It wasn’t so long ago someone could play and work in the open field and the only radiation they would be exposed to was from the Earth itself, the sun, moon and stars. That kind of radiation is mainly beneficial. The rays from the sun coordinate hormones, activate vitamin development and many other chemical processes essential to the well being of the human body.
In contrast, beginning in the early part of the last century, man made radiation transmissions became common place and exposure to them has increased ever since. Even so, exposure to man made radiation was very low. Later, with the popularity of television in the second half of last century, almost all western households possessed a television set. There were warnings for people not to sit too close to their TV sets and it was generally acknowledged that TV and radio receivers did not pose much of a threat.
When rumours of cancer clusters near television transmitters became more widespread the subject of health effects from electromagnetic radiation exposure in the workplace came under increased scrutiny.
As radio products became more widespread and mobile telephones became popular the electromagnetic smog increased significantly. Cellular transmission towers were erected around the country and there were definite concerns about the effect they were having on people’s health.
I worked in the communications industry from the late 70’s into the 90’s and I recall health warnings during the 80’s were spelled out quite plainly when working with radio frequency (RF) transmissions. There were clear power and exposure risk warnings in place for things like VHF, UHF and microwave radio. As more and more radio products became household items rather than work place tools warnings became less commonplace.
In little more than one hundred years the planet’s atmosphere has become a soup of electromagnetic radiation, a significant change without doubt, and health authorities responsible for ensuring our well being and manufacturers of these products are side stepping the issue.
In fact, I would go as far to say that manufacturers of these products, with the help of the regulatory authorities, have taken a stance very similar to that of the tobacco industry when they were under scrutiny. I have heard from one source that the same P.R. company the tobacco industry used to deflect criticisms about cigarette products is being used by cellular telephone and power industries regarding criticisms of electromagnetic frequencies (EMF).
Following in the footsteps of the tobacco industry, the power and telephone industry’s official statements in this issue are that there is no direct evidence that exposure to (EMF) at the levels their products emit cause harm. Meanwhile, for every study that delivers evidence for concern the industries fund another to dispute the first.
This is the very same tactic the tobacco industry used to stall official warnings for decades while they continued to sell a product that slowly killed their customers.
What is happening now?
Rather than take the cautionary step of positioning high powered transmission lines and cellular transmission towers in areas that effect the least people, schools and community facilities are positioned right under transmission lines and towers and the new 5G cellular networks, smart electric meters and wi-fi products are being rolled out across the western world with transceivers positioned only feet and sometimes inches from where people sleep.
These products, such as wi-fi routers, bluetooth devices, cordless telephones and baby monitors, are very convenient but more and more studies are showing the accumulative exposure to this radioactive smog is having a negative effect on our health.
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