One of my greatest joys has been learning and working with mentors and colleagues from the Building Biology Institute (BBI) for the past six years. This is a stunningly responsive, inquisitive, and caring group of professionals who care deeply about our clients and about preventing and improving health conditions. Our team of BBI-certified Electromagnetic Radiation Specialists meets monthly on Zoom, tackling the tough challenges we find in the field to seek and share solutions. The common attitude exhibited in these meetings is: “Wow, what can we do about that?” (vs. “That woman is delusional”). Given how effective our approach has been for the past 30+ years in the U.S., my EMF home inspections follow these Building Biology principles:
- Safeguard sleep
- Distance is our Friend
- Reduce Use and
- Favor hard-wired connections
Below I will introduce each of these principles in more detail. And before I do, I will also share the other thing I love about Building Biology’s approach: We follow biological standards on evaluating EMF exposure (see page 5 linked here). We are led by the Precautionary Principle. The simplified version of this environmental health practice: If there is significant evidence of harm, yet not scientific (and/or governmental) consensus, then it is better to be safe than sorry.
This approach feels like a warm embrace to me and my long background in public health: proactively preventing health issues, particularly for those who are most vulnerable.
Good, Better, and Best Solutions: Giving you freedom of choice
As I was taught by my Building Biology mentors, I provide Good, Better, and Best Solutions for all four of these types of EMF’s below. This gives you a blueprint for moving forward and negotiating changes with your family.
- Radio-frequency radiation (RFR) from all wireless devices, cell towers and 5G antennas
- Electric fields power lines in close proximity, wiring in the walls, and anything electrified that is plugged in
- Magnetic fields from power lines, wiring errors (even when all is working well!) and motors in motion
- Dirty electricity, or higher-voltage transients, which can be caused by energy-saving technologies, including CFL and LED light bulbs, solar inverters, alternating speed motors, switch-mode power supplies, and more.
Back to those four Building Biology Principles:
1. Safeguard sleep: Prioritizing the creation of a low-EMF sleep sanctuary is an essential first step, even if still being exposure to high EMF levels in your waking hours. Start with keeping your cell phone OUT of the bedroom! In many cases, it can be relatively simple to reduce RFR exposure. You or your EMF consultant can identify what devices and appliances in your home are emitting RFR, using a reliable meter like the Safe & Sound Pro II. If you live in multi-family housing, this can be more challenging. Having professional help for your assessment can open the door to different options for reducing what is coming into your home from other locations.
Reducing electric fields from the wiring in the walls can be tricky. The best way to do this is being willing to turn off circuit breakers (if not rewiring with metal clad cabling). While turning off the circuit that powers a bedroom’s outlets is an easy DIY job, there are often up to four other circuits that may increase electric fields in the bedroom. These include circuits in, around, above, and over the bedroom. I find that some circuit breakers are property labeled, yet many are often not! My NFA 1000 meter from Gighertz Solutions helps me do a great job of this investigation process.
As a nurse, it is deeply gratifying to hear when clients begin to sleep better after electric fields are reduced! And when sleep is improved, the positive ripple effect on our physical and mental health is stunning! I recently heard from clients in their early 80’s with this news: At 8:00 am on the day immediately after our assessment, my client Judy called and said, “My husband slept through the night for the first time in 25 years!!” Yippee!
Given the U.S. epidemic of sleep problems/ insomnia, this is a game changer! Sleeping with little to no electric fields can help reduce our dependence on sleep medications. This is what Mother Nature intended! Over the course of several months, it can reduce our sensitivity to EMFs and a wide range of issues related to the nervous system, including anxiety, irritability, arthritis, dementia, Parkinson, ALS, and more. See my blog on Sleep hygiene for a deeper dive. (This was some of the content of my podcast with international EMF expert Lloyd Burrell on ElectricSense.com. His EMF Practical Guide is a Must-Read for all DIY EMF protection.)
2. Distance is our Friend! Emissions from all four types of EMF’s drop with distance. Here are some simple DIY examples to apply today:
- For your cell phone: Keep it off your body and brain! Use speaker phone and text with a stylus.
- Pull your bed six inches away from the wall.
- Never sleep with your head on the other side of a refrigerator or utility meter, even if it’s not “smart.”
- If still using Wi-Fi: Keep the router as far as possible from your living spaces as possible, and particularly far from children and pregnant women, who are most vulnerable.
3. Reduce Use! Your cell phone is likely your biggest RF exposure of the day. Taking a Tech Sabbath once a week can help cut back on the habit of always checking. It can also improve our connections with those we love. Try having a cut-off time each evening for all screens, so that your body can produce melatonin for restorative sleep. A corded landline is the BEST way to talk on the phone!
4. Favor Hard-Wired Connections! Sure, Wi-Fi is convenient. Yet even with the router at a distance, your laptop or PC are emitting massive amounts of RF radiation close to your body and brain, in order to connect to the router. Hardwiring is cheap (no electrician needed)! All devices can be connected with one sort of network adapter or another (just search: “Network adapter for my _____ and fill in the made and model of your device.)” Hardwired connections also deliver the faster and most secure internet connections! This well-known fact can help hesitant partners and family members to get on board.
For assessing all of these factors and four EMFs noted above, I use professional equipment from Gigahertz Solutions and Safe Living Technologies. There are highly sensitive and specific meters to narrow down the frequencies and levels of exposure. After assessing what the numbers reveal, I develop a mitigation plan for each client, providing Good – Better – and Best options for mitigation, based on your budget, needs, and desires.
Ultimately, sensitive folks’ bodies are the most important “meters” to measure or determine if an environment feels healthy. Sometimes clients are reacting to measurable EMF’s. Sometimes, our bodies are reacting to other toxins like VOCs or mold, even after a remediation project. And sometimes it is geopathic stress from the earth. My team and I at Blue Ridge EMF Solutions can narrow it down for you. We sensitive souls can and should be able to live well in this modern world!
I am deeply grateful for opportunities to have witnessed and personally benefitted from Building Biology principles used to help create hundreds of healthy homes. Hoping you and yours can also flourish with this comprehensive approach. Reach out today for a Building Biology based home assessment. Call me at (828) 628-5003 or use this contact form.
Blessings, Mary Anne