What an honor it was for us to have EMF scientist Dr. Devra Davis lecturing here in Asheville NC last week, with a presentation titled: Discover Solutions for Safer Technology!  I am so grateful to have served as one of the panelists at this event, sponsored by the Westreich Foundation.  

This blog highlights and elaborates on my 5-minute presentation at this event. After 35 years of working with individuals and communities to overcome challenging health behaviors (including EMF exposure for the past 10 years), here is what I have concluded:  Once our awareness is raised about the need for EMF protection, the shift to low-EMF living is only 10% technical, and 90% behavioral.   Sustained behavior change is very challenging, particularly with a convenient, addictive device like a smart phone!   

I will focus below mostly on the challenges specific to the most ubiquitous type of EMF: radio-frequency (RF) radiation.  

                         Mary Anne’s Five Pillars of Low-EMF Living

1. Safeguard Sleep:  If you follow just one of these pillars of low-EMF living, this is the one!  Reducing your EMF/RF exposure is most important during sleep. This is when we are both more sensitive to all four types of EMF’s, and when our body needs to heal from the day’s plethora of exposures.

  • Keep ALL electronics – including the cell phone- out of the bedroom.
  • All remaining electrically-powered items (like lamps) should be unplugged.
  • Turn your Wi-Fi off overnight. Often a modem and router are separate. It is easy to put the Wi-Fi on a timer, which helps it reboot quickly the next day.
  • If you need to be reached overnight in case of emergency, a landline is the best practice. If you don’t have one yet, keep your cell phone far from the bed. Turn off the phone’s Wi-Fi, Blue Tooth, and Find My. In Settings, enter only the critical contacts into your Do Not Disturb.
  • The only electrically-powered device in a bedroom should be a C-PAP if needed. The C-PAP’s Wi-Fi and Blue Tooth needs to be powered OFF.  Keep it as far from the bed as possible.
  • Pull the bed six inches away from the wall. This can easily reduce the electric fields from the wiring in the walls.  These can increase our cortisol (a stress hormone).  Reducing cortisol helps melatonin rise more naturally
  • The “gold standard” for sleep is a low-EMF “sleep sanctuary”, which we Building Biologists take very seriously. When working with clients, I often find up to five circuits that power in and around the bedroom.  With breakers off, the electric fields (voltage in the air) can be reduced to closer to what Mother Nature intended.  She is our Guide.

2. Sabbath from Tech:  Take a break weekly from ALL tech.  You can start with just a few hours, and build up to a whole day if/when ready.  If practiced regularly, this tech sabbath can have a profoundly positive effect, bringing more calm, clarity, and creativity into your life.  It also improves social / family connections. And as a bonus, this weekly “pause” also reduces RF/EMF exposure.  A tech sabbath is not about rules, as Sabbath can often be misconstrued.   This is about relishing in rest, and in who and what we love. Social psychologist Dr. Jonathon Haidt, author of the NY Times bestseller The Anxious Generation, endorses the tech sabbath practice to improve mental health and restore a rhythm to our week.   Learn about how to prepare for a tech sabbath at my blog here.

3. Shorten Time on Screens: Among the many positive effects of less screen time is that it can improve our ability to produce melatonin (to sleep better and improve our ability to fight cancers, particularly breast cancer.)  Hovering over the screen of a cell phone (even if you are taking other EMF precautions), is likely the BIGGEST source of RF radiation you have all day.   Just texting from your phone will often emit at least 50,000 µW/m2.   Yet only ten µW/m2 is considered “safer,” based on Building Biology standards. 

 Reducing screen time is also important collectively and as communities.   We need to model better boundaries with screens for the young people in our life. Their childhood has been radically rewired, creating an epidemic of mental illness, according to Dr. Haidt.

Fortunately, there is a reassuring surge of schools and U.S. states working on cell phone-free policies.  Let’s jump on that bandwagon and support school administrators in these crucial policy initiatives!  Here is one example:  The SC legislators are expected to ban cell phones in classrooms, effective in July.  Check out the story of how SC schools’ state funding would be cut unless they comply

4. Safer Tech Schools: With the exception of Waldorf schools (which intentionally keep tech out of classrooms), nearly all schools use over-powered wireless access points (routers).  Students are connecting to these all day from their own devices,  while they are highly vulnerable to RF radiation. For the specifics of why and how to “Turn Down the Dial on Wireless Radiation in Schools,” check out SafeTech NC’s recent webinar.  One local district reduced the wireless radiation levels by 95% by following the guidance of Tech Safe Schools’ Mitigation Guide.

Let’s link together both # 3 & 4 above for the most effective way to protection ourselves and the children we love!  Those of us concerned about lowering kids’ RFR exposures can and should collaborate with those working on cell phone-free schools.   If you are open to helping with this effort in NC, please reach out to us at SafeTech NC.org

5. Stay Solutions Focused with our

  • Behaviors – practicing what we have learned to use tech safely
  • Time, Treasure & Talents – particularly volunteering and donating to non-profit organizations like SafeTech NC, which can really use your help!
  • and our Thoughts. While it is easy to feel depressed and overwhelmed by EMF health effects, our thoughts can shape our life and our world. Future visualization is foundational to quantum physics. It is also used by most Olympic athletes to ensure a perfect performance!

In applying visualization to EMF health effects and our future, I was inspired by an interview with Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, marine biologist, catalyst for creating the Ocean Optimism Project, and author of What if We Get it Right? Visions of Climate Futures. Dr. Johnson and her team use this question to set a trajectory that inspires hope and changemaking.

Will you join me for 5 minutes a day to visual and meditate on this same question related to EMF’s: 

What if We get this Right?   

What would that look like for you and your family?  For me, I think of

  • a classroom of students pouring over real books, then walking together to a hard-wired computer center when needed;
  • a federal agency that enforces biologically-based safety standards;
  • a landline in every home;
  • cell towers toppled (or at least all those near where we live and learn);
  • and your dream?

Hoping you’ll join me in this 5-minutes a day of visualizing our low-EMF lives.   Let’s call it our own informal EMF Optimism Project.    Wishing you abundant health and blessings, Mary Anne