Have you ever wondered if our rapidly growing technology could be doing more harm than good? The phones in our pockets, the Wi-Fi routers in our homes, and the 5G towers down the street might be making connectivity easier than ever, but studies are showing it could be impacting our health as well. These devices all emit electromagnetic field (EMF) radiation, which is raising some red flags with doctors, researchers, attorneys, and health advocates around the globe.

On a recent episode of Digital Social Hour, host Sean Kelly interviewed attorney Scott McCollough and Miriam Eckenfels-Garcia from Children’s Health Defense (CHD). At CHD, protecting children’s health is priority number one. Their mission is clear: end the chronic disease epidemic by eliminating toxic exposure. With EMF radiation being one of these environmental toxins, CHD leaders are going after tech companies and regulatory agencies to hold them accountable and fight against unchecked wireless expansion in our communities.

We’re living in a time of rapid 5G rollout, with new cell towers popping up in neighborhoods, schools, and community spaces – often without public input or knowledge. But here’s the real problem – even if a community was made aware of plans to install a 5G tower right by their homes, there is little they could do about it. According to CHD attorney Scott McCollough, “The federal statue says that local zoning authorities cannot regulate on the basis of environmental facts, and that’s been interpreted to mean you can’t regulate based on health concerns or environmental concerns.”

This means a community could try to fight the tower installation based on it ruining views or lowering property values, but the health impacts of the EMF exposure would be overlooked. 

What are these impacts, exactly? They’re bigger than most people realize. EMF radiation from 5G towers, Wi-Fi routers, and wireless devices such as phones, smart meters, tablets, and even baby monitors has been linked to:

• Neurological issues 

• Sleep problems

• Increased cancer risks

• Fertility problems

• Increased oxidative stress

• Mental health challenges 

“I think it’s important to understand that we’re not talking about hypotheticals. We’ve seen in cases over and over again, people get sick when they live close to a cell tower.”

-Scott McCollough

McCollough shares his experience seeing these health impacts first-hand. He has been litigating on behalf of a community in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, where a tower went up in a residential area and nearly half of the block began getting sick within a year. Multiple cancer cases. Children would come home from school dizzy, vomiting, and not feel better until they left home the next day.

Our government agencies are captured by the very industry they’re supposed to regulate.”-Miriam Eckenfels-Garcia

We would like to think that if EMF exposure is really that bad, our government agencies would do something to protect us. On the Digital Social Hour podcast, CHD advocate Miriam Eckenfels-Garcia explains why that’s not the case here. In the United States, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is responsible for regulating everything related to communications technology – including radiofrequency (RF) EMF exposure limits. 

For a little background, the FCC was created back in the 1930s when they only had to worry about regulating radio and TV signals. The FCC had to begin regulating for health safety in the late 1970s because of the National Environmental Policy Act, which required all federal agencies to look at the environmental impacts of the things they regulate. Then in 1996, the FCC set its EMF exposure guidelines. If you take a minute to think about how much technology has advanced since then, it’s a little troubling to learn that the FCC has not updated the guidelines since then. 

Eckenfels-Garcia points out that it’s the job of the FCC to conduct rigorous studies and find out exactly how much EMF exposure is safe and where the threshold lies for most people. “Unless you have this information, it’s really a forced exposure because nobody knows how dangerous it is.”

Another problem with the 1996 guidelines is that they focus only on the thermal (heating) effects of EMF exposure. The assumption was that exposure to this energy was only harmful if it increases skin temperature. If it’s not burning you, it’s safe. However, there are very real biological effects. McCollough states, “Like many environmental toxins, the main culprit appears to be our response .”

That’s why technology like Aires exists. It doesn’t block EMFs, but creates a field where EMFs are reshaped into a form more compatible with our biology. We can’t eliminate EMFs in our environment, but we can change the way they interact with our bodies.

