Chapter 11

Wireless Travellers

How much time do the members of your family spend travelling each week by car or public transport?

If you’re like most families, it’s probably a considerable amount.

Did you know that cars, buses, trains, and trams all expose travellers to wireless radiation?

The combination of wireless radiation and metal vehicles of all descriptions is quite a potent one. That’s because the metal walls reflect the wireless signal so that it bounces around the vehicle, exposing passengers inside.

Public transport

Some buses, trains, and trams are mini hotspots, providing free wi-fi (in other words, free radiation) to travellers.

In addition, travellers are exposed to radiation from their own and other people’s wireless devices.

Tips for public transport

There’s not a great deal you can do to avoid this exposure; however, the following may be useful.

• Identify if your public transport contains a hotspot. If it does, ask the driver where the router is located, and don’t sit close to it.
• Avoid adding to your exposure: don’t use your own wireless devices when you travel — or use them in airplane mode.
• If you do use a wireless device, don’t place it directly against your body while it’s connecting to the internet. For example, don’t use a laptop directly on your lap; don’t have your mobile phone in a pocket or bra when you talk using a headset.
• Travel in a ‘silent’ carriage, where travellers are less likely to be talking on mobile phones.

Keep in mind that if you want to reduce your exposure to wireless radiation, the most important place to do that is in the home, because you spend far more time there than you do on public transport.

A THOUGHT

Spare a thought for others. Avoid using your wireless devices on public transport where you can expose other people to the radiation they emit.

Cars

Modern cars can contain an array of Bluetooth-enabled technologies, including mobile-phone kits, music, reversing cameras, GPS, parking sensors, and tyre-pressure monitors. As you’ve seen, ‘Bluetooth’ is a type of wireless radiation, so all of these helpful gadgets expose the occupants of the car.

As well as that, travellers are exposed to the fields from all the wireless devices that passengers are using — including any mobile phones that are turned on, irrespective of whether anyone is making a call.

In many places (Australia, the United Kingdom, and over a dozen American states, for example), it’s illegal to drive while holding a mobile phone. But did you know that even talking on a hands-free mobile phone while you drive is dangerous, too? Studies have found that talking on a mobile phone while driving reduces driver performance by reducing the driver’s ability to position the car on the road, and impairing visual scanning and decision-making — it can quadruple the risk of a crash.

Texting is even more distracting than talking on a mobile phone.

Tips for car travel

Here is a range of suggestions for reducing exposure to wireless radiation when your family travels by car.

• Don’t locate a baby seat near an external aerial.
• Turn off the car Bluetooth.
• Make sure all mobile phones are turned OFF for the duration of the journey.
• Make sure any tablets are in airplane mode.

• Reduce reliance on wireless devices. Keep an activity box in the car to entertain kids. It could contain:

  • plenty of good reading material
  • paper and pencils
  • activity books
  • a pack of cards
  • easy craft (like crochet or weaving).

The advantage of travelling by car is that you have control of the levels of wireless radiation to which your family is exposed.