by Blue Ridge EMF Solutions | May 27, 2024 | Blue Ridge EMF Solutions, EMF/RF protection, reduce RF/EMF exposure
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
by Blue Ridge EMF Solutions | Mar 12, 2024 | Blue Ridge EMF Solutions, reduce RF/EMF exposure, Tech Sabbath
Updated: 3/20/24
Is it hard for you to put away your cell phone, even though you likely know that all the wireless exposure is bad for you? You are not alone! Even those who know they are sensitive to wireless radiation have a hard time with this. These devices are so convenient, fun, and…yes, addiction.
Taking a “Tech Sabbath” can be a great way to begin reducing our EMF exposures, even if just one day a week, or a few hours a week. It does not need to have any spiritual or religious connotation….just good for mind and body! When I am doing EMF inspections, the cell phone is one of the greatest sources of wireless radiation, and is totally within your control to reduce.
In full disclosure, I resisted the idea of “sabbath” my whole life….until I read the book 24/6: The Power of Unplugging One Day a Week. I always thought I was “too busy” to take a day off from everything – paid work, volunteer work, and housework. Yet I knew this book was calling me to a new perspective on sabbath, particularly after listening to a brief podcast by National Public Radio’s On Being Project, with host Krista Tippett and the book’s author. While the book does not acknowledge any of the physical health effects of EMF’s, its recommendations are very powerful means of working on personal and family behavior change to reduce the use of wireless devices. You can listen to the podcast here.
In the author’s own works: “Tech sabbath can be an “epiphany on how to fill the day with the best part of life; a radical act of protection against the always-on, always-available world…helps us reclaim our attention, time, and perspective; exploring what tech amplifies for and what it amputates. Tech Shabbat is a force field of protection that gives us the strength, resilience, perspective, and energy for the six other days.”
Have you also resisted “slowing down” or “unplugging” one day a week as much as I have? Have you ever had multiple messages coming at your to try something new, different? 
After listening to this interview, and starting this book, I had a phone conversation with a dear friend who is a devote Jew. She was admitting to some chaos at home related to the challenges of raising teenagers. And then she said, “But I have Shabbat – and so I know I will be OK.” Wow !!!
OK: Now I knew I had to pay more attention to taking a sabbath! So I started trying the recommendations in the book. And I just tell you honestly that a year and a half later, my life has changed! Here is what I have found: In committing to a weekly Tech Sabbath, I am no longer checking my email nor my phone for a full 24 hours or more. Sabbath has become a restful day of both contemplation and connection with my Higher Power, my family, and myself. It has carved out a sacred time to journal, read, review my New Year’s goals to improve my own behavior as a mom, wife, EMF consultant and EMF educator. It helps me get back on track to keep these promises to myself and others.
The stunning results: This weekly “Pause” has led to a huge flow of both clarity and creativity in my life! During my quiet morning hours, before my family wakes, I journal and read. Instead of running to my office to check emails, I am flooded with ideas….about my work, our family life, garden plans, You Name It! So I keep a binder with loose-leaf paper nearby all day so I can jot down these ideas to begin the new week with a fresh perspective.
One more bonus: For parents, unplugging one day/week can set a positive example of how to model balanced use of technology. We want our kids to limit their tech use, yet it has to start with us.
Here is how it can work:
1. Make a list of all the things you LOVE doing when not on your devices: nap? Read a book? Bake something yummy? Garden? Knit or crochet? Puzzles? Draw or paint? Hike or walk with friends?
2. Pick ANY day of the week to be your sabbath – whatever days makes sense for your personal, work, and/or family life.
3. Begin with even just 2-3 hours: Not checking any devices and doing something that you LOVE doing.
4. If you have a partner or family, they don’t need to join you. It may take some negotiation for you to get the time you want. Doing family activities that are fun together may be part of the sabbath, like attending children’s sporting or school events, but without getting on your device. Over time, you can negotiate this together. Children adjust, and will find creative ways to spend their time.
5. Prepare in advance with what you might need to access on technology, such as confirming plans with those you might be meeting, directions, menus of a place you want to get takeout from, the weather report, or writing down phone numbers you may need in case of emergency.
6. If you have kids: Help them with ideas and supplies that they might use for this unplugged time, including an art project, handwork, board games, a new ball, or baking supplies.
Yes, it may feel uncomfortable at first. The “Fear of Missing Out”/ FOMO is real, and it can be overcome. Once you try this a few times, and you give yourself more and more time to do what you LOVE doing and REST, it is likely that you will love it! Cutting down on the exposure to wireless radiation is important for your mind and body, and so is “unplugging” to stop the flow of endless sources of stimulation.
Know that this movement of taking a “Tech Sabbath” is happening all over the world. Indeed, the first Friday to Saturday of every March is now called the Global Day of Unplugging! This is a movement that began in 2009 with Jews in California who wanted a Friday night Shabbat dinner without cell phones, and then a full day of shabbat that was more restful. And now it is a global movement! A team of us in Asheville, NC, celebrated this day at a popular local farmer’s market, sharing this idea with hundreds of very receptive folks who seemed eager to take a break from their tech.
If you feel that you can’t do this because you have someone in your life who may need to call you, like a child or aged parent, here are two ideas to help:
1. An inexpensive landline! While standard landlines can easily cost $100/month, landlines connected by Voice Over Internet Protocols (VOIP) are very inexpensive monthly plans, usually under $20/month. The product I find most reliable is OOMA, with their their hard-wired Telo White ($100), which plugs into a modem. (Do not get their “Telo Air” model, which is wireless) This requires a cabled or fiber-optic modem – hopefully with Wi-Fi off! Then get a corded landline to plug into the OOMA Telo White. Presto! You have your landline number. You can then forward your cell phone calls to your landline. And if your landline phone has caller ID, you will know if you really want to answer a call on your tech sabbath.
2. Use “Do Not Disturb” on your cell phone: If you are not yet ready for a corded landline (which is the best option with NO wireless radiation emitted), be sure to keep the cell phone away from where you are sleeping or spending the majority of your sabbath. For those folks who may need you in an emergency, you can enter their phone numbers in your phone’s setting under “Do Not Disturb.” It is still a challenge to have the phone on at all during a tech sabbath, but it is a good way to get started if you are hesitant.
To hear more of my thoughts on taking a Tech Sabbath, you can listen to a podcast interview I did with Courtney Snyder, MD or my interview with international EMF/EHS expert Lloyd Burrell.
Wishing you the restoration of the sabbath,
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.
