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No, you’re not alone, and yes, “we’re all in this together.”
Smartphone addiction comes with prevalent physical dangers.
Instagram is “intentionally designed to mimic addictive painkillers,” says Business Insider, and it’s “no accident,” the Washington Post tells us, “that Facebook is “so addictive.”
Americans are addicted. We check our smartphones 96 times daily on average and spend 5.4 hours on them.
As it edges toward something of a global addiction, less and less frequently is heard the rebuttal, “If it were true, I would have read about it.”
Users no longer need even set down their phones to read up on it. Witness a handful of headlines from the New York Times:
- “Hooked on Our Smartphones”
- “How to Break Up With Your Smartphone”
- “Read This. Then Put Away Your Phone”
- “Putting Down Your Phone May Help You Live Longer,” and,
- “I Quit My Smartphone,” (“Thanks to the Allen Carr technique for quitting smoking.”)
And that last one is especially apropos, since “Cell phones are the cigarettes of the 21st century,” says Dr. Joseph Mercola.
How to Avoid EMFs
In their 2017 book, “Radiation Nation; Fallout of Modern Technology,” authors Daniel & Ryan Debaun say almost all modern electronic devices—laptops, tablets, and cell phones—emit two types of EMF radiation: ELF and RF (extremely low frequency and radiofrequency radiation).
Daniel, a former engineer at both Bell Labs and AT&T, says, “If you truly want to protect yourself, you must completely block both these types of radiation.”
And, yes, that’s certainly easier said than done on both a physical and mental level, but even strides toward it are worthwhile.
Simple disciplines and remediation strategies can go far toward mitigating the harmful effects of EMF and EMR.
The EMF Solution is Threefold
According to the Debauns, founders of the DefenderShield EMF protection product line, the solution is threefold:
- Create distance from devices. (At one foot away, exposure reduces to one-fourth, at two feet, to one-sixteenth.)
- Reduce time spent with or on those devices
- Shield yourself from its EMF emissions
Chemist and MIT graduate Raymond Francis, MSc and author of Never Be Sick Again, likewise suggests minimization and avoidance: “The best policy for people concerned about health, especially cancer,” he says, “is to minimize exposure to EMFs.”
Francis recommends avoiding electrical blankets entirely or using them only to heat an unoccupied bed, increasing your distance from TVs to 6 or more feet, and avoiding electric razors for instance, as Seattle’s Battelle Memorial Institute found users had twice the odds of developing leukemia, a cancer of the body’s blood-forming tissue.
That assertion is contested, but a July 2010 study confirmed the same as applies to children: “The epidemiological evidence…reveals a consistent pattern of increased leukemia incidence in children exposed to low electromagnetic fields.”
The study’s authors suggest an urgent need to reconsider exposure limits, noting that after a review of the scientific literature over the nearly 30 years between 1979 and 2008, “Studies to date have not convincingly confirmed or ruled out an association between non-ionizing radiation and the risk of childhood leukemia.”
In his February 2020 book, “EMF*D; 5G, Wi-Fi & Cell Phones: Hidden Harm and How to Protect Yourself,” Dr. Mercola gives four guiding principles to reduce EMF exposure.
In summary:
- Avoid unnecessary exposure, particularly in your own home and on your own devices.
- Put distance between your body and EMFs you can’t avoid.
- Decrease the amount of EMF exposure entering your home from external sources.
- When all else fails, shield yourself.
Scientific studies show EMF exposure causes oxidative stress, sperm, and testicular damage, male infertility, apoptosis (programmed cell death), stimulates the growth of adipose stem cells (“role in obesity?” the study’s authors ask), DNA damage, abnormal postnatal development, and disruptive endocrine changes.
Mounting studies and evidence make protective measures more important than ever.
Here is a basic starter checklist that will help you do just that.
Checklist for Reducing, Avoiding & Eliminating Harmful EMF Exposure
- Reduce the time you spend on devices. This is simultaneously the most effective and most difficult action you can take. Turn on “Screen Time” to record the hours you spend on your device daily and work to reduce those hours.
