What Are EMFs – and Why Should I Care?

^{Featured photo by Duncan C via Flickr}

What do tobacco, sugar, and wifi all have in common? Aside from fueling our vices, they’ve all been touted as part of a healthy lifestyle. Got a cough? Smoke a Camel. Trying to lose weight? Snack on a sugar-laden granola bar. Want to save a tree? Go digital, or better yet, wireless.

But one of these is not like the others. After decades of lobbying, social engineering, endorsement by medical professionals and “studies” to back their claims, eventually, tobacco and sugar (to a lesser extent) received the public infamy they deserved. Sure, Americans still enjoy our nicotine and eat a few too many cookies, but we’re aware of the consequences.

Meanwhile, we’re adding new sources of wireless radiation to our lives by the year. Whether it’s a new tablet, security system, or air pods, we are treading in uncharted waters: never in the history of human existence have we endured this much exposure to these pulsed signals.

We’re constantly reassured by trusted authority figures that they’re perfectly safe, but no one can prove these frequencies do not threaten us and the environment.

On the contrary, there are literally thousands of studies begging us to exercise caution.

Yet there are virtually no regulations, no longitudinal safety studies, and no public awareness or discourse in the United States.

Do I have your attention yet?

A brief refresher on EMFs 

Since you’ll see the abbreviation used continuously, EMF is short for “electromagnetic fields” which encompass everything on the electromagnetic (EM) spectrum from long-wave, low energy, to infinitesimally short, high energy waves.

Visible light divides these frequencies into ionizing and non-ionizing radiation. The former earns its moniker for removing electrons from molecules and atoms, while non-ionizing can produce heat.

On the ionizing, or high-energy side lie some bands of ultraviolet light, x-ray and gamma rays, while long-wave, non-ionizing radiation encompasses an enormous range of radio and microwaves, AKA the frequencies that power our electrical and wireless modern lives.

Since the hazards of ionizing radiation aren’t an area of contention, i.e., everyone knows that x-rays and gamma rays produce unwelcomed side effects, we’re going to focus on the other end of the spectrum, non-ionizing radiation.

On this side lies electrical wiring and machinery (AC fields), including high-voltage power lines on the lowest end of radio waves; meanwhile higher-frequency bands of radio and microwaves include WiFi, cell service, and any other signals used to connect our devices.

You’ll see a lot of overlap as devices that emit radio/microwave fields will also generate magnetic and electric fields. Below are a few examples of common sources of non-ionizing EMFs in our daily lives.  

Every wireless device you own sends and receives some form of EMF. Your cell phone, your router, computer, tablets, electric meter, TVs, thermostats, possibly even gaming system or appliances, even wearable tech now – they all constantly or recurrently receive and/or send signals from each other and your local cell towers as well as generate their own electrical and magnetic fields. That’s a lot of signals, and we haven’t even left home yet.

So what harm do they really cause?

So much that I’ve had to dedicate entire blog posts on them!

To keep it simple, EMFs the brain and central and autonomic nervous system by producing a wide range of downstream effects; they affect the heart and burden every one of our cells. They also inflict a dose-dependent amount of oxidative stress on the body.

This oxidative stress occurs when the body’s natural antioxidant defense system is overwhelmed by the amount of free-radicals, which are directly linked to chronic and life-threatening diseases. Oxidative stress typically arises from sources like pollution, poor lifestyle habits like a lack of sleep, processed food, and even everyday stressors.

When this oxidative stress challenges the body’s natural antioxidant response, inflammation occurs. Though inflammation is a natural, necessary reaction to protect against pathogens and foreign invaders, when chronically engaged, havoc breaks loose throughout the body and taxes the immune system over time.

And since EMFs are an especially potent source of this oxidative stress, there are a host of inflammatory complications now directly tied to exposure. Some of these inflammatory-triggered side effects include:

• increased risk for several types of malignancies

• neurological and possible neurodegenerative diseases

• blood clots and cardiovascular disease

• auto-immune diseases

• reproductive and hormonal disorders

• increased risk for viral infections

[See an expanded list of EMF-related complications here]

You’ll never see it coming until it’s too late

Frustratingly, EMFs are pernicious, so they’re extremely difficult to blame as a causal factor. They’re sneaky. They work behind the scenes, progressively overwhelming our immune systems and fogging our mental clarity.

They slide beneath the public health radar for the same reason smoking hazards were refuted for much of the 20th century. For instance, if a smoker died of heart or even lung disease, “there wasn’t enough direct evidence” to point the finger at Big Tobacco. And like tobacco, their effects may take years to manifest before erupting into a serious disease, and affect everyone within proximity of the user.

Make no mistake, though: they can actually cause overt symptoms that present as other, completely unrelated disorders by impairing the body’s antioxidant, hormonal, or neurotransmitter responses. When this happens, you might start to experience a constellation of unpleasant symptoms (that you’ll probably blame on everything else under the sun).

Common symptoms of excessive EMF exposure include:

• Frequent headaches

• Heart palpitations and/or episodes of tachycardia (rapid heart rate)

• Intermittent gastrointestinal problems

• Anxiety

• Chest pain

• Cognitive Impairments; difficulty concentrating; ADD or ADHD-like symptoms

• Fatigue

• Insomnia

• Muscle pain

• Secondary sensitivities, possible Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS), if severe enough

With enough exposure over a long enough time, these frightening and unpleasant side effects could explode into a full-fledged severe electromagnetic hypersensitivity, or EHS. And if that happens, good luck surviving in the modern, wireless world. I say this firsthand.

But if these signals were harmful, we would know about it. Wouldn’t there be regulations?

The conventional knowledge reiterates ad nauseum that, so long as it does not produce thermal effects – in other words, so long as it does not literally cook your flesh like a microwave oven would – the signals are too weak to harm you. Not only is this scathingly false, but neglects years of accumulating research on the effects of chronic exposure, as our mainstream assumptions are predicated on antiquated or invalid studies.

Even though ample evidence has surfaced to compel the World Health Organization (WHO) to classify non-ionizing radiation as a possible carcinogen, regulations from the FCC are so outdated, they could buy themselves a drink or rent a car in any US state.

Their safety levels centralize around the threshold of EMF your skin can absorb – and basically exist only exist for liability purposes, like to prevent companies from converting the property across from your home into a mega transmission hub and scalding your skin and liquifying your eyes into goo. The reports are eloquently complied, but the proof is in the pudding of pain that they are sorely inadequate.

Even International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) warns that children who live near high-voltage power lines are at a heightened risk for leukemia, yet houses are still constructed right alongside them.

Much like our aging infrastructure and power grid, these “regulations” are either laughably feckless or wholly ignored.

This is why we must take action before our cities, towns, and suburbs are irreversibly transformed into inhabitable cancer hotspots. It is our duty to become involved in every way we can: from educating our local municipalities of this grave injustice to writing our members of congress and even our governors.

Join the growing international appeal that demands non-ionizing radiation (specifically the 5G range) be further tested and learn more from reputable organizations like the Bioinitiative Report.

In the meantime, learn more and jump to my blog here.