The FCC regulations are not just outdated – they're compromised. After all, the current FCC chairman, Brendan Carr, has a history of protecting cell phone companies. In 2011, the City of San Francisco tried to require retailers to distribute “fact sheets” designed to educate and warn consumers about potential dangers from RF energy emitted by cell phones, encouraged consumers to limit cell phone use by children, and recommended turning cell phones off when not in use. Carr, along with two other attorneys, led the wireless industry to victory in this case, citing these fact sheets were a violation of the First Amendment.

The CHD actually took on the FCC – and won. In 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the CHD, determining the FCC should reevaluate their outdated RF emissions guidelines. However, nothing has happened since. Eckenfels-Garcia shares, “Can we force the FCC to do anything? No. We already won the court case. They have a mandate. They know what they’re supposed to do. There’s very little you can do to actually force them to comply with that until and unless the pressure by the public becomes so big that things are going to change.” After all, people love their phones. We all love the convenience technology offers. It’s hard to break through with a message that isn’t popular, but we also need our government agencies to be more transparent.

“We were all taught to say ‘I own my own body. I have the right to informed consent.’ We don’t have informed consent because we are not informed. But, even those who are informed and want to say ‘no’ cannot. It’s just being forced on us, and our legal theory and our belief is that’s not the way things are supposed to work in the United States."

-Scott McCollough

According to Eckenfels-Garcia, “They capture the government, they capture the science, they conduct studies that they already know the outcome.” Two-thirds of studies funded by the telecom industry say EMF is “safe.” Meanwhile, two-thirds of independent studies show serious harm. If this sounds familiar, it’s because this is the same playbook Big Tobacco used decades ago.

Section 704 of the Telecommunications Act makes it illegal for cities to block cell towers based on health or environmental concerns. According to McCollough, there is a judicial ruling that states if you use a cell phone for 20 years and get brain cancer, you can’t sue the phone company or cell phone manufacturer even if you can prove it was the phone that caused it.

“It’s a judicially created immunity…and at the same time that we’re challenging the statute, we’re going to try to get the courts to reconsider the judicial immunity that they have conferred.”

-Scott McCollough

Named after the federal statue that essentially keeps local jurisdictions from protecting the people in their community, the “704 No More” Coalition is a nationwide effort to “Restore state and local control over cell tower and antenna siting by eliminating federal preemption and overturning Section 704 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which prevents local regulation of wireless infrastructure based on health and environmental effects.”

Led by CHD attorney Scott McCollough, this initiative is all about protecting children and communities from the health impacts of unchecked telecommunications technology.

“We’re in the middle of a grand experiment for which we are all the subjects. And once it becomes evident all of the damage that has been done, the industry will get away Scott free because the courts have said if they operate within these insane FCC limits, if they’re below the limits, they’re immune.”

-Scott McCollough

We might not be able to do anything about the cell phone towers in our communities, but we can control our own environment. We don’t have to wait for the government to step up to take steps to protect ourselves. Here are some simple ways to reduce your EMF exposure:

• Optimize your sleeping environment. The science tells us that the best time to heal is during sleep. McCollough says if you can get out of this supercharged RF environment while you sleep, you’re less likely to suffer some of the more serious effects later on. Shut off Wi-Fi, keep your phone out of your bedroom, and unplug unnecessary devices.

• Use speakerphone or wired headphones. Increase the distance between you and your phone to decrease your EMF exposure levels.

• Hardwire devices when possible.

• Try a “no-phone” weekend. If that’s not possible, try it for just a few hours and see how you feel after reconnecting with the “real world.”

• Limit screen time. This is especially important for kids. We can model mindful device habits by setting screen time limits for ourselves as well.

• Utilize EMF protection. Aires’ patented devices help optimize our environment by converting chaotic EMFs into a friendlier form.

If you’re wondering why you haven’t heard much about this on the news, it’s because mainstream and social media often censor EMF conversations. After all, they rely on people using their devices. Why would they discourage constant connectivity? To stay informed on the latest in EMF news and research, subscribe to The Defender, CHD’s daily newsletter, and check out more on The Wave Forward.