Research into artificial electromagnetic fields (EMFs) has been going on a long time, infact before WW2, scientists had already found unequivocal evidence that artificial EMFs had significant effects on life. Scientists found a measurable stress response when animals were exposed to low frequency AC electric fields (EFs) and magnetic fields (MFs) which had a subsequent knock-on effect on their immune system. It appeared that all biology was sensitive to tiny changes other than what appears in nature. These changes gathered in momentum as we began to use more and more microwave technology which used high frequencies, allowing long distance communication possible. This technology played a vital role in our wars, giving countries huge strategic advantages.
This spurred on a whole new wave of wireless technology. In one generation we saturated our planet with radiofrequencies (RFS) and microwaves, millions of levels higher than anything experienced in the natural world. We’re still trying to figure out how all this impacts us as it’s far more complicated than we first thought. How exactly is non-ionising radiation absorbed into the body? What frequencies are most detrimental? What are the long term effects? There are no guidelines here, it’s unknown territory that we have dived right into. Interestingly when you look back at the earlier literature, you see many scientists attempting to warn governments about this, however, most of this fell on silent ears, particularly during WW2. Once we knew what this technology had to offer, it was full steam ahead. We won’t settle for anything less than the fastest connection.
Radiofrequencies & microwaves
Fast forward to the 21st century and levels have exploded far beyond these early studies. Infact EMR levels are a quintillion times higher than in the 1920s, that’s 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 more exposure. Most people are unaware these fields are affecting them because the changes are often very subtle and because most of us have never experienced life without artificial EMFs, therefore it’s always been difficult for scientists to pinpoint cause and effect in the human population. The effects of radiation are accumulative so you wouldn’t necessarily expect to see noticeable symptoms immediately and it’s the reason we’re not all dropping like flies from using our mobile phones. This is also a testament to how robust your body is, it will always do it’s best for you before presenting you with illness or disease.
New health concerns for the 21st century
Physicians are now, however, increasingly confronted with unspecific complaints without clearly identifiable causes, raising new challenges in diagnosis and treatment for the medical profession. Some people have a far stronger sensitivity to these artificial fields, known as electro-hypersensitivity or microwave syndrome where they experience symptoms such as headaches, fatigue, stress, sleep disturbances, skin symptoms, muscle ache or pain. Perhaps some of these symptoms strike a chord with you. It’s estimated that around 5% of the population has this strong sensitivity although we suspect this is much higher as we’re not thinking about EMFs in the healthcare world, it’s not on our radar in the slightest. It equally doesn’t help when the pollution is invisible, no respectable doctor would dare suggest than an invisible invader is hurting their patients. The problem is that there is no real criteria for diagnosis, doctors still don’t know how to diagnose or treat this condition. The reality is, every single living thing is sensitive to a certain degree because of its bioelectrical nature, therefore no one is truly symptom-free from EMFs. Whenever you are near an electrical device, your cells detect the field. If you were touching an electrical device and measuring your body voltage, you would see the voltage shoot up.
Electromagnetic field
EMFs have been linked to hundreds of health problems, from sperm quality to liver problems to cancer. You name it. The full list is quite outstanding. It isn’t some strange conspiracy created by the far left, it’s a matter of fact in many cases. We’re talking about the nature of life itself. We won’t be going into detail into every study but we will touch on a few notable ones which have some strong evidence. Whilst we appreciate there is some conflicting research, It’s clearly apparent which side of the research holds more weight. In order for anything to be considered completely safe, you would expect to find a large majority of studies suggesting that. There are too many studies telling a different story which can no longer be ignored. It’s all also apparent that whoever is doing the research and recommendations has a big impact on the outcome. That is to say, industry says one thing and the medical literature says another which is a familiar story in many fields.
Symptoms
We’re going to start with the real world symptoms that we all know like headaches, sleep disturbances, fatigue or memory problems. These sort of symptoms have long been documented in the world of EMFs but how did scientists know where to look? What group of people would you look to study the impact of EMFs? Epidemiological studies first studied people living close to powerlines for MF and EF exposure and telecommunication towers for RF exposure and also those generally with high occupational exposure across frequencies. This is because these individuals are receiving consistent exposure and therefore we can examine if any nonspecific health (NSH) symptoms are commonly appearing. To give you an example of one of the studies; Santini et al in 2003 conducted a survey on 530 people (270 men, 260 women) living in proximity to cellular phone base stations. Eighteen different NSH symptoms described as RF sickness of people living in the vicinity of cellular phone base stations were found. Interestingly certain complaints were experienced only in the immediate vicinity of base stations (up to 10 m for nausea, loss of appetite, visual disturbances), and others at greater distances from base stations (up to 100 m for irritability, depressive tendencies, lowering of libido, and up to 200 m for headaches, sleep disturbances, feeling of discomfort). These sorts of findings are commonly seen in the literature. In the table below, we’ve highlighted some of the other studies in this area to give you an idea of which symptoms appear.
Eger & Jahn (2010): Living near mobile phone base station
Neuropsychiatric symptoms including depression; headache; cerebral symptoms; disorders of optical and acoustic sensory systems; sleep disturbance - all of these had p < 0.001.
Khan (2008): High mobile phone use.
Headaches, fatigue, impaired concentration, memory disturbance, sleeplessness and hearing problems.
Söderqvist et al (2008): Mobile phone use among adolescent
Tiredness, stress, headaches, anxiety, concentration difficulties and sleep disturbances.
