The environmental condition of our home, this planet Earth, requires political decisions– and many populations can collectively influence their leaders– as well as personal decisions. This column is about our personal environment and the choices we can make for safer, healthier living in our homes and personal space. This is about modern conveniences we don’t want to give up.

Cell Phones
When pharmaceutical drugs are withdrawn from the market by the FDA, it’s not because the masses taking the drug dropped dead on the street, but a “significant number” have “significant side effects.” If cell phones were a drug or a food they’d never have been allowed on the market. This is the conclusion of British physicist Dr. Gerald Hyland published in The Lancet in 2000.

The masses walking the street with cell phones plugged into their ears have been called by a Swedish scientist the largest biological experiment in history. The masses may not develop brain tumors due to the microwaves next to their ear, but those more sensitive to electromagnetic fields (EMF) and radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RFEMF), which cell phones emit, are at risk.

With many studies on cell phone safety having been done, no definitive answers have been reached. Do cell phones cause brain cancer? We don’t know yet. Hence, their worldwide use is a huge biological experiment. (Remember, WMB’s mantra—and trademark: “You are an experiment of one, and you’re the only one who matters.”) We do know that cell phones emit low-level, non-ionizing radiation on the same frequency as microwaves. This radiation enters the user’s head, but the consequence of this for hours/day over years is largely unknown.

FDA Weighs in—Secretly
An internal FDA memo written in April 1993, which was published in 2003, reviewed existing research on microwaves emitted from cell phones and concluded that the database of studies “suggests that under at least some circumstances these exposures do indeed accelerate the development of cancer by some unknown mechanism.”

All electrically active devices produce electromagnetic fields. While some individuals will become absolutely ill from overexposure to electromagnetic fields, be assured that we’re all impacted by EMF.

Some nations are paying attention to this health impact far more than others. Electrosensitivity is not formally recognized by the medical profession in the UK, but it’s being recognized and discussed in the press. In Sweden the medical condition is a high priority. Highly insulated cables reduce EMF emissions in Swedish workplaces, and patients diagnosed with this condition receive government grants to replace electric stoves with gas units, for examples.

Symptoms of overexposure to EMF emissions
Electrosensitivity seems to affect mostly women. Symptoms include headaches, fatigue, depression, memory loss, joint pain and ringing in the ears. The first line of defense is to remove or disconnect all electrical and electronic machines and appliances from your living space, particularly the bedroom. Taking antioxidant supplements to reduce free-radical damage is helpful, and if you live where you can get a bioresonance treatment that has been very effective for me (performed by a European osteopathic physician using a device created by German and Japanese engineers).

What to Do
• Get a land-line telephone. Many young adults don’t even have a “home” phone, instead just use their cell phones; many US telecom companies will bundle costs for land-line and cell. Having a land-line reduces time on the cell.
• Leave the cell phone off; turn it on only for quick calls for your convenience. The world really doesn’t stop if you’re not continuously available. You might discover a new “you” if you’re not always ON for employers, mom, and everyone else! If you have to keep it on, put it in another room. If it’s on, it’s always searching for signals so keep it away from you.
• Use speaker phone on the cell; a hands-free device, unless it’s built with an air tube, is actually putting more concentrated RFEMF near your brain.
• NO CELL PHONES FOR CHILDREN. Their skulls are much thinner and brains undeveloped. They’re much more susceptible in this grand biological experiment.
• Remove electrical and electronic equipment from the bedroom—there goes the computer, TV, video games, radio, and every other electronic gadget. If you’re living in a studio apartment, in England they’ve recommended hanging a silver-plated curtain (!)around the bed; perhaps an aluminum-lined curtain used to reflect the sun’s rays would work.

For a thorough and authoritative discussion on this issue read the Moss Reports at http://www.cancerdecisions.com. Visit the Healthier Talk community of HSI at http://www.hsibaltimore.com” for personal insights and experiences including the Motorola engineer developing the mobile phone who died of brain cancer.

For a discussion of the physics and safety of cell phones published in the British medical journal, The Lancet visit Dr. Mercola’s health website (the journal requires a subscription for archival access)
http://http://www.mercola.com/2000/dec/17/mobile_phones.htm.

More Inconveniences next time! Salud! Truly, to your health!

P.S. When I told Mom about this week’s editorial subject (she lives without the Net), she told me of a 34 yo friend of hers who had been in excellent health. Without any warnings or symptoms she suddenly had a brain tumor, and, just as swiftly, she died. The doctors asked her family, “Did she use a cell phone very much?” The answer was, “All the time.” My question: Is any agency tracking these suspicious and otherwise unexplained deaths?