Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Wi-Fi

This post has been on my To Do list for 2 months. I attended a lecture where a woman from Moms for Safer Wireless came and spoke in November and she was somewhat compelling. I am not prepared to throw my laptop and cell phone in the trash, but I will make some changes.

Here are the highlights from the powerpoint:

This is the list of short term effects (according to Moms for Safer Wireless) I had trouble finding out where they found these causes and research supporting all of them.
-Sleep disruption
-Hormone disruption
-Impairment of cognitive function
-Concentration problems
-Attention problems
-Behavior problems

Here is a list of possible long term effects. I had trouble finding out where they found these causes and research supporting all of them.
-DNA damage
-Physiological stress
-Altered immune function
-Electrosensivity
-Miscarriage risks
-Effects on sperm quality leading to infertility
-Cancer
-Neurological diseases such as ALS and Alzheimer’s

Interesting points:

1. 56% of cell phone research indicates that there is an increased health risk when using cell phones. When this is broken down, 68% of studies preformed by the cell phone companies showed no correlation between cell phones and health issues. However, there were mostly studies that lasted for less than 10 years. This fact is important because in all but 1 study that was longer than 10 years, there was an increased risk of tumors in the head.


2. Here is info on the studies which show health risks (pasted directly from powerpoint)

A: Fertil Steril. 2008 Jan;89(1):124-8. Epub 2007 May 4
Study in a fertility clinic found that the duration of time on a cell phone directly impacted the quality of sperm.
“Three hundred sixty-one men undergoing infertility evaluation were divided into four groups according to their active cell phone use. CONCLUSION(S): Use of cell phones decrease the semen quality in men by decreasing the sperm count, motility, viability, and normal morphology. The decrease in sperm parameters was dependent on the duration of daily exposure to cell phones and independent of the initial semen quality.”

B: Sperm quality & quantity
The study found men who used a cell phones for more than four hours a day had a 25 per cent lower sperm count than men who never used a mobile. They had a 50 per cent drop in the number of properly formed sperm, “The men with highest usage also had greater problems with sperm quality, with the swimming ability of sperm - a crucial factor in conception - down by a third.” “Men who use mobile phones face increased risk of infertility”, Daily Mail, UK 10/2006 by Jenny Hope; Researchers from Professor Ashok Agarwal, director of the Reproductive Research Centre at the Cleveland Clinic, Ohio, USA & research from India [93]

3. Children's exposure to cell phones is much more damaging than adults because their skulls are not as thick. Here is a photo of an image and an article with more info:

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/08/12/cancer-institute-warns-of-cell-phone-risks.aspx

4. Other countries have made moves to limit cell phone use (especially in children). This is also directly from the powerpoint:

Russia
Russia recommends that mobile phones are not used by children under the age of 18. Russia also recommends that pregnant women do not use mobile phones.

France
The French Government has warned that children should limit their use of wireless phones (2002) and is introducing legislation to ban advertising of mobile phones to children (2009)

Finland
The Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (STUK) in Finland has recommended restricting the use of mobile phones by children (2009

Israel
The Israeli Ministry of Health has called for children's use of mobile phones to be limited (2008).

India
The Indian Ministry of Telecommunication has recommended that children under the age of 16 should be discouraged from using cell phones (2008)

5. No studies were done on the safety of wireless technology before it was released. Now there is a powerful communications lobby.



This is an interesting article discussing a possible relationship between wireless and Autism

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2007/11/27/how-cell-phones-may-cause-autism.aspx?aid=CD945


Most of this research is correlational but is interesting nonetheless. It is hard to know how much is conspiracy theory and how much is feasible. I think we will make the following basic changes:

-Turn off Wi-Fi router at bedtime
-Put aluminum foil on Wi-Fi antennas (I will only do this is it doesn't affect my signal)
-Take all wireless equipment out of bedrooms at bedtime
-Only use speakerphone or BlueTUBE A "bluetube" is supposed to be best. Here is an example http://products.mercola.com/blue-tube-headset/ But, this guy also sells these so there is a conflict of interest.
-Don't let Ella use the phone unless on speaker
-Don't use computer on my lap or chest