- In all cases, choose corded over wireless: ethernet, computer mice, and keyboards. As for headphones and earbuds, aim to avoid them altogether and use your phone on speaker only.
- Increase your distance from devices. The bedroom is an important start: remove smart and other electronics entirely. If you feel comfortable with it, turning off circuit breakers to the room is most effective. Short of that, unplugging TVs and bed lamps is a must.
- Rather than hold a phone to your ear, use your speakerphone. “When talking on a mobile phone, the best avoidance strategy is to switch to speakerphone and keep the device several inches from the head,” says Brandon LaGreca, author of “Cancer and EMF Radiation” (2019).
- Turn house Wi-Fi and wireless routers off at night.
- Better yet, use a wired network instead of Wi-Fi. “Wired networks (using Ethernet cables) are not only safer but also faster,” says Debaun.
- Never use your “laptop” in your lap.
- Replace any metal-spring mattresses you might have. “A mattress with metal springs can act like an antenna, conducting ambient EMFs around the body while sleeping,” says LaGreca.
- Avoid electric blankets and electric razors.
- Put your phone in airplane mode as often as possible. Keep it out of your bra and far away from your breasts and reproductive organs. If it has to go in a pocket, make it the back pocket, but a purse, handbag or briefcase are the better choices.
- Make the car a No-Cell-Phone-Use Zone for driver and passengers. Put phones in airplane mode and set them away from your body while driving. “Faraday’s law identifies that EMF are reflected by metal and therefore amplified within metal containers,” says Elizabeth Plourde, Ph.D., and author of “EMF Freedom; Solutions for the 21st Century Pollution” (2016). This fact was proven in a study conducted across five European nations, she says. “They identified the greatest radiation that people were subjected to was while riding on public forms of transportation—trains and buses—as well as in their cars, due to use of cell phones by those on board.”
- Remove fluorescent bulbs and fixtures from your home.
- Ditch your SmartMeter or shield it with a homemade or purchased Faraday cage.
- Replace your baby monitor with a hardwired camera and microphone, or keep the baby monitor as far away as possible. “In a cruel irony, most baby monitors are a major source of RF radiation,” says Dr. Mercola.
- On road trips and during car rides, place the baby seat away from tire wells, such as in the middle of the back seat. “A child sitting in a baby seat over a rear tire could get a higher magnetic field exposure in an hour riding in a car than in twenty-four hours at home,” says Dr. Samuel Milham, author of more than a hundred peer-reviewed articles and the 2012 book, “Dirty Electricity; Electrification and the Diseases of Civilization.”
- Limit your child’s use of electronic devices. Download games, songs, or content so the device can access them while not connected to Wi-Fi.
- Don’t use your cell phone in areas of poor connection unless you truly must. Your cell phone works hardest and produces the greatest amount of EMFs when it has a poor signal; if an app or video is stalling or buffering, that’s a sure sign to reposition yourself and try again.
Proofing Yourself Up Physically Against EMFs
Fifteen-year health consultant and Ph.D. Elizabeth Plourde has spent a decade researching and warning on the health effects of electromagnetic radiation after having been afflicted herself when SmartMeters were installed in her Northern California neighborhood. She suggests proofing up your body against EMFs and the oxidative damage they cause.
Among her suggestions:
- Stay well hydrated.
- Eat high antioxidant foods to offset the cellular damage; eat organic and non-GMO foods to reduce your toxic intake. Increase your intake of antioxidants:
- Vitamin C
- Vitamin E
- Ginkgo Biloba
“Our results suggest that vitamin C may play a protective role against detrimental effects of mobile phone radiation in brain tissue,” says a 2010 study, while a 2007 study on mobile phones and antioxidants also concluded, “mobile telephone radiation leads to oxidative stress in corneal and lens tissues and that antioxidants such as vitamin C can help to prevent these effects.”
- Wear natural fibers rather than synthetics. The latter attracts electricity. Cotton, silk, wool, and linen are all great options.
- Ground or Earth yourself frequently.
