The fact that humans cannot see, touch, taste, or smell EMR significantly hampers people’s ability to consider the risks of being exposed to it. This was a significant factor in the ready acceptance of X-ray technology when it was first introduced, with many ultimately paying the price in premature death.
This is also why accurate information about EMR is so essential. The studies presented in this book give clear evidence of significant biological effects of EMR on all life—humans, animals, plants.
These dangers are such that one would reasonably assume that action has been taken to address the situation. It has not. The primary reason for inaction is the meme repeatedly cited by the wireless industry: there is NO CONCLUSIVE PROOF of harm.
Significantly, you will note, the wireless industry does not deny that validated scientific evidence exists that many negative biological and health effects can result from exposure to the radiation emitted by their products. They focus, instead, on the lack of conclusive proof of damage to people’s health.
Such an approach mandates that both industry and the general public wait until incontrovertible evidence exists that EMR damages human health. This serves only to delay the modification of industry practices to a much later point in time when a far greater number of people will have been affected by disease from these exposures.
The accumulated evidence regarding dangers of EMF exposure are clear, just as was true for tobacco, lead, asbestos, DDT, PCBs, CFCs, X-ray radiation—heck, even something as simple and obvious as getting doctors to wash their hands before operating on patients was an uphill battle against the lack of conclusive proof of harm. In each of these cases, society delayed the implementation of corrective measures until more evidence had accumulated. In the meantime, vast numbers of people were irreversibly harmed.
Today, one need only look around and see the glaciers and ice caps disappearing, the southwest United States on fire, periods of extreme temperatures (both hot and cold) becoming increasingly common, and some of our largest and most populated cities under direct threat from rising sea levels. Scientific knowledge of climate change (formerly known as global warming) has existed for almost 40 years, during which time the evidence of damage has accumulated. And still many challenge—even openly ridicule—the existence of climate change.
This ridicule is not designed to inform; rather, it is designed to mislead and delay.
This is not how we live our lives. This is not how we teach our children to live their lives. If you cross the street when the sign says Don’t Walk, will you be run over and die? Probably not. But you stand a notably higher chance of dying than if you wait until the sign changes to Walk. This is why you generally don’t cross the street, against the sign, unless you’re in an important rush.
This is but one simple example of how we evaluate and respond to risks in our daily lives. You might use the expression “better safe than sorry” to explain it to your children.
That’s how industry and regulators should respond to public health threats, such as those demonstrated with EMF exposures. Doing so involves adopting a different approach to regulations. Instead of waiting for conclusive proof that a threat exists, authorities should recognize that it is far smarter to be better safe than sorry by implementing the Precautionary Principle in a reassessment of current safety standards for EMF exposures.
As stated in the Rio Declaration, “where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing cost-effective measures to prevent environmental degradation.”1 It is vital that we act and that we do so now.
Recall, this takes place in a context in which EMF exposures continue to increase. Until a couple of hundred years ago, the only elec tromagnetic energy to which humans were exposed came from cosmic radiation (primarily the sun), the earth’s own magnetic field, and from environmental events like lightning strikes. That’s it.
Now, well over a century into the Electromagnetic Age, our world is quite different. First came the lightbulb. Then came the grid to power it. Then came electrical appliances in the home. Then came the radio. Then came radar. Then came television. Then came cordless phones. Then came microwave ovens. Then came cell phones. Then came WiFi. Then came Bluetooth devices. Then came smart meters. And so on and so on.
With each new powerful application of AC power and each new innovation in wireless communication, the human exposures continue to increase—in strength of individual exposures, in concurrency of multiple exposures, and in cumulative time exposed. We have known and been warned about this danger for years. In October 1999, the David Suzuki Foundation issued the following statement: “People in modern cities are exposed to levels of EMR millions of times higher than, and fundamentally different from, the natural background radiation. The dramatic change in our electromagnetic environment has serious implications for human health.”2 We did not evolve as biological organisms to live in this type of world, and we continue to alter the electromagnetic profile of the planet at a rate faster than life can evolve to adapt and cope with these changes. The result is genetic mutation, biological dysfunction, and disease. This trend has become increasingly clear as these unnatural sources of EMF continue to increase. With the number of devices growing apace, the EMR exposure is increasing at an enormously rapid—even exponential—rate.
In this context, with this much evidence, a wait-and-see approach makes absolutely no sense from any perspective other than the bottom-line profit of those companies that trade in EMF-emitting technologies. Instead, we must implement precautionary measures immediately at several levels: individually, within our families, and within our communities.
Chapter 12 presents the precautionary actions possible at the individual and family level. Those actions revolve around two basic rules:
At the community level the issues are different. One example involves the first parent who contacted me by e-mail. His children were attending a school that was planning to install a WiFi system. He wrote:
I desperately need help. I feel . . . that continuous exposure of adolescents to RF [radio frequency] for a period of six hours a day, five days a week, for nine months out of a year, for at least three years has likely NOT been proven safe by any study. I do not know what to ask or how to frame an argument against this. I hope to challenge the representative and somehow gain the ear of a concerned decision maker to save our kids.
I responded to him with relevant information (such as some of what’s been included in this book). Armed with knowledge, he crafted and distributed leaflets to inform other parents of these risks. He organized meetings and continuously worked to inform anyone who had a stake in the school’s WiFi project. After several months of these activities, which catalyzed his community, the routers in the school were removed.
This is an outstanding and encouraging outcome and an excellent example of what can be done at the community level. One person, with no formal training in EMF science or industrial engineering, was able to obtain and package enough relevant information, to convince others, and effect real change. Using available, well-documented information, this parent’s actions led to the removal of a school-wide WiFi network, creating an educational environment in which his child and the other children would avoid thousands of hours of needless exposure to microwave radiation. And this was achieved without any need for the students to forsake the Internet and its benefits, since alternative, safe systems (Ethernet cables) are available.
Having access to accurate information and putting that information into action are the keys to success. I hope this book helps by providing you with the information you need to begin creating a safer environment for yourself, your family, and your community. The public health threat resulting from EMF exposure is real, and it is well within your power to greatly reduce the risks faced by you and your loved ones.