Oto et al (1994): Occupational exposure of workers to either radiofrequency fields or microwaves
10 neuropsychiatric changes were assessed, all showing statistically significant changes compared with controls: Somatization*, obsessive compulsivity*, interpersonal sensitivity, depression, anxiety*, paranoid ideation, psychoticism*, sleeping disturbance *p < 0.001.
Lamech (2014): Exposure to wireless smart meter radiation
Insomnia, headache, tinnitus, fatigue, cognitive disturbances, dysesthesias (abnormal sensation) and dizziness.
As you can see, there have been numerous studies that would indicate links between EMF exposure and symptoms (even at far lower levels than of today) and this is only a tiny fraction of the research. If we look at the commonly reported symptoms across the studies, we find remarkable similarities time and time again. In many studies, the statistical significance was lower than (p < .05) and therefore it is highly unlikely that these results occurred by chance. These findings were also reinforced by Hecht who reviewed 60 different studies of occupational exposures that were done between 1960 and 1990 in the Soviet Union and East Germany, involving over 3500 people exposed to microwave frequency radiation at intensities of less than 1/1000th of our safety guidelines. Hecht reported that exposures for up to 3 years produced increased sympathetic nervous system activity and suggested that if the cause was identified early, effective therapy is possible to reverse the effects. However longer than 4 to 5 years exposures produced more severe effects which did not reverse when the persons were subsequently put into a low-EMF exposure environment, reinforcing the cumulative nature of such EMF exposures.
Powerlines emit ELF magnetic fields
Not all of us are living close to cell towers and powerlines of course (although they have increased exponentially over the past decade) but what we find now is that these levels of exposure have crept into our homes through our use of wireless technology. We now no longer need to live close to cell towers to experience big doses of RF radiation. Wireless phones, WiFi and Bluetooth fill our home, pulsing away all day and we never consider how this might be impacting our health, mood or social interactions. Infact, this pulsing effect of RF radiation is particularly detrimental because of its chaotic nature, your cells are being battered 10 times every second from WiFi. Most wireless communication devices communicate via pulsations and the “smarter” the devices are, the more they pulse to relay the information. What this means is that the majority of us are now exposed to ever increasing RF intensities. Migraines or headaches are perhaps one of the most common symptoms and I think we have all experienced a degree of this after a long phone call; that hot feeling you get is the microwave radiation vibrating the water molecules in your brain, exactly how your microwave cooks food. This is the process of non-ionising radiation, it doesn’t quite ‘ionise’ atoms and instead vibrates them. Research has already established that the number and severity of migraine headaches are concomitant with more use of mobile phone during the day and WiFi per week yet we generally consider such effects to be part of life, symptoms with no sustenance.
Looking at the studies on mobile phone use in particular, we do appreciate that the programmes we utilise within the phone itself have a profound impact on our daily lives and subsequently health. We therefore cannot rule out these effects when looking for direct cause and effect relationships. We are only beginning to understand the psychological impact of these programmes on our wellbeing as a whole. How do constant notifications affect our ability to concentrate? How does looking at a fixed focus point for extended periods affect our eyes? However, as we’re finding out, behind the scenes of symptoms measurable biological changes are happening. Changes in our DNA, hormones and cell function, changes in the very things that make us human and alive.
References
Santini, R., Santini, P., Ruz, P. L., Danze, J. M., & Seigne, M. (2003). Survey Study of People Living in the Vicinity of Cellular Phone Base Stations. Electromagnetic Biology and Medicine, 22(1), 41-49. doi:10.1081/jbc-120020353
Eger, H., & Jahn, M. (2010). Specific symptoms and radiation from mobile basis stations in Selbitz, Bavaria, Germany: Evidence for a dose-effect relationship. Umwelt-Medizin-Gesellschaft, 23(2), 130-139.
Khan, M. (2008). Adverse Effects of Excessive Mobile Phone Use. International Journal of Occupational Medicine and Environmental Health, 21(4). doi:10.2478/v10001-008-0028-6
Söderqvist, F., Carlberg, M., & Hardell, L. (2008). Use of wireless telephones and self-reported health symptoms: A population-based study among Swedish adolescents aged 15–19 years. Environmental Health, 7(1). doi:10.1186/1476-069x-7-18
Oto, R., Akdaǧ, Z., Daşdaǧ, S., & Çelik, Y. (1994). Evaluation of Psychologic Parameters in People Occupationally Exposed to Radiofrequencies and Microwave. Biotechnology & Biotechnological Equipment, 8(4), 71-74. doi:10.1080/13102818.1994.10818812
Lamech, F. (2014). Self-Reporting of Symptom Development From Exposure to Radiofrequency Fields of Wireless Smart Meters in Victoria, Australia: A Case Series. Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, 20(6), 28-39.
Karl Hecht. (2012). Health Implications of Long-term Exposure to Electrosmog [Brochure]. Author. Retrieved from http://kompetenzinitiative.net/KIT/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/KI_Brochure-6_K_Hecht_web.pdf
Pall, M. L. (2013). Electromagnetic fields activation of voltage-gated calcium channels to produce beneficial or adverse effects. Journal of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, 17(8), 958-965. doi:10.1111/jcmm.12088
Tekieh, T., Sasanpour, P., & Rafii-Tabar, H. (2016). Effects of electromagnetic field exposure on conduction and concentration of voltage gated calcium channels: A Brownian dynamics study. Brain Research, 1646, 560-569. doi:10.1016/j.brainres.2016.06.034