“If the average American knew “radon” was just the tip of the domestic radiation iceberg…they would jump on the opportunity for broader EMF radiation assessment and mitigation in their home.”
MANMADE RADIATION AFFECTING OUR CHILDREN – IS NOT
ENTIRELY NEW!
Did you think EMF and radiation from fun new high-tech toys first emerged just in the last few decades?
Think again!
Between the late 1920’s and the 1970’s, upscale shoe stores in the US, UK, Canada, Germany, and Switzerland used x-ray machines (such as the “Foot-o-Scope”) to measure children’s feet and prove they were up on the latest technological advances. “Nifty!” admiring young customers and their parents must have thought.
In retrospect, we think something else. Such as: “That’s crazy.” X-rays were known by many scientists to be unsafe during those decades – but it wasn’t yet clear to the general public or industry that x-ray radiation was carcinogenic and could do long-term damage.
FAST FORWARD TO TODAY
Many scientists believe we will soon look back on today’s exploding new uses of EMF radiation in our day-to-day lives – especially among children – and regret our technology and lifestyle choices to a much greater extent.
Everywhere we look, kindergarteners hug shiny new wireless i-pads in tech-saavy schools. Youngsters around the globe sit mesmerized by small screens playing cartoons to pass time in shopping carts, airports, or other places prone to make youngsters bored or cranky. Infants have incessantly communicating baby monitors inches from their developing brains for hours on end. Teens seem glued to their phones, barely surfacing for food, water, air, or school.
BUT THE GOVERNMENT IS PROTECTING CHILDREN, RIGHT?
Surely, you think, a government quick to recall a new board game with small parts that could cause choking would never let us damage our children’s health with radiation that could impair their health.
Unfortunately, you’d be wrong. Acknowledging and addressing the mounting evidence against manmade “EMR” (electromagnetic radiation) in our day-to-day lives would pose a daunting challenge for any government. Infinitely harder than recalling a board game.
Why?
Admitting that cell phones, power lines, and even the very wires embedded in our bedroom walls can contribute mightily to cancer, infertility, neurodegeneration, and a litany of other ailments would damage our tech-based economy, impair our military (one of the biggest users of EMF for important surveillance), set us back in multi-national technology races, and open our government up to endless lawsuits.
(After all – who sold cellular bandwidth for billions of dollars to the telecommunications industry? And who electrified the country in the 20th century, dotting its landscape with endless power poles and powerlines after picking AC current standards over the less harmful DC alternative?)
GIVEN THIS REALITY, YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN
You must research, weigh the scientific evidence about EMF, then take reasoned action steps to protect yourself and your children from unreasonable exposures.
Over 2,000 peer-reviewed studies now point to man-made EMR as a major contributor to cancer, infertility, children’s behavioral issues, chronic fatigue, diabetes, obesity, heart disease – and much more. Much of this research can be accessed online (well sorted by type of radiation/ type of health issue and in both full article OR summary formats) at websites like PowerWatch and Bioinitiative Report.
OTHER BAD SIGNS – FOLLOW THE MONEY
Lloyds of London and other “reinsurance companies” who insure large companies against unexpected negative / catastrophic events have made it clear they will not cover tech companies against claims of damage to health due to radiation. (Lloyds is famous for taking risks but there are just two industries it deems too risky based on its own extensive research: high tech firms employing EMFs — and the nuclear power industry.)
And the tech industry, if it eventually suffers the same fate as Big Tobacco, will in theory NOT be liable for damages payouts to those harmed, thanks to a clause shielding them from eventual lawsuits hidden in the 1996 Telecom Act.
SO I LOVE MY CHILDREN – WHAT CAN I DO?
Luckily, there are many steps you can take as a parent to reduce domestic EMF radiation exposure. Some of these steps won’t cost you a dime. And amazingly, certain steps won’t invite pushback (or demand cooperation) from your tech-loving kids.
