interrupt emergency communications services. Seems a specious argument to me. One could probably do this in a private home. But I'm not even sure of that anymore.
The privacy aspects of all this interests me far more than the health aspects. Good book: David Brin's "The Transparent Society".
Thanks for the book rec. Fascinating story about the microwave. I have one, but very rarely use it. The backside (it is on a storage shelf) points towards my living room! I did just get rid of my dishwasher-- not for EMF reasons (although maybe it did contribute a little to that issue) but I have survived without it and like the extra space.
I inherited my new-ish car and didn't even realize it had Wi-Fi in it, but once I figured that out I turned it off (for health reasons). But I'm guessing there are still GPS chips in it.
I did get a cash offer from the City to allow them to control my smart thermostat. I declined.
I doubt I would have ever dug into all this if it weren't for the smart meters. https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/smart-meters-health-privacy/
The IoT (Internet of Things) is opening up vast new vistas of surveillance, both licit and illicit. It's becoming next to impossible to buy pretty much anything anymore that doesn't come with bluetooth and/or WiFi and/or cell connections of some kind. There are dozens of dark-web groups whose members compete with each other at hacking into people's "smart tv's"; once that is accomplished, they surreptitiously turn on the camera (they all have camera's these days) and microphone and record anything interesting - uploading anything vaguely porn-like to trade amongst themselves. Extra credit for replacing the currently being-watched show with something off-the wall, from the innocuous end of the spectrum (Rick-rolling them with the Aston video) to something unbelievably crude or threatening-scary - at the same time recording the viewers reaction as it dawns on them something weird is going on. They post split-screen videos of the viewers and what they are viewing.
Almost everything has a microphone at the very least. This is so it can be Alexa or Siri-compatible (voice commands). Who thinks that their "smart lightbulb" actually has the signal processing power onboard to do voice recognition? Anybody? No. These devices just pass the audio up to the company providing the device to monitor for commands and send back on/off signals. But they never do anything else with it - that would be unethical (sarc). Except that you probably approved it when you clicked the terms and conditions you didn't read because they were 200 pages long in 5pt font.
Yep I never make it through those terms and conditions. How did you know about the activities of the dark web groups?
I was searching for information about an attack someone was attempting on my server and the best information came from the guys doing this kind of thing. Then it became a rabbit hole (Runaway! Madness lies ahead!)
Oh goodness! Well I don't own a TV, so at least I don't have to worry about that particular scenario.
Do you own a computer monitor? It very likely has both a camera and microphone in it. Then there are your laptop, tablet and phones that all do. It's getting hard to stay clear of. You can put tape over cameras but microphones are difficult to mask. Anything that responds to Siri or Alexa commands has a microphone. And are evidently easy to hack.
On the flip side of the coin there are practices like grounding which might be beneficial and help with the disorderly effects of emf. Thank you for the tips on how to mitigate possible harms, particularly the tip about breakers and wall wiring. That's a new one I hadnt heard before.
Thanks, a very interesting read. I've always suspected much of this. If I were younger I would likely investigate the problems with my place. and try to correct them. As it is, I've got too much on my plate already. I wish I lived electricity and gadget-free in the deep woods.
It has been overwhelming but I am taking small steps each week.
Many years ago, when wifi was new, there was an article about the "10 most dangerous professions."
And they put librarian on it. Because librarians are constantly surrounded by wifi. I laugh to think about now, where everyone now is constantly surrounded by much higher levels of wifi and other signals.
Wow that is interesting!
Thank you Susan for sharing this, lots to think about. I used to be more concerned about this, with our own wifi in the house; but we live in a very dense block and even when we shut our off we can see that there are literally dozens of wifi signals emanating from the houses and apartments around us! So I've gotten pretty fatalistic I guess.
I get that! The woman who did my evaluation had one of those meters that some libraries are circulating (linked to in the article), and it did seem to make a significant difference to do things like unplug the charger to the laptop and turn off the WiFi radio on the smart thermostat; however, rooms like my kitchen seemed to be picking up radiation from the surrounding bungalow condos. Also I am looking into installing a kill switch to the breaker in my bedroom to see if I sleep better (although I have rarely had sleep issues since I retired).