Should we be more cautious about EMF’s?

I wrote a short review of Dr. Joseph Mercola’s new book, EMF*D: 5G, Wi-Fi & Cell Phones: Hidden Harms and How to Protect Yourself, in the latest issue of the green web newsletter Curiously Green.

Here, I’m really just making a note of some of the highlights for easy future reference. The book is loosely focused on 5G mobile technology, particularly millimetre wavelength 5G, but in practice it’s a general book covering all types of EMF radiation. It explains what EMF’s are, how they can impact human health, how they might impact the natural environment and what we can all do about it.

Joseph Mercola is a controversial character who would be automatically be ignored by some, but this book is actually very detailed and well researched. The marketing for the book is pretty alarmist, but in practice most of the book is fairly realistic in its approach. It doesn’t take the hard line of trying to make us paranoid about avoiding all EMFs, but simply tries to raise awareness of the need to be cautious and find a healthy balance between using modern technology and minimising EMF exposure.

For a long time, I’ve been curious about whether EMFs pose any risk to human health but never taken the time to really look into it. A few years ago, one of my moles went funky directly underneath where I usually carried my mobile phone in my jacket pocket. After having a rather sizeable chunk cut out of my abdomen, I couldn’t help but feel somewhat suspicious. Recently, when I saw that Dr. Dale Bredesen listed EMF exposure as one of the risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease, I thought it was worth reading up on the topic.

Having read Mercola’s book and having had my own somewhat worrying experience, I think it makes sense to at least take some basic precautions.

Here are some suggestions to reduce exposure to EMF radiation that I picked up from the book?

Mobile Phones

• Minimise mobile phone use and only make calls on speakerphone or with wired headphones (ideally airtube headphones).
• Avoid using mobile phones in confined spaces such as cars and lifts, and minimise using them in areas with weak signal.
• Keep phones on airplane mode when not in use especially when carrying close to your body, and never carry on your body when switched on
• Ensure that your airplane mode actually switches off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth not just to the mobile phone signal.
• If you’re concerned about missing calls while your phone is switched off or on airplane mode, use a service like YouMail to email voicemail messages to you.
• Switch off mobile phones and/or keep as far away as possible from you at night.

Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and wireless devices

• Do an audit of which products in your house have wireless signals, then switch off or remove any devices that you don’t need.
• For devices that you do need to keep, implement a strategy to minimise how often they are switched on.
• Replace Wi-Fi connections with wired connections where possible, such as Ethernet for computers and smart TVs. Note that this only helps if you switch off the wireless signals on those devices as well.
• Put your Wi-Fi hub on a timer plug so that it automatically switches off at night. Do the same for other wireless appliances.
• Position wireless devices such as Wi-Fi hubs and cordless phone hubs away from where you normally sit and sleep.
• Avoid cordless accessories, such as bluetooth headsets, wireless computer mice and wireless keyboards.
• If possible, replace cordless phones with corded phones.
• Avoid using baby monitors.
• Avoid wearing wireless devices such as smart watches

General EMFs

• Switch off all electrical items in or near your bedroom at night.
• If possible, install an isolating switch to completely isolate the circuits in your bedroom at night.
• Test for significant sources of EMFs like faulty wiring, electric heaters, cookers, microwaves, solar inverters or anything unexpected. Once you know what these major sources are, you can try to make informed decisions about if and what you can do about them.
• Avoid running extension chords under beds and sofas.
• Use a grounded power adapters on laptop computers.

It seems that there is no perfect solution and it’s very personal how far we should all take it. The list above is really the tip of the iceberg. However, cultivating awareness of where EMF exposure comes from and implementing practical day-to-day strategies to minimise that exposure seems like a pretty sensible idea.

Hopefully it won’t be too long before clear and reliable information about EMF safety is available to help people make informed choices.

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Posted by Tom Greenwood on 27 March 2020