Your family need not eschew technology or live in a cave to for protection. You can teach children to tap into the wonders of technology AND to practice “safe usage” of technology at the same time. Just as kids know to automatically buckle up when entering a car, they should know to automatically put all devices in airplane mode before turning off the lights to sleep.
WHY CHILDREN ARE MORE SUSCEPTIBLE TO HEALTH DAMAGE FROM EMF
Children are even MORE vulnerable to radiation dangers than adults. For starters,
- Their smaller bodies, bones, and thinner skulls allow greater absorption into the body and brain
- Their higher body water content absorbs higher levels of radiation (1)(2)(3)(4)
- Their crucial bodily systems (such as their reproductive/ neurological systems) are still developing and are more vulnerable to negative environmental influences
- Being young, they have a larger time ahead for latent affects to appear (5)(6)(7)(8)
Dr. Om Gahndhi of the University of Utah has shown how radiation penetrates the skull of an adult (25%), a ten-year old (50%) and a five-year old (75%). (4) Bone marrow in a child’s skull absorbs 10x more microwave radiation than does an adult’s. (9)
So how you handle EMF radiation in your household – and what you teach your children about “safe usage” — could exert a strong influence on how good your children’s health is by the time they are in their 30’s, 40’s or 50’s. In general, bodily toxins (whether cigarette smoke or EMF radiation) have long latency periods.
TODAY’S EXPLODING RATES OF MOOD, BEHAVIORAL, AND OTHER DISORDERS IN KIDS
But radiation could impact your children’s health and behavior a lot sooner than that. In her 2012 Psychology Today article “Electronic Screen Syndrome: An Unrecognized Disorder” Victoria L. Dunkley MD provides evidence that “Interacting with screens shifts the nervous system into fight-or-flight mode which leads to dysregulation and disorganization of various biological systems…In short, interacting with screen devices causes a child to become overstimulated and “revved up.” (10) Dysregulation is defined as the inability to appropriately modulate one’s mood, attention, or level of arousal in a manner that makes sense given the environment and often leads to diagnoses such as ADHD.
There has been a disturbing correlation between electronic screen time and the rise of disorders in children such as inability to concentrate, disorganized behavior, aggression, insomnia, mood disorders, and poor short-term memory.
Dr. Dunkley reports that between 1980 and 2007 the diagnosis of ADHD increased by nearly 800 percent. (11)(12) And doctors visits by youths diagnosed with pediatric bipolar disorder increased 40-fold from 1994 to 2003. (13)
Isn’t it interesting that Bill Gates told the UK Mirror that he and his wife banned their children from owning a cell phone before they turned 14? And that Steve Jobs confessed in a 2011 New York Times interview that he prohibited his children from using his newly released iPod? Few in our country have better access to (and vested interests in understanding) the research on tech impacts on kids than these high-tech giants. (14)
STEPS TO PROTECT YOUR CHILDREN
To protect you and your children from overexposure to EMF radiation, consider tactics such as these:
- Encourage the reading of real physical books, not books consumed on Kindles or iPads (even if their device is not transmitting, “blue lit” screens can impair melatonin production and undermine both sleep and cancer-fighting abilities)
- Limit cell phone usage while providing a corded landline with a cozy beanbag chair for calling friends “off the clock” (no limits!)
- Turn off the house wifi at night while everyone sleeps
- Provide shielded Cat-7 ethernet cords for daytime laptop usage
- Send kids outside to play more often (just be sure they leave electronic devices inside and don’t play directly under power lines!)
- Make meals “device free” family time
The most important part of your child’s world to protect from radiation is arguably their sleep. And teaching them to use “airplane mode” at night is not enough. Electric and magnetic fields from wires in bedroom walls just inches from your child’s head can wreak havoc with cellular repair processes that happen only at night. Humans are built to endure many flavors of “stress” by day – but are meant to regenerate at night. Manmade EMR interferes with this crucial regeneration.
GET PROFESSIONAL HELP TO MEASURE AND MITIGATE YOUR HOME’S RADIATION LEVELS
The good news? The damaging EMF effects of these wires in our home electrical systems can often be greatly reduced. (Often without pulling open walls to expose wiring.)
Your children’s odds of strong health will be well-served if you can mitigate low- and high-frequency EMFs in their bedrooms. Nightly rest and cellular repair is often sub-optimal when manmade EMF fields irritate us at a cellular level – or prevent normal mitochondrial function.
To give you and your children the best shot at short- and long-term health – consider having your home assessed and mitigated by a professional EMF consultant who can help minimize these problematic electric/ magnetic fields from wiring – and many other damaging sources of domestic electromagnetic radiation. A basic assessment often takes 2-4 hours, and focuses in large part on ensuring bedrooms are truly health sanctuaries (not bad actors) in your family’s quest for health.
If the average American knew “radon” was just the tip of the domestic radiation iceberg…they would jump on the opportunity for broader EMF radiation assessment and mitigation in their home.
You don’t want to be the parent saying “I wish I’d known and acted” 20-30 years from now. You can affordably measure and reduce home EMF today. With 5G around the bend, it is especially important to mitigate whatever is within your control to reduce overall body radiation load.
Think of it this way: If you work hard to dish up healthy, real, home cooked meals and limit everyone’s screen time – yet forget to dial back where possible on the radiation levels in your child’s young life — you roll the dice and potentially undermine your own efforts.
- Gandhi et al, 1996, IEEE Trans. Microwave Theor. Techniq.
44(10):1884–1897. Electromagnetic
absorption in the human head and neck for mobile telephones at 835 and 1900 MHz. - Gandhi et al, 2012, Electromagn Biol Med. 2012
Mar;31(1):34-51. Exposure limits: the underestimation of
absorbed cell phone radiation, especially in children.
(full paper) - De Salles et al, 2006, Electromagn Biol
Med. 2006;25(4):349-60. Electromagnetic
absorption in the head of adults and children due to mobile phone operation
close to the head. - Wiart et al, 2008, Phys Med Biol. 2008 Jul
7;53(13):3681-95. Analysis of RF exposure in
the head tissues of children and adults. - Redmayne, 2013, Environ Health. 2013 Jan 10;12:5. doi:
10.1186/1476-069X-12-5. New Zealand
adolescents’ cellphone and cordless phone user-habits: are they at increased
risk of brain tumours already? A cross-sectional study. - Hardell et al, 2009, Pathophysiology, Volume 16, Issue 2 ,
Pages 113-122, August 2009. Epidemiological
evidence for an association between use of wireless phones and tumor diseases - Hardell et al, 2007, Int J Oncol. 2011
May;38(5):1465-74. Pooled analysis of case-control studies on
malignant brain tumours and the use of mobile and cordless phones including
living and deceased subjects. - Lönn et al, 2004, Epidemiology. 2004 Nov;15(6):653-9.Mobile phone use and the risk of acoustic
neuroma. - “Children
Face the Highest Health Risk From Cell Phones,” Medscape
Medical News, Roxanne Nelson, August 13, 2014 - “Electronic Screen
Syndrome: An Unrecognized Disorder?” Victoria L. Dunkley MD, Psychology Today,
July 23, 2012 - LeFever GB, Arcona
AP, Antonuccio DO. “ADHD among American schoolchildren: evidence of
overdiagnosis and overuse of medication.” Sci Rev Ment Health Pract.
2003;2:49-60 - Visser SN, Lesesne
CA, Perou R. “National estimates and factors associated with medication
treatment for childhood attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.” Pediatrics.
2007;119(suppl 1):S99-S106. - Moreno, et al.
“National Trends in the Outpatient Diagnosis and Treatment of Bipolar Disorder
in Youth” Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2007;64(9):1032-1039. http://archpsyc.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=482424 - “Why Steve Jobs and Bill
Gates Both Severely Limited Their Kids’ Tech Use”, Inc. Magazine, Jessica
Stillman (October 29, 2